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

In this episode of Real Relationships Real Revenue, I’m giving you a rock-solid first step to start your client planning. These are the most important things to getting your team grounded. We’re going to be covering your current state and future state. This first step will get your team unstuck and looking toward the future instead of the past.    Topics We Cover in This Episode:    Why you need to be looking toward the future Questions to ask yourself about your clients Future vision   This will help you avoid the trap of being way too focused on the past. We’ll blitz through all of the science that we talked about in the last episode and get you clear on where you’re at today and where you want to be in the future. The future vision conversation is the most important part.    If you are interested in crafting a vision for anything, make sure to check out my conversation with Michael Hyatt. We talked about some really interesting ways to craft a vision for yourself or your organization.    Resources Mentioned: Check out my conversation with Michael Hyatt

  This week on Real Relationships Real Revenue, we are talking about effective and strategic client planning. Many people make mistakes when it comes to this so we will be covering how you can do this really well, where you can get the most ROI on your time invested, and how to do it in a way that your clients will love. These are the three scientific headwinds that are against you when it comes to retention and growth.    Topics We Cover in This Episode:    The biggest mistakes we see with client planning Anchoring and the status quo bias Earned dogmatism Self-enhancement bias   We’re probably biased toward staying where we are at or even shrinking, but we need to be thinking about how we can be bringing new experts, new activities, and new solutions to our clients in a way that is helpful and proactive.    To learn more about the status quo bias, make sure to check out the Wikipedia page on it. It is very interesting and it might be a great thing to share with your team.    Resources Mentioned: Learn more about the status quo bias

This week on Real Relationships Real Revenue, we are talking about preparing for business development meetings using a technique or method that we call Dynamic Meeting Prep, or DMP. I’m covering how to get in the right mindset, create goals, frame your meetings, prepare for anything, and use cliffhangers.    Topics We Cover in This Episode:    How to think about client meetings Preparing for different scenarios Why you shouldn’t have multiple goals The reason why only one goal benefits you more  Why framing your meetings is so important How to frame your meeting How the framing engages the other side Why you should be ready for anything Negative visualization and planning for things that go wrong Why curiosity is an intrinsic motivator How to use cliffhangers between meetings   It’s so important to prepare for these meetings ahead of time. Don’t fall into the trap of not preparing in advance for anything that might come up. You don’t want to practice what to say, you want to prepare for flexibility.    There are so many things that could happen in your meeting so you want to think about those different scenarios and segments of the meetings and what you do in each one. Make sure you have one goal only and use a cliffhanger to create excitement for your next meeting. These simple steps will drastically increase your chances of success.      Resources Mentioned: Listen to my conversation with Linda Klein Check out the study by Dr. Edwin Locke Listen to my conversation with Tyler Sweatt Learn more about negative visualization from Ryan Holiday Check out the study on uncertainty

In this episode of Real Relationships Real Revenue, I’m tying this episode back to Episode 22 where we talked about cliffhangers. This is the final episode about business development meetings and I’m sharing how you can develop a cliffhanger between this meeting and the next one to increase your chances of success.    Topics We Cover in This Episode:    Why curiosity is an intrinsic motivator How to use cliffhangers between meetings     Don’t assume that just because you got the meeting then you’re all set. You want to add that cliffhanger because that’s going to give you the opportunity to get the person excited for their next meeting with you. Without that cliffhanger or intrinsic curiosity, there’s a higher chance that the meeting won’t occur.    If you want to learn more about this, I recommend you check out this study. It says that when you show uncertainty about what will happen, you build more trust with the person you’re communicating with while also building curiosity.    Resources Mentioned: Check out the study on uncertainty

In the last few episodes, we have been covering dynamic meeting prep and helping people get out of the habit of not preparing for meetings by showing them how to prepare very efficiently for the big day. In this episode of Real Relationships Real Revenue,  I’m sharing how you can be ready for anything.    Topics We Cover in This Episode:    Why you should be ready for anything Negative visualization and planning for things that go wrong     Business development meetings rarely go the way you expect them to. They may want to talk about something different than you do, the meeting could go long, they could want to introduce you to people, etc. There are so many things that could come up and you want to be prepared. Really think it through so that you can have more successful meetings.    If you want to learn more about negative visualization and how it can help you succeed, make sure to check out what Ryan Holiday has to say about it all. It is really interesting and I think you’ll enjoy it.    Resources Mentioned: Learn more about negative visualization from Ryan Holiday

We’ve covered how you should prepare for your business meetings and why you should only have one goal. In this episode of Real Relationships Real Revenue, I want to talk about those first few minutes of the client meeting. It’s what I like to call, “framing the meeting.” It’s very simple but very important.    Topics We Cover in This Episode:    Why framing your meetings is so important How to frame your meeting How the framing engages the other side   Avoid not framing your meeting. Many people feel intimidated or hesitant about doing this, but if you don’t state your intent, the other side is probably wondering why they are there. By framing your meeting, you’re sharing the goal of your interaction in a way that shows a clear benefit to the person you’re meeting with.    If you want to learn more about the concept of dynamic meeting prep and framing your meetings, make sure to tune in to my conversation with Tyler Sweatt. He has a really unique way of framing things and he is excellent at beginning his meetings.    Resources Mentioned: Listen to my conversation with Tyler Sweatt

In the last episode, we talked about mindset and how you should think about and prepare for your business development meetings. In this episode of Real Relationships Real Revenue, I just have one message to share, and it’s that for each client development meeting, you should have only one goal.    Topics We Cover in This Episode:    Why you shouldn’t have multiple goals The reason why only one goal benefits you more      Try to avoid having too many goals in your meetings. The idea of only having one goal is so important because it centers your mind on the most important thing. By creating that one goal and writing it down, you’re in a really great place.    If you want to learn more about the research behind goal setting, check out this study by Dr. Edwin Locke. It’s really interesting and I think you’ll enjoy it.      Resources Mentioned: Check out the study by Dr. Edwin Locke

This week on Real Relationships Real Revenue, we are going to be talking about preparing for business development meetings using a technique or method that we call Dynamic Meeting Prep, or DMP. There’s a lot of research that shows that you play how you practice, so how you mentally prepare for these meetings is how you play.    Topics We Cover in This Episode:    How to think about client meetings Preparing for different scenarios   It’s so important to prepare for these meetings ahead of time. Don’t fall into the trap of not preparing in advance. You don’t want to practice what to say, you want to prepare for flexibility. There are so many things that could happen in your meeting so you want to think about those different scenarios and segments of the meetings and what you do in each one.    If you want to learn more about dynamic meeting preparation, make sure to check out my interview with Linda Klein. The way she prepares and communicates is fantastic so I think you’re really going to enjoy this interview.        Resources Mentioned: Listen to my conversation with Linda Klein

This week on Real Relationships Real Revenue, we are talking about creating demand with your expertise and the way you can add value professionally. I’m diving into the idea of giving first and the Give to Get technique. You’ll learn how to scale it up or down, the six levers of influence, the science of commitment, and what to do when things go wrong.    Topics We Cover in This Episode:  Why we hate to be sold to but we love to buy What a great Give to Get is Why this method will convert to more sales Determining the size of your Give to Get Why you should scale it up or down Types of Give to Gets you can offer Likeability Reciprocity Scarcity Authority Social Proof Commitment The way to get commitment Why you need to talk face to face How to create a simple and obvious next step What to do if you don’t get a “yes”  Why you shouldn’t make your Give to Get too small or too big Making the end of the meeting clear Having the right people in the room     The trick is to go into each meeting with some idea of how you can be helpful to your client. You want to roll up your sleeves and start showing them what you can do, and you’ll be amazed at the results.    These episodes are designed to tell you how to make the right investments, who to make them with, how to frame them, and how to actually design and execute the meeting so that you have the highest chance of success. If you start using these tips, I know you’ll be happy with the outcome.    Resources Mentioned: Check out The Snowball System Listen to my interview with Andrew Cogar Learn more about the levers of influence Get Dr. Cialdini’s book Check out Freedman’s research Listen to my conversation with Mike Deimler

If nothing else, the Give to Get technique deepens relationships which is always a winning strategy. In this episode of Real Relationships Real Revenue, I want to dive into the science of commitment. Of the six levers we covered in the previous episode on Give to Gets, this one is the most important.    Topics We Cover in This Episode:  The way to get commitment Why you need to talk face to face How to create a simple and obvious next step What to do if you don’t get a “yes”      You want to be ridiculously simple on what the next step is in working with you. If you get a no, make sure you have a fallback position because this is the perfect time to ask for it. It’s a smaller and easier option to say yes to and it gets you started contractually.    Make sure you’re thinking about the end of the conversation with a lot of precision. Approach it with this stuff in mind and you have a much higher chance of success.    If you want to learn more about Freedman’s research on commitment and consistency, you can check out the article.      Resources Mentioned: Check out Freedman’s research