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

Mo asks Bonneau Ansley: What's your favorite science, step, or story from the GrowBIG training or Snowball System? Bonneau has been a real estate agent for 20 years, but when Mo interviewed Bonneau in order to get his house sold, it changed the way he operated. They had a conversation about the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument and went over the different ways that people communicate, and that conversation transformed how Bonneau presents to his clients. Now he makes sure to cover all four quadrants no matter who he's talking to to make sure he connects with them. The HBDI model has been integrated into Bonneau's team. He took many of the principles that he learned from the GrowBIG training and the Snowball System and used them as the foundation for building his massive team of agents and executives. The HBDI test has helped Bonneau grow his business to over 300 real estate agents that work under his brand. In the first year of business, Bonneau's team did over $100 million in sales and, seven years later, they are on track to do over $3 billion in sales. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com bonneauansley.com

Mo asks Bonneau Ansley: What is your personal definition of business development? Bonneau interacts with people for roughly ten hours a day, from his barber to his valet, and each interaction is an exercise in business development. Each person is a part of Bonneau's sales team with a small incentive to spread the word about him. From a business development standpoint, to continue to be the #1 realtor in the South, he needs to be everywhere, and each person he interacts with is a chance to amplify his brand. To be successful, you will have to stretch your comfort zone. Creating some new habits, even if you're not a natural at them, is how you do it. If you're in sales, the more people that know what you sell and that you're good at it, the more product you're going to sell, no matter what it is. Bonneau has created a network and a platform that allows him to do business development 24 hours a day whether he is present for the individual conversation or not. Bonneau is really good at sales, and he's put himself into a position to succeed by only focusing on that one thing. For the other tasks that don't come natural to him, he's built a team to help him continue focusing on business development and sales. Everybody is great at something. The key is to figure out what that one thing is and how to monetize that. When Bonneau was in school he struggled, but when he discovered sales he found something he could excel at and figured out a way to thrive. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com bonneauansley.com

Mo asks Bonneau Ansley: Tell me of the moment in your life when you realized that business development was something you wanted to focus on. Bonneau knew he was going to be a sales guy at the early age of 16 when he was in highschool. He felt that school wasn't really his thing, but people and classmates were. He started selling t-shirts and hats, which continued into college with his own clothing company, and he realized that selling was something that he clicked with. It was in college where he was first exposed to real estate after taking a class that he became completely hooked on the subject. After college, selling real estate became the natural evolution for Bonneau. Bonneau has done every facet of real estate including development and sales, with plenty of success and failure along the way. Cycles are common in real estate, and Bonneau has had to reinvent himself more than once. Bonneau recalls the story of when he and his wife had lost everything to a house fire in 2004. The fire forced him to give himself a fresh start. As devastating something like a fire can be, it's a catalyst for change in life. Bonneau tries to reinvent himself every year. He works in a very competitive environment so his mindset is always centered around thinking big, doubling his business big. To double your business, you have to create habits that you didn't do before, and implement those. In Bonneau's seventh year in business, they are on track to sell over $3 billion in sales this year. It doesn't have to take your house burning down or your business to fail with the banking collapse. It's simply about having a mindset where you always look at what you need to do to do better every single year. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com bonneauansley.com

Debby Moorman shares why business development became her career passion and why everybody is better at business development than they think. Find out why the sales label holds so many people back from growing their skills, how being helpful is the foundation for business development, and the aha moment that helped Debby become more effective than ever at building relationships with prospects and clients. Mo asks Debby Moorman: Tell me the moment when you decided that business development is something that you wanted to focus on. Debby fell into business development almost by accident when she was in college after taking a sales job one summer. The key realization was when she figured out that she liked helping people solve their problems, and that was when she decided to shift her focus to professional sales. Debby went on to a professional sales role out of college where most of the training was technical in focus. It wasn't until Debby moved into a national leadership role did she realize that business development skills are just as important as technical skills. That was when she became connected with Mo and the GrowBIG system. Now that Debby is consulting, the focus on business development is even more important. As a service provider, the reality is that you are helping your clients solve their problems, and that is the essence of business development. Companies tend to focus on technical training because there is often so much information to learn and such a large need for that information, businesses are incentivized to pay attention to it. An organization that wants to grow has to invest in its people beyond the technical side. Companies often throw structure at an issue in an attempt to solve a problem. Take the word sales out of your mind if you're just getting started with business development. Retool your brain to frame the conversation as a way of figuring out what the other person needs and how you can help. If you can do that, the conversation becomes less intimidating. Mo asks Debby Moorman: What is your personal development of business development? Business development is identifying high-value relationships, investing in them, and finding ways to bring value to those relationships. It's about matching what you have to offer with the needs of your market and customizing it for each person. Figuring what the client needs is fundamentally about asking the right questions and listening closely to the answer. The key in any conversation is that if you're talking more about yourself than you are about them it's not been a successful conversation. Debby's personal philosophy is if she can help the other person solve their problem, either with something she can offer or by pointing them in the direction of someone else who can help, then the day will come when she does have something that she can offer them. For an hour-long meeting, Debby prepares for at least double that time to make sure she deeply understands the person and the company she is meeting with. The more she can become a student of their business, the more she can make that initial conversation helpful. She will write out a handful of open-ended questions to get them talking and sharing about the challenges in their business. One of the biggest gaps in a good conversation that leads nowhere is that there needs to be a next step. The questions and preparation get the conversation going, but coming up with two or three paths that could lead to a give-to-get or a second conversation is the goal. The goal of the first meeting is to get the second meeting. You need a reason to get back together again. A good rule of thumb for a meeting is that the other person should be talking ⅔ of the time. One of the skills that Debby has had to work on over the years is the power of silence. We have a natural inclination to fill the space, but it's okay to wait. It takes practice to learn these skills but it's more than worth the effort. Mo asks Debby Moorman: What is your favorite science, step, or story from GrowBIG or the Snowball System? Debby's favorite science is the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument. The science behind what type of thinker we are is incredibly valuable. Most people have been through at least one kind of similar training, but they usually can't put it into use. With HBDI, that's not the case. The brilliant a-ha moment for Debby was realizing that you must assume that you have all four thinking types in the room when you're meeting with someone new, and you must tailor your conversation to appeal to all four types. The best part is that the system is easy to remember and put into practical use. HBDI basically says that there are four ways to think based on the physiological structure of the brain. Some people are analytical and some are relational, some are experimental and some are more practical. Components of your presentations and discussions should always touch on all four parts. Debby's second favorite principle is the idea of building it together. Spending time together to think through the various options, you aren't selling them something, you are helping them understand what they need and helping them get that solution. Building it together starts with the preliminary market research and understanding what's happening in their market, and then coming up with a few options for a possible solution. It can take multiple conversations and feedback to figure out the right option for them, but the goal is to match the right solution to the prospect's particular problem. The prospect is probably facing a near infinite number of choices in the beginning. This is the perfect opportunity for you to narrow things down and save the prospect a huge amount of time. During a conversation, Debby is trying to uncover which option would be the best fit, or whether a completely different option may be a better path. There is almost always something new learned during the conversation that changes things, but the goal is to always narrow solutions down and getting clarity on the best next step. Mo asks Debby Moorman: What is one moment around business development that you are really proud of? The current climate has been challenging, and there is one client in particular that she's working with right now that she's proud of. She had the opportunity to reconnect with someone she worked with 15 years ago that recently moved into a more senior role. She reached out to them, but with the way things are right now, she couldn't meet them in person and have a face-to-face conversation with them. What Debby was able to do was have a conversation with this person and simply learn about their new role. She started to hear things that indicated the company was going through a number of changes and was able to offer herself as a resource to be more successful in their new job. This led to more conversations and helping them with relevant research, and eventually getting connected with the CHRO. This relationship from Debby's past has developed into a conversation about how they can all work together. By cultivating a relationship with this person, Debby has opened the door to working with the organization in a deeper scope that wouldn't have been possible otherwise, simply by being helpful. For Debby, the commercial transaction is not a focus when connecting with someone. She brings a curiosity to the table that helps her uncover genuine ways that she can help and by following through, she adds value, builds trust, and creates a real relationship. Be helpful and honest, and the solution will happen. Mo asks Debby Moorman: If you could record a business development tip and send it to your younger self, what would it be? The bottomline is the idea of sales can be scary because we usually think of our worst sales experience and extrapolate that to everything. Debby's advice to her younger self would be to take a breath, and realize that it's all about meeting people and getting to know them, then helping them solve their problems. Changing the label from "sales" to "helping people and solving their needs" is a powerful mindset shift. People usually don't realize that they are selling everyday, they just don't label it that way. If you substitute "solve problems" for "sales", you're probably doing it all the time. Debby tells the story of an earlier experience where her job was traditional sales, literally going door to door, and how by simply asking questions and identifying the needs of the company, she turned a no into one of the biggest sales of the hotel she was working for. Everybody already sells, they just don't call it that. When you substitute solving problems, you realize that you're already great at what you do, and if you plug in a process like the Snowball System, you can keep getting better at it. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com debby.moorman@willistowerswatson.com Debby Moorman on LinkedIn

Mo asks Debby Moorman: If you could record a business development tip and send it to your younger self, what would it be? The bottomline is the idea of sales can be scary because we usually think of our worst sales experience and extrapolate that to everything. Debby's advice to her younger self would be to take a breath, and realize that it's all about meeting people and getting to know them, then helping them solve their problems. Changing the label from "sales" to "helping people and solving their needs" is a powerful mindset shift. People usually don't realize that they are selling everyday, they just don't label it that way. If you substitute "solve problems" for "sales", you're probably doing it all the time. Debby tells the story of an earlier experience where her job was traditional sales, literally going door to door, and how by simply asking questions and identifying the needs of the company, she turned a no into one of the biggest sales of the hotel she was working for. Everybody already sells, they just don't call it that. When you substitute solving problems, you realize that you're already great at what you do, and if you plug in a process like the Snowball System, you can keep getting better at it. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com debby.moorman@willistowerswatson.com Debby Moorman on LinkedIn

Mo asks Debby Moorman: What is one moment around business development that you are really proud of? The current climate has been challenging, and there is one client in particular that she's working with right now that she's proud of. She had the opportunity to reconnect with someone she worked with 15 years ago that recently moved into a more senior role. She reached out to them, but with the way things are right now, she couldn't meet them in person and have a face-to-face conversation with them. What Debby was able to do was have a conversation with this person and simply learn about their new role. She started to hear things that indicated the company was going through a number of changes and was able to offer herself as a resource to be more successful in their new job. This led to more conversations and helping them with relevant research, and eventually getting connected with the CHRO. This relationship from Debby's past has developed into a conversation about how they can all work together. By cultivating a relationship with this person, Debby has opened the door to working with the organization in a deeper scope that wouldn't have been possible otherwise, simply by being helpful. For Debby, the commercial transaction is not a focus when connecting with someone. She brings a curiosity to the table that helps her uncover genuine ways that she can help and by following through, she adds value, builds trust, and creates a real relationship. Be helpful and honest, and the solution will happen. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com debby.moorman@willistowerswatson.com Debby Moorman on LinkedIn

Mo asks Debby Moorman: What is your favorite science, step, or story from GrowBIG or the Snowball System? Debby's favorite science is the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument. The science behind what type of thinker we are is incredibly valuable. Most people have been through at least one kind of similar training, but they usually can't put it into use. With HBDI, that's not the case. The brilliant a-ha moment for Debby was realizing that you must assume that you have all four thinking types in the room when you're meeting with someone new, and you must tailor your conversation to appeal to all four types. The best part is that the system is easy to remember and put into practical use. HBDI basically says that there are four ways to think based on the physiological structure of the brain. Some people are analytical and some are relational, some are experimental and some are more practical. Components of your presentations and discussions should always touch on all four parts. Debby's second favorite principle is the idea of building it together. Spending time together to think through the various options, you aren't selling them something, you are helping them understand what they need and helping them get that solution. Building it together starts with the preliminary market research and understanding what's happening in their market, and then coming up with a few options for a possible solution. It can take multiple conversations and feedback to figure out the right option for them, but the goal is to match the right solution to the prospect's particular problem. The prospect is probably facing a near infinite number of choices in the beginning. This is the perfect opportunity for you to narrow things down and save the prospect a huge amount of time. During a conversation, Debby is trying to uncover which option would be the best fit, or whether a completely different option may be a better path. There is almost always something new learned during the conversation that changes things, but the goal is to always narrow solutions down and getting clarity on the best next step. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com debby.moorman@willistowerswatson.com Debby Moorman on LinkedIn

Mo asks Debby Moorman: What is your personal definition of business development? Business development is identifying high-value relationships, investing in them, and finding ways to bring value to those relationships. It's about matching what you have to offer with the needs of your market and customizing it for each person. Figuring what the client needs is fundamentally about asking the right questions and listening closely to the answer. The key in any conversation is that if you're talking more about yourself than you are about them it's not been a successful conversation. Debby's personal philosophy is if she can help the other person solve their problem, either with something she can offer or by pointing them in the direction of someone else who can help, then the day will come when she does have something that she can offer them. For an hour-long meeting, Debby prepares for at least double that time to make sure she deeply understands the person and the company she is meeting with. The more she can become a student of their business, the more she can make that initial conversation helpful. She will write out a handful of open-ended questions to get them talking and sharing about the challenges in their business. One of the biggest gaps in a good conversation that leads nowhere is that there needs to be a next step. The questions and preparation get the conversation going, but coming up with two or three paths that could lead to a give-to-get or a second conversation is the goal. The goal of the first meeting is to get the second meeting. You need a reason to get back together again. A good rule of thumb for a meeting is that the other person should be talking ⅔ of the time. One of the skills that Debby has had to work on over the years is the power of silence. We have a natural inclination to fill the space, but it's okay to wait. It takes practice to learn these skills but it's more than worth the effort. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com debby.moorman@willistowerswatson.com Debby Moorman on LinkedIn

Mo asks Debby Moorman: Tell me the moment when you decided that business development is something that you wanted to focus on. Debby fell into business development almost by accident when she was in college after taking a sales job one summer. The key realization was when she figured out that she liked helping people solve their problems, and that was when she decided to shift her focus to professional sales. Debby went on to a professional sales role out of college where most of the training was technical in focus. It wasn't until Debby moved into a national leadership role did she realize that business development skills are just as important as technical skills. That was when she became connected with Mo and the GrowBIG system. Now that Debby is consulting, the focus on business development is even more important. As a service provider, the reality is that you are helping your clients solve their problems, and that is the essence of business development. Companies tend to focus on technical training because there is often so much information to learn and such a large need for that information, businesses are incentivized to pay attention to it. An organization that wants to grow has to invest in its people beyond the technical side. Companies often throw structure at an issue in an attempt to solve a problem. Take the word sales out of your mind if you're just getting started with business development. Retool your brain to frame the conversation as a way of figuring out what the other person needs and how you can help. If you can do that, the conversation becomes less intimidating. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com debby.moorman@willistowerswatson.com Debby Moorman on LinkedIn

Jeff Berardi shares how the business development skills he developed during his career became the foundation for his consulting practice's success after launching right at the beginning of the pandemic. Discover the mindset shift that takes someone from struggling with business development to becoming the rainmaker of their organization, why you need to understand sales if you want to succeed at marketing, and the counterintuitive way to showcase your expertise and land paying clients that most consultants get completely backward. Mo asks Jeff Berardi: Tell us the story of the time where you realized that business development was great. Jeff first realized the importance of business development in the marketing class at business school. The first question his professor asked was "Who here is interested in pursuing a career in marketing? And who here is interested in pursuing a career in sales?" The majority of the class had their hands up for the first part and not the second part, and that was the first lesson of the class. If you're thinking about marketing and you don't have a clear understanding and appreciation for sales you have a fundamental disconnect. Marketing is meant to drive sales. Where a lot of organizations fail is turning the one-to-many marketing experience into one-to-one sales conversations. Nobody hires someone after they give a speech, they have to talk with them about how they can solve their problems. When Jeff took over as CMO, he introduced the organization's first business development group. A lot of the difficulty an organization faces is when marketing and sales are not in alignment and are treated as completely separate activities. Jeff didn't just publish unique content. He created events around the content and a follow-up process for turning it into actionable conversations. The key is to work backwards from the goal of the campaign. For Jeff, that meant showcasing their expertise to companies that they wanted to work with in Europe. He started off with a survey to understand what is happening with potential clients. Once the research was conducted, they discovered that some issues were local and some were more widespread, but no matter the scope the research became the basis for the report that could be leveraged in a number of different ways. This sort of deep dive research into a client's problems and needs can be as broad or as narrow as you need it to be. Mo asks Jeff Berardi: What is your personal definition of business development? Business development is creating a pipeline of future growth opportunities. You won't know when they come to fruition or how, but it's a steady process of cultivating and building relationships. There is never enough when it comes to business development because you never know when the well is going to go dry. By having a large pipeline, you have the ability to choose who you work with rather than having to take whatever comes your way. The lack of control is a major source of stress for people. Business development activities give you back the control over who you work with and how. You may be busy, but you must set aside time for business development opportunities or you might end up resentful of how much you are working. By having more opportunities than you need, you can say no to stuff you don't want and the more you're going to get paid. You also regain control on who you work with and which big ideas you get to work on. The commonality in cases where people are struggling with business development and people who thrive is fear. For those who are already successful, it's a fear of losing what they've achieved. For those who are struggling, it's a fear that they can't be successful or that business development is beyond them. When you change the mindset from a fear of not being capable, to being afraid of too much success, you open the door of opportunity. The rainmakers have learned the tools they need to succeed and they have confidence in the process. Knowing that business development is a learnable skill is what flips someone from fear to confidence. Mo asks Jeff Berardi: What is your favorite GrowBIG or Snowball System principle? Build everything together is Jeff's all-time favorite principle. When you work with something in conjunction with your prospect they are going to like you, and the work, more. Jeff uses the example of bake-at-home cake mixes and how one small change that increased the engagement of the consumer in the process led to an increase in sales. Everybody wants to add value in life, and when you send somebody a project that's done they have no way to participate. Even a small step or contribution can increase the sense of ownership on a project. Include your client in the planning process and ditch the inclination to have a perfect fully baked proposal. You can't give too much to the client, but giving them small steps that get them engaged on the big picture helps them understand the value you are bringing to the table. Work together to nail down the scope of the project and get their stamp on what's going to be done. You convey your authority in the details. Not asking for the client's thoughts and perspective can actually be the weaker position compared to asking for input. Mo asks Jeff Berardi: Tell us about a business development story that you are particularly proud of. Jeff has had a long and successful career, but his proudest business development story happened at the very beginning of the pandemic when he launched his own consulting practice. Jeff had the training and the experience leading up to that moment, and the launch of his consulting practice simply became reaching out to his contacts and helping them figure things out. Those initial relationships and just being valuable eventually turned into client work. Even when Jeff became busy with client work he made sure to stick to the business development habits that built those relationships. Having the Snowball System to rely on was a big asset. The habits of business development combined with being helpful became the basis for Jeff's consulting success. When you experience the result of the process, you get more motivation to keep it going. Finding the time to continue business development activities once you become successful is challenging but vital to continued growth. For Jeff, he made sure to put names and tasks in his calendar about following up. These became visual reminders that he couldn't ignore and kept him on track. To-dos can always be kicked down the road, blocking off time is hard to ignore. Mo asks Jeff Berardi: If you could record a video and send it back to your younger self, what would it say? Jeff would tell himself to ask more questions and to be more intentional on directing the conversation to the ways he could help the other party. Asking questions and getting the client engaged is much more beneficial than just telling people what you do. A lot of consultants make the mistake of just wanting to showcase their expertise, but the counterintuitive part is that by getting the other person to talk about what's happening on their end they view you as having that expertise. There are three big benefits of asking questions: they light up the pleasure center of the person being asked, you learn their perspectives in their specific words, and it highly correlates to likeability. Asking questions releases the pressure you have when you assume you know what the client needs and then telling them how you can help without really understanding the situation. The end goal of your questions is to understand their needs and how you can address them. The essence of the questions is to build trust and also to help the client understand what they need because often they haven't defined the problem precisely on their own. If you uncover their needs over the course of the conversation in an authentic and meaningful way that shows you understand their issues and you have the skill set to help them, it feels less like you aren't trying to sell them something and more like you are trying to simply help them. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com jberardi@baretzbrunelle.com Jeff Berardi on LinkedIn Jeff Berardi's Bio