Are opportunities plentiful for you with your relationships?
Or are you experiencing a ‘drought’?
“In like a lamb, out like a lion” is the phrase commonly used to describe March weather and we can certainly identify with that in Kansas. This is a state where you can literally experience all four seasons in one week, from blizzard to spring thunderstorms – we affectionately call this ‘Thundersnow’ (cue AC/DC playing Thunderstruck in the background). I think these crazy weather patterns really provide great insight into the rhythms we adopt in our prospecting effort. We start and are gung ho with tornadic breeze levels of effort, lightning fast execution of basic ideas and then it fades into a gentle breeze that doesn’t even move a leaf along.
I had the distinct pleasure of sitting in on a presentation on innovation given by 9 Steps grad Jon McGraw of Vision Pursue and Jose Pires of Black & Veatch Leadership Institute of Business Excellence. During this presentation, Jose spoke about how ideas are everywhere, discipline to execute however, is very rare. I see this so often with professionals I engage with in the community and recognize that the majority of the value I bring as a coach/mentor is to remind them to identify the right level of activity and follow it EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. of EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK. of EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR. Yes I raised my voice. The biggest lesson you learn when embarking on any journey is to stay the course and recognize it is a very long, arduous journey full of fun pit stops and distractions that can divert you from your central mission – the journey to success in your prospecting effort.
Evolution happens in a prospecting effort and I fully recognize that your business is in a much different place now than perhaps when we first met however many days, months or years ago. The principles guiding the 9 Steps community do not change – relationships lead to your best opportunity. I encourage you to continue to identify the key partners who can provide you access to the markets of tomorrow and begin building them today. To that end, we will be hosting an Alumni Happy Hour March 23rd to introduce the community to others who ‘get it’ and are building their relationship base. I am taking a bit of a different approach with serving my clients this year and seeking out those who ACTIVELY want to build their prospecting relationships. I only have so many hours in the day, so registration is limited. And yes, there is a cost to the Happy Hours this year as I am providing benefits through connections to other extraordinary people. (But I will buy your first drink!) I’ll review the registration list each week prior to the event, actively looking for opportunities to support those who are supporting the 9 Steps way. So sign up now!
My reading material this month has been pretty expansive, but the book I am enjoying the most is Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek. This guy really gets it. If you want to motivate and inspire people you have to recognize it’s about them, it’s not about you. He also has a couple of great videos on engaging and understanding Millenials. I am even making my kids watch – so you should too. Just take an hour and do a search on YouTube for Simon Sinek, you’ll get some amazing insight that is actionable in your efforts right now. Think you’re not a leader? Guess again! Even if you work within a company, within your base of relationships you have the opportunity to build and engage a community who is excited about helping you, take action!
My networking efforts continue to be limited to groups of clients who “get it”, if you haven’t jumped on board the Connector Event train, you better look for the nearest station. People don’t want to waste their time with ‘cattle call networking events’ those who are doing deals want to limit their time to activities where others are ‘doing deals’. So get your referral partners rounded up, start talking to your best clients about what connections you can make for them that are the most meaningful and book your nearest Tavern for a highly productive gathering. Remember it’s quality over quantity with everything surrounding referral partners! To get this concept underway you can check out my Linked In post How to Avoid Time Suck in your Prospecting Effort. If you like it, leave a comment, if you want to get your referral partners on board with the idea – give it a share!
Our next 9 Steps class kicks off April 18th, who do you know that should be more effective in referring you? If they do very good work, have a great relationship base, but you haven’t quite figured out how to get the ‘referral magic’ happening – let me help! Connect us via email for a conversation and to see if it’s right for them. If it fits and they engage, you will be my first call to join them as a homework assignment for their introductions! Remember it’s about taking consistent steps each and every day and focusing on key relationships.
Also if you have interest in building or starting a Tribe of referral partners and would like some help with meeting the right people to participate – complete our survey of how we can help you. If you’ve already completed the survey in 2017, thank you and there’s no need to complete it again. We have some ideas about how we can leverage the engaged community of 9 Steps Grads to make some pretty big deals happen, but want to make sure we include the right people who are on board!
Let me know what you’re up to and as always…
I wish you Good Selling!
Breandan