Real Relationships Real Revenue - Audio Edition | Invest in Relationships to Build Your Business and Your Career

Mo asks Jonathan Reckford: Tell us a development or growth story that you're really particularly proud of. Jonathan tells the story of a complex corporate partnership between Habitat for Humanity and Hilty, and how they’ve worked together closely after building a relationship over the years. Each year, the two organizations began to work more closely together and started developing new innovative approaches to achieving their mutual goals. There's not only funding, but it's making both parties better. They are achieving their goals as well inside a full strategic partnership which is much more exciting than just a transactional donor relationship. Jonathan’s role was in building trust with the head of the foundation. Without that relationship, the partnership probably wouldn’t exist. It also taught Jonathan a lot about building trust and being direct.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com habitat.org linkedin.com/in/jonathanreckford Our Better Angels: Seven Simple Virtues That Will Change Your Life and the World by Jonathan Reckford

Mo asks Jonathan Reckford: What’s your favorite science, step, or story from GrowBIG Training or the Snowball System? Jonathan’s first favorite is the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument. He uses it all the time in talking with potential partners and tailoring the conversation to how they process information and think. Wrapping your data into a story is a great way to hit on more of the four ways people think, but also make your data more memorable at the same time. Jonathan’s second favorite is simply discipline with the Protomoi List. Every month, Jonathan and his team review his list and look at how they are adding value to those relationships. The takeaway was the discipline and rigor of being very intentional about your most important relationships. Jonathan makes sure that there is time booked into his calendar to make connections, either physical or digital, with the most important relationships in his life. Sending a note to someone has more weight to it when they know you’re busy.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com habitat.org linkedin.com/in/jonathanreckford Our Better Angels: Seven Simple Virtues That Will Change Your Life and the World by Jonathan Reckford

Mo asks Jonathan Reckford: What's your personal definition of growth? Ultimately, it's all about impact, but in order to make an impact you need fuel. Creating complex partnerships is very aligned with good development practices, which is valuable for Jonathan because growth at Habitat for Humanity means having conversations around fundraising. When he made the mindset switch to solving someone’s problem, raising money became much easier and simpler. It's not about pressuring, or trying to get somebody to do something they don't want to do. It's about really trying to understand what people are trying to accomplish or the impact they want to have, and then looking for a fit and where there is one, finding ways you can help them have that impact in a really joyful way. Before a big meeting, you have to do the research. Jonathan will have a brief on the person’s biographical information, passion, and overall strategic goals so that he can create alignment in the potential partnership. Creating win/wins is the goal and when you can do that, growth becomes easy. Negotiation is usually won or lost based on preparation and framing, not on the actual tactics of the conversation. After the research, the first step of the meeting is creating a point of connection and establishing the relationship. The goal of the first meeting is to come away with clear next steps, not to close the deal.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com habitat.org linkedin.com/in/jonathanreckford Our Better Angels: Seven Simple Virtues That Will Change Your Life and the World by Jonathan Reckford

Mo asks Jonathan Reckford: When did you realize you wanted to grow something big and make an impact? Jonathan had a lot of great role models growing up, with his grandmother being one of the first women in Congress. She would always ask Jonathan what he was going to do to be useful, a mindset that he eventually adopted and grew into. Jonathan assumed he would follow her footsteps into politics and law, but quickly realized after college that law wasn’t what he wanted to do. He later talked his way into a job at Goldman Sachs, received a grant and moved to South Korea to work for the Seoul Olympic committee, and ended up working with the rowing team as their coach for a few years. That experience allowed him to reorient his perspective and after returning home, Jonathan came back with a mission. He went into business school and spent the next 15 years helping large organizations grow. After that time in the private sector, Jonathan went to India on short-term mission trips. Seeing the challenges and suffering in rural India touched his heart and he realized the power of small interventions in dire situations. Jonathan began focusing on helping churches grow and contributing to the mission of alleviating international poverty, ultimately culminating in working for Habitat for Humanity nearly 17 years ago. You can’t always connect the dots going forward, but when you look back you see how everything got you to where you are now. Jonathan’s experiences in his career lend themselves perfectly to his current role as the leader of Habitat for Humanity. Work on the ‘who’ before the ‘what’. Build your character and skills instead of looking for some grand career plan. No matter what you do in your 20s, consider it continuing your education. As long as you’re learning and aligned, you will eventually find your vocation where you have an impact that lines up with your passion and skills. Habitat for Humanity is thinking big for the future and is focused on making markets work more effectively to create just societies where really everyone can access safe, decent, affordable housing. Really bold leaders are ones that reframe everything. If you have the right mission for the problem you're trying to solve, you'll gain the power you need to get there. If you're focused on gaining power, that's ultimately going to be self-defeating. Start with crafting a story around why what you’re doing is making the world a better place and get clarity on your true purpose.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com habitat.org linkedin.com/in/jonathanreckford Our Better Angels: Seven Simple Virtues That Will Change Your Life and the World by Jonathan Reckford

Marty Fagan shares his strategy for entering new markets at TransUnion and why the Three Legged Stool approach to business development is the most effective way to build relationships with complete strangers. Find out why business development is sales plus thought leadership, why valuable relationships, both  in life and in business, begin with authenticity and passion, and why persistence is one of the most powerful success habits you can cultivate in your career.   Mo asks Marty Fagan: Go back in time and tell me of the moment when you realized growth or business development was something you wanted to dive into. In his role at TransUnion, Marty is helping the organization explore new areas of the market that the business has never participated in before, and that’s where business development has been a critical component. As an unknown entity, it requires an entirely different mindset in how you approach new business. If your brand isn’t really well known yet, that can actually be an advantage, as it gives you the opportunity to decide and shape the brand that people will perceive. To break into a market, you need to have the mindset of a marketer and sales executive. You have to bring together the tactical and the strategic to win. When meeting someone for the first time, Marty tries to glean as much information about them as possible ahead of time using resources like LinkedIn to find people with connections to the person he’s going to talk to. Next, he looks at the company’s strategic objectives, vision, and priorities, then moves up to researching the industry as a whole. All this research allows Marty to create really customized questions that are highly relevant to the potential client, all within the context of solving a need for the customer.   Mo asks Marty Fagan: What is your personal definition of business development? Business development is sales but in a different way. You have to think strategically from a thought leadership perspective instead of tactically. Sales and marketing should be integrated, and that’s what happens within the context of business development. This is the approach TransUnion uses to enter new markets. They combine the sales, solutions, and marketing into one coordinated effort. Marty uses the analogy of the three legged stool. Without the legs of a sales process, a solution to offer the market, and the marketing/outreach of having conversations with people that need your solution, the stool falls over and nothing happens. If one of those elements aren’t in place for you, seek out as many subject matter experts on that area as you can to help you develop it. If you don’t have it internally, find it externally. When looking at a new market, Marty starts by looking at the solutions his organization already has and how they can apply to that industry to make a customer more effective. It’s an outside-in approach that is very powerful.   Mo asks Marty Fagan: When you think of GrowBig Training or the Snowball System, what's your favorite science, step, or story? The Give to Get is the easy answer for Marty. By utilizing the Give to Get, Marty’s team establishes a much stronger relationship with their customer and gets them bought in, drastically increasing the odds of landing the business. You’re becoming a partner with your customer through the process by investing in them, and in return they often begin investing in you. A Give to Get is essentially offering something of value to a prospect that you think they need before you are hired. This can take the form of thought leadership, connections, and more. It has three criteria: it adds value for them, it’s relatively worth it, and it’s easy for you to do. The key to a successful Give to Get is that it leads to a next step and the prospect realizing that they can benefit from your expertise. Get to a place where you agree on what success looks like, that mutual agreement is what leads to the next step and eventually the close. With a Give to Get, you're both agreeing to something, and you're working on this in collaboration with each other. You're both investing time and effort into it and that's what ties it all together. Without both sides escalating the commitment level over time, there won’t be a future together. Compared to a blind RFP, the Give to Get approach is almost ten times more effective at landing business.   Mo asks Marty Fagan: I want you to tell me of a business development story that you're particularly proud of. Marty tells the story of an opportunity he had been pursuing for three years where his persistence really paid off. Despite the lack of traction for multiple years, Marty kept persisting and keeping the lines of communication open because he knew that the area the client needed help in was something they could provide and the importance level was very high for them. Having the grit to work through the tough times and the seeming lack of progress has resulted in a great business relationship that Marty is really proud of. A lot of business professionals struggle with the front end persistence, where they get little to no response from someone they are trying to build a relationship with. Seeing that as a challenge, instead of an insurmountable obstacle, helps. Marty never lost the belief that he could actually add value to the client, and that gave him the confidence to keep going. Early stage relationships are less like a tennis match, where you need the other person to respond in order to continue playing, and more like practicing your serve. Keep giving. Persistence shows you are serious about adding value, and that takes time.   Mo asks Marty Fagan: If you could record a video about growth or Business Development, and send it back to your younger self, what would you say? First thing is to be authentic. If you truly are authentic, people can pick up on that. And if you're not authentic, they can pick up on that as well. If you’re talking to someone and you don’t think your solution is a good fit, don’t sell it to them. Closing the sale no matter what may work in the short-term, but it’s a terrible strategy in the long-term. The second thing is to have a passion for the solution you are offering to your customers. People pick up on your passion, which contributes to that feeling of authenticity. Having passion and authenticity establishes trust, and that trust needs to be in place to have a conversation result in a closed deal. If you’ve developed a deep expertise, it’s okay to be excited about it and convey that energy to people.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/in/martyfagan

Mo asks Marty Fagan: If you could record a video about growth or Business Development, and send it back to your younger self, what would you say? First thing is to be authentic. If you truly are authentic, people can pick up on that. And if you're not authentic, they can pick up on that as well. If you’re talking to someone and you don’t think your solution is a good fit, don’t sell it to them. Closing the sale no matter what may work in the short-term, but it’s a terrible strategy in the long-term. The second thing is to have a passion for the solution you are offering to your customers. People pick up on your passion, which contributes to that feeling of authenticity. Having passion and authenticity establishes trust, and that trust needs to be in place to have a conversation result in a closed deal. If you’ve developed a deep expertise, it’s okay to be excited about it and convey that energy to people.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/in/martyfagan

Mo asks Marty Fagan: I want you to tell me of a business development story that you're particularly proud of. Marty tells the story of an opportunity he had been pursuing for three years where his persistence really paid off. Despite the lack of traction for multiple years, Marty kept persisting and keeping the lines of communication open because he knew that the area the client needed help in was something they could provide and the importance level was very high for them. Having the grit to work through the tough times and the seeming lack of progress has resulted in a great business relationship that Marty is really proud of. A lot of business professionals struggle with the front end persistence, where they get little to no response from someone they are trying to build a relationship with. Seeing that as a challenge, instead of an insurmountable obstacle, helps. Marty never lost the belief that he could actually add value to the client, and that gave him the confidence to keep going. Early stage relationships are less like a tennis match, where you need the other person to respond in order to continue playing, and more like practicing your serve. Keep giving. Persistence shows you are serious about adding value, and that takes time.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/in/martyfagan

Mo asks Marty Fagan: When you think of GrowBig Training or the Snowball System, what's your favorite science, step, or story? The Give to Get is the easy answer for Marty. By utilizing the Give to Get, Marty’s team establishes a much stronger relationship with their customer and gets them bought in, drastically increasing the odds of landing the business. You’re becoming a partner with your customer through the process by investing in them, and in return they often begin investing in you. A Give to Get is essentially offering something of value to a prospect that you think they need before you are hired. This can take the form of thought leadership, connections, and more. It has three criteria: it adds value for them, it’s relatively worth it, and it’s easy for you to do. The key to a successful Give to Get is that it leads to a next step and the prospect realizing that they can benefit from your expertise. Get to a place where you agree on what success looks like, that mutual agreement is what leads to the next step and eventually the close. With a Give to Get, you're both agreeing to something, and you're working on this in collaboration with each other. You're both investing time and effort into it and that's what ties it all together. Without both sides escalating the commitment level over time, there won’t be a future together. Compared to a blind RFP, the Give to Get approach is almost ten times more effective at landing business.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/in/martyfagan

Mo asks Marty Fagan: What is your personal definition of business development? Business development is sales but in a different way. You have to think strategically from a thought leadership perspective instead of tactically. Sales and marketing should be integrated, and that’s what happens within the context of business development. This is the approach TransUnion uses to enter new markets. They combine the sales, solutions, and marketing into one coordinated effort. Marty uses the analogy of the three legged stool. Without the legs of a sales process, a solution to offer the market, and the marketing/outreach of having conversations with people that need your solution, the stool falls over and nothing happens. If one of those elements aren’t in place for you, seek out as many subject matter experts on that area as you can to help you develop it. If you don’t have it internally, find it externally. When looking at a new market, Marty starts by looking at the solutions his organization already has and how they can apply to that industry to make a customer more effective. It’s an outside-in approach that is very powerful.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/in/martyfagan

Mo asks Marty Fagan: Go back in time and tell me of the moment when you realized growth or business development was something you wanted to dive into. In his role at TransUnion, Marty is helping the organization explore new areas of the market that the business has never participated in before, and that’s where business development has been a critical component. As an unknown entity, it requires an entirely different mindset in how you approach new business. If your brand isn’t really well known yet, that can actually be an advantage, as it gives you the opportunity to decide and shape the brand that people will perceive. To break into a market, you need to have the mindset of a marketer and sales executive. You have to bring together the tactical and the strategic to win. When meeting someone for the first time, Marty tries to glean as much information about them as possible ahead of time using resources like LinkedIn to find people with connections to the person he’s going to talk to. Next, he looks at the company’s strategic objectives, vision, and priorities, then moves up to researching the industry as a whole. All this research allows Marty to create really customized questions that are highly relevant to the potential client, all within the context of solving a need for the customer.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/in/martyfagan