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

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

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.     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/in/dennisbaltz dennis.baltz@willistowerswatson.com

Chris Graham shares his growth story of both personal and professional development, and how he uses his skills and connections in his private equity firm Crown Capital Investments to impact the communities and families of the businesses they’re invested in. Learn how Chris developed the skills needed to create powerful relationships, but also the internal mindset he was missing that prevented him from scaling his impact to what he knew it could be; how to think bigger, quicker, and how to find a mentor and get them invested in your success.   Mo asks Chris Graham: When was the moment you realized growth was a good thing? As a lawyer, you’re responsible for the whole gamut of the business. The whole process is about connecting and engaging with clients on a deeper level, and Chris realized that he needed a new approach in order to scale. Everybody who is striving to be more has to cut what they are good at, to take a risk at doing something better. Chris had a great relationship with his clients but being limited to a one-to-one impact felt restricting for what he wanted to do so he pivoted from law into private equity. He had to give up what he had been building for 20 years to have an opportunity to make an even greater impact. His experience over the 20 years of growing his law practice gave him a unique perspective into what entrepreneurs can do to grow their business. Taking that experience into the private equity space, along with the confidence of a few key families, helped Chris find success in his new line of work. The transition from one-to-one to one-to-many didn’t happen all at once. Chris started things off by taking a lot of the risk on himself. He bet on himself to make it easier for clients to also bet on him too. When he decided to move into private equity, Chris scaled back his law firm to give himself more bandwidth and started blocking off time to focus on the new project. This gave him the room to build the new company. If you don’t block time, there will always be something to absorb the time you didn’t block for your new venture. You’ll never get off the old ladder if you don’t block off time for the new ladder.   Mo asks Chris Graham: What is your personal definition of growth? Chris has always been driven by learning new things. Since he spends nearly all his time now selling, he focuses on reteaching all the things he has learned over the years. What people really want is for someone to help them identify problems they didn’t even know they had and help them solve those problems. As experts, it’s very easy to get so focused on what you know that you aren’t even aware of the issues that are just outside your expertise. The mindset that Chris carries into a meeting is one of being excited to learn and showing how he can help. By being truly concerned about the other person, it’s a lot easier to customize your solution to actually solve their problem. When speaking with potential investors, Chris is looking to learn what their investment goals are to see if they are aligned with them. His company has a well defined mission and invests in very specific types of companies. If the opportunity is not a fit, that’s okay. If the goals are aligned but the person may not be ready to go yet, Chris tries to break the information into more bite-sized pieces instead of overwhelming them with everything at once. Dripping out follow-up content has made building trust with investors a success.   Mo asks Chris Graham: What is your favorite science, step, or story from the GrowBIG Training or Snowball System? One of Chris’s favorite strategies actually came from one of Mo’s Grow Big Playbook emails about how long your emails should be. When you’re in a moment, it can be hard to step back and see the bigger picture. Try to get a greater perspective and see if what you are considering is being given too much or too little importance. Whenever you’re worried about whether something is worth your time, measure it against whether you’re future self will be proud of it. Chris starts his day off at 5 AM with some exercise and reading time to get into the right mindset for the work that day. He also has time blocked off everyday that allows him to focus, think, catch up, and tackle problems that arise. Impact isn’t always about the time involved, it can also involve leveraging relationships and connection. When determining what to focus on, Chris looks at impact, connection, and how something aligns with his long-term vision. Every mission is a vision of a future that’s better than today. Chris’s vision is one of restoring community capitalism and rebuilding the communities and families that are impacted by those companies. Find the intersection between something you are really interested in and having a big impact on the world. The problem with big missions is that they take a long time to fulfill, so you better be interested in it.   Mo asks Chris Graham: What growth story are you most personally proud of? Making the pivot from law to private equity is the thing that Chris is the most proud of. The pivot was hard and took a long time but it has allowed him to make more impact than ever before. One of the examples that Chris talks about is a company where Chris implemented his methodology of growth and after 19 months they grew from $2.3 million to $4.9 million in profit. Rather than just generate more sales, Chris helped them become more process efficient. Chris grew up in a trailer park back in the 70’s where there was still a sense of community. That experience is why Chris is so dedicated to the mission of rehabilitating those kinds of communities now. It was a long process of learning and growing before Chris was able to connect all the dots. Being raised in a poor community, Chris wasn’t exposed to the idea of entrepreneurship and the impact you can have at that level until after he began his career in law. Chris is insatiably curious, which is a trait that has propelled him throughout his career. That curiosity is what allowed Chris to make the jump from each level to the next. After working with families that owned businesses for 17 years, Chris could see things that they couldn’t. This was a big motivation for buying the first business. Chris realized that, over the period of growing the law firm from eight lawyers to 22 lawyers over 24 months, he got himself into a position where he couldn’t use his strengths. Instead of floundering, Chris made the hard decision to cut back to what was working before, which allowed him to eventually make the transition to bigger and better things.   Mo asks Chris Graham: If you could record a video around growth skills and send it to your younger self, what would it say? Chris’s message would be simple: Think bigger, quicker. Chris had been entrepreneurial his whole career, but he didn’t have the vision at the time to be able to make the leap to start his own law firm. Before starting Crown Capital, Chris didn’t know exactly what a private equity firm did on a day-to-day basis, but he knew he was interested and there was an opportunity for him there. He reached out to other private equity firms and sold them on the skills and connections he had to get some experience, and doing that eliminated the mystery. Use the value you have and try to get involved. Maybe you’ll have a better way to do it, which is what Chris discovered, or you will learn what you need to know to make a decision. Asking somebody to mentor you is a powerful move, people love to mentor when they can and often they can become invested in your success. A great question to ask is, “I need a mentor in this space to make the transition. Are you available?”     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/company/crowncapitalinvestments linkedin.com/in/christophertgraham25 cgraham@ccfos.com crown-inv.com Crown Capital Investments on YouTube - youtube.com/channel/UCLstgUIyDH9bRFTHH0vWAbg Dan Pink Reveals How to Become a Sales and Business Development Ninja (season 1 episode 9) The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek

Mo asks Chris Graham: If you could record a video around growth skills and send it to your younger self, what would it say? Chris’s message would be simple: Think bigger, quicker. Chris had been entrepreneurial his whole career, but he didn’t have the vision at the time to be able to make the leap to start his own law firm. Before starting Crown Capital, Chris didn’t know exactly what a private equity firm did on a day-to-day basis, but he knew he was interested and there was an opportunity for him there. He reached out to other private equity firms and sold them on the skills and connections he had to get some experience, and doing that eliminated the mystery. Use the value you have and try to get involved. Maybe you’ll have a better way to do it, which is what Chris discovered, or you will learn what you need to know to make a decision. Asking somebody to mentor you is a powerful move, people love to mentor when they can and often they can become invested in your success. A great question to ask is, “I need a mentor in this space to make the transition. Are you available?”     Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com linkedin.com/company/crowncapitalinvestments linkedin.com/in/christophertgraham25 cgraham@ccfos.com crown-inv.com Crown Capital Investments on YouTube - youtube.com/channel/UCLstgUIyDH9bRFTHH0vWAbg