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

Mo asks Andrew Robertson: If you could wave a magic wand and record a video around business development and send it back to your younger self, what would it say? There is very little in business that is as satisfying as business and relationship development. Landing a client and then getting them big wins is fulfilling and it’s a wonderful thing to be good at. Define victory as a series of steps, instead of an end result. This makes the journey rewarding and not just about the destination. If you can take the first step, which is the hardest, everything else gets easier. Start with the end goal in mind, and then break it down into the fundamental steps you need to make each day to achieve that goal, then celebrate when you take those steps. It doesn’t guarantee success, but it makes it much more likely. You can’t control whether a client will say yes, but you can control whether or not you ask them in the first place.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com andrew.robertson@bbdo.com

Mo asks Andrew Robertson: Tell me a business development story that you're particularly proud of. Andrew tells the story of a client in London that BBDO had been working with for 20 years and how they lost most of that client’s work after delivering a terrible piece starring John Cleese. Instead of bailing on the client completely, Andrew and the team decided to stick with the unglamorous work that remained and deliver excellent results for the client, knowing that eventually, the rival company that won their former work would stumble. By sticking with the client, they had the opportunity three years later to offer a new brand campaign, which was informed by the fact that they were still involved in the business and understood their needs. Andrew signed Jamie Oliver, who wasn’t quite famous yet, after scouring London on Easter weekend physically to find him, and landed the business again. Andrew learned three key lessons from the experience: be gracious on the way out, treat a rejection as a “not for now,” not a never, and the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. Even when you get fired, those relationships are still valuable and worth keeping alive. We show our true selves much more in defeat than in easy victories. How you behave during the bad times says much more about your character than when things are good. People are human, and it’s always hard to fire someone you’ve built a relationship with. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be, and keep adding value to the relationship after the fact. How you behave afterward will be remembered. Even if you don’t win a project, that’s an opportunity to ask for feedback and give the prospect the opportunity to stay in touch. One loss is not the end, it’s the beginning of the next potential project.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com andrew.robertson@bbdo.com

Mo asks Andrew Robertson: What is your favorite science, step, or story from the GrowBIG Training or Snowball System? Writing down the seven relationships that are the most important to growing the business was a technique that changed the way Andrew thought about business development. Andrew has a lot of great relationships with CEOs in various other businesses, but a lot of them didn’t start out at the top. Those relationships were nurtured over time with people that moved up in their organizations or moved around in their industry. Think about how you got into your position and where people are right now that you can connect with. When asked to list our most important relationships, we tend to think of our best current relationships by default, but that’s the wrong approach. We should think about the relationships that will have the most impact on our business first. The number seven forces you to make choices and really identify those relationships that will move the needle. Your list should contain people you have a relationship with, people you don’t know but would like to have a relationship with, and the people you need to have a relationship with who won’t necessarily send you business directly but can help you find it elsewhere. You only have a limited amount of time, so you need to be clear on your priorities, not just around what you do but who the most important people are. Create a shortlist and give yourself a short timeframe to connect and advance the relationship with those people. If someone is not going to make an impact, it’s better to figure that out in three months rather than three years. Be thoughtful. Sit on the other side of the desk and empathize with the person you’re trying to build a relationship with.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com andrew.robertson@bbdo.com

Mo asks Andrew Robertson: What is your personal definition of business development? Business development at its best is win/win/win. Your business wins, the client wins, and thirdly, the client is winning so much that they become your best business development ambassador. Raving fans turn into your own personal sales force. Focusing on the win for the client secures the win for the business. If your client wins enough, they become predisposed to become a raving fan, but you still have to ask for it. Do something for them that gets them something of value and gets you even more. Don’t assume it will happen automatically. First, recognize that the person you are working with is a person and not just a job title. They have interests and frustrations, and when you understand that there is something you can engage with together. Dinner is a great opportunity to connect with someone outside of the confines and constraints of the work. You can also find a time to accompany them on another aspect of their work and learn more about what they do and what they care about in a way that’s not structured like a meeting. The best conversations you can have with a client are the ones where you do 20% of the talking. Figure out questions to act as a stimulus and get them talking. There is value and benefit for people in just having the opportunity to talk.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com andrew.robertson@bbdo.com

Mo asks Andrew Robertson: When did you first realize that business development or relationship development was a good thing? The first time Andrew realized business development was fundamentally about discipline was while working as a barman in Maidenhead where he learned how to connect with people and build rapport very quickly. It was there he met an insurance broker that offered him a job. As a student working in the evenings, Andrew learned that if he made 100 phone calls on Monday night he could line up 10 meetings for the rest of the week, which would usually result in 3 sales. He started experimenting with the approach he was taught and learned two important lessons very quickly. The method he was taught was tried and tested, and if he didn’t do the work of making the calls, he didn’t get the results he needed. No one else was going to make those calls if he didn’t do it. He wasn’t in the relationship-building business yet, that came later. Andrew learned the importance of discipline and trusting the process. The idea that people are born with the habits that make them successful is incorrect. Discipline can be learned like any area of expertise. The most important thing is to get a meeting, not to have everything prepared. Don’t get ahead of yourself. If you focus on the delivery first, you’ll never set the meeting in the first place. You need to pick up the phone and offer them something valuable and interesting as quickly as you can. That’s how you earn the time to develop a relationship afterward. Pulling insights from other proposals and using them to intrigue other prospects enough to get a meeting is a good example of an offer that gets people interested. You don’t always have to go straight to the ultimate decision maker. Getting a meeting with a mid-level manager can be a great opportunity too. Every meeting is useful in learning more about the company or the industry.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com andrew.robertson@bbdo.com

Dennis Baltz shares the wisdom he’s picked up during his 30-year career in helping people solve some of the most challenging risk problems in the world and how being focused on helping people with a purpose has allowed him to work with dozens of Fortune 1000 companies. Learn how to be strategically helpful and how that eliminates the fear from the sales process, the three question framework that is Dennis’s guiding principle for working with prospects, and why business development isn’t as deep as you think.   Mo asks Dennis Baltz: When did you realize that business development is something that would be interesting to you? Dennis’s interest in business development goes all the way back to his high school days in 1987, where he was trying to find people to participate in market studies. It was a tough gig and he had to stretch outside his comfort zone to get things done. Knowing that he had something of value to offer to the people gave him the confidence to ask for something they may not be initially open to. Dennis learned to be interested in the person first and think about the value he could provide, instead of assuming the ‘no’ right away. Dennis has been on all sides of the transaction when it comes to risk during his career, so that gives him some perspective on what potential buyers are looking for. Initial meetings are simply about identifying problems and how you can be helpful. Preparing for the meetings ahead of time is crucial to Dennis’s success. Following up usually involves finding resources or people to connect the prospect with that can help solve the problem in the meantime. Introducing techniques from another industry is a great way to appeal to a potential client’s desire for both safety and innovation. On the human side of things, Dennis realized that he needed to stay in front of clients at the beginning of the pandemic and that turned into a monthly blog post that he sends to clients and colleagues. Being open and vulnerable, and sharing some of the personal elements of his life, have had a tremendous impact.   Mo asks Dennis Baltz: What is your personal definition of business development? Helping people with a purpose. Being strategically helpful is the name of the game. Sales can be fun when you are offering something of value to someone, not just making a sale. Dennis has a stewardship mindset which fits very well into the risk and insurance industry. Helping protect clients from things like cyber risk is both rewarding and extremely valuable to clients. The first step is to understand how people think and what they care about. There are three questions that all prospects think about when they are making a decision about you: “Do I like you?”, “Do I trust you?”, and “Can you help me?”. Those three questions are the guiding principle in all Dennis’s business development pursuits. To become likable, look for uncommon commonalities. When out of the office, Dennis puts where he’s going on his autoresponder message. The more specific you are, the more opportunities you have to discover those uncommon commonalities. Dennis shares as well as asks for engagement from the people he knows. Every meeting has an agenda and gets a follow up right after. Communicating helpfulness starts with understanding the person’s challenges. It’s about introducing the prospect to things and people that can help them in a way that’s not overwhelming. Starting with small projects where you can build on the relationship and add value can open the doors to bigger engagements.   Mo asks Dennis Baltz: What is your favorite science, step, or story from the GrowBIG Training or Snowball System? Dennis loved so much of the GrowBIG Training, but the one that stands out the most is the idea of the Most Important Thing. When working with clients, Dennis uses an MIT one-sheet to communicate all the work streams that they can work on during the engagement as well as including some potentially new approaches they can take advantage of. They are using that very effectively to land new clients because it allows them to understand the exact value WTW brings to the table. This approach creates strategic conversations and helps build the trust that client’s have in Dennis and his team’s ability to think around corners. Structurally, the slide includes important dates for upcoming content or events, the essential work streams for the client, and disruptive ideas. Pre-MIT, the client updates were boring and uninspiring. Refining it down to the Most Important Things and communicating them in a single place that’s easy to understand has made it very valuable.   Mo asks Dennis Baltz: Tell me a business development story that you are really proud of. In the insurance and risk industry, the sales cycle is somewhere between three to five years, so it’s definitely about playing the long game. Organizations aren’t always ready to implement new ideas, but by building the relationship and sharing ideas with prospects you increase your chances of eventually landing the client. One of the business development stories that Dennis is most proud of is an example of that. He got a team together to introduce an interesting, innovative idea to a company they weren’t yet working with and they ended up loving it, but it wasn’t a priority at the time. It wasn’t until three years later, when the company reached out, ready to go and looking specifically for Dennis to get it done. The client knew they were the right team and they didn’t have to compete with anyone for the work because of that initial investment. They managed to thread the needle on a number of regulatory issues and help the client overcome those barriers.   Mo asks Dennis Baltz: If you could go back in time and record a video around business development to send to your younger self, what would it say? Dennis would say “It’s not that deep” Business development can be simple. Trust yourself and start sooner. Dennis spent the first 15 years getting the expertise he thought he needed to be able to sell, but you can start helping people much sooner than that. Business development as a discipline is something that’s missing for young people. We need to help organizations teach that business development is not scary. Using the whole brain approach to helping people is key. Connecting with people doesn’t have to be hard. Dennis will frequently stop and record a quick video to send to someone just to stay in touch and let them know they were thinking of them. Videos allow you to be authentic, and that can’t be replicated with other tools like email.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/in/dennisbaltz dennis.baltz@willistowerswatson.com

Mo asks Dennis Baltz: If you could go back in time and record a video around business development to send to your younger self, what would it say? Dennis would say “It’s not that deep” Business development can be simple. Trust yourself and start sooner. Dennis spent the first 15 years getting the expertise he thought he needed to be able to sell, but you can start helping people much sooner than that. Business development as a discipline is something that’s missing for young people. We need to help organizations teach that business development is not scary. Using the whole brain approach to helping people is key. Connecting with people doesn’t have to be hard. Dennis will frequently stop and record a quick video to send to someone just to stay in touch and let them know they were thinking of them. Videos allow you to be authentic, and that can’t be replicated with other tools like email.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/in/dennisbaltz dennis.baltz@willistowerswatson.com

Mo asks Dennis Baltz: Tell me a business development story that you are really proud of. In the insurance and risk industry, the sales cycle is somewhere between three to five years, so it’s definitely about playing the long game. Organizations aren’t always ready to implement new ideas, but by building the relationship and sharing ideas with prospects you increase your chances of eventually landing the client. One of the business development stories that Dennis is most proud of is an example of that. He got a team together to introduce an interesting, innovative idea to a company they weren’t yet working with and they ended up loving it, but it wasn’t a priority at the time. It wasn’t until three years later, when the company reached out, ready to go and looking specifically for Dennis to get it done. The client knew they were the right team and they didn’t have to compete with anyone for the work because of that initial investment. They managed to thread the needle on a number of regulatory issues and help the client overcome those barriers.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/in/dennisbaltz dennis.baltz@willistowerswatson.com

Mo asks Dennis Baltz: What is your favorite science, step, or story from the GrowBIG Training or Snowball System? Dennis loved so much of the GrowBIG Training, but the one that stands out the most is the idea of the Most Important Thing. When working with clients, Dennis uses an MIT one-sheet to communicate all the work streams that they can work on during the engagement as well as including some potentially new approaches they can take advantage of. They are using that very effectively to land new clients because it allows them to understand the exact value WTW brings to the table. This approach creates strategic conversations and helps build the trust that client’s have in Dennis and his team’s ability to think around corners. Structurally, the slide includes important dates for upcoming content or events, the essential work streams for the client, and disruptive ideas. Pre-MIT, the client updates were boring and uninspiring. Refining it down to the Most Important Things and communicating them in a single place that’s easy to understand has made it very valuable.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/in/dennisbaltz dennis.baltz@willistowerswatson.com

Mo asks Dennis Baltz: What is your personal definition of business development? Helping people with a purpose. Being strategically helpful is the name of the game. Sales can be fun when you are offering something of value to someone, not just making a sale. Dennis has a stewardship mindset which fits very well into the risk and insurance industry. Helping protect clients from things like cyber risk is both rewarding and extremely valuable to clients. The first step is to understand how people think and what they care about. There are three questions that all prospects think about when they are making a decision about you: “Do I like you?”, “Do I trust you?”, and “Can you help me?”. Those three questions are the guiding principle in all Dennis’s business development pursuits. To become likable, look for uncommon commonalities. When out of the office, Dennis puts where he’s going on his autoresponder message. The more specific you are, the more opportunities you have to discover those uncommon commonalities. Dennis shares as well as asks for engagement from the people he knows. Every meeting has an agenda and gets a follow up right after. Communicating helpfulness starts with understanding the person’s challenges. It’s about introducing the prospect to things and people that can help them in a way that’s not overwhelming. Starting with small projects where you can build on the relationship and add value can open the doors to bigger engagements.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/in/dennisbaltz dennis.baltz@willistowerswatson.com