How will you become great at building business relationships that lead to closing deals? Practice, practice, practice. The only way you can be a skilled relationship architect is if you know the tools needed to build good relationships, and then practice. Football teams practice for five days to prepare for one game. Bands practice every day for hours upon hours to be ready to play their weekend gig. So why, in everyday life, do people just fly by the seat of their pants? And they do, every single day.<\/p>\n
How many people can honestly say they enter a business meeting fully and absolutely prepared? Being prepared means:<\/p>\n
If you actually prepare this way, then you are special, and are most likely already successful, or at the very least, on your way.<\/p>\n
If you prepare as I\u2019ve described, you\u2019ll definitely be successful. What I\u2019m telling you is, \u201cDo it.\u201d Have an idea of what you\u2019re going to say to somebody before you meet them. Know a little bit about them prior to the meeting. Create a system to capture and maintain information and profiles on companies and the individuals who work there. Compile all information possible before you first speak to someone. This is powerful. It will give you an edge in every meeting you attend. Here\u2019s a little story to give you some proof that a little preparation goes a long way.<\/p>\n
A few years ago, I was on a plane getting ready to meet with a company called Renegade Nation. Renegade Nation is Steven Van Zandt\u2019s company. Little Steven from Bruce Springsteen\u2019s E Street Band. Also know as Silvio, from The Sopranos<\/em> series. We were meeting to convince them that we should be their marketing arm, and help utilize their brand to create revenue generating extensions. At that time, it was a little outside of our realm because it\u2019s the music business, and we were born and bred in the sports industry. Although, sports is entertainment, and music is entertainment, so there are clearly synergies; however, the reality at that time was that we were sports guys.<\/p>\n Because music was a little outside of our wheelhouse, I asked the staff to really beef up the background information in the profiles that were put together prior to meeting with potential clients. I wanted to get in there and really connect with this guy. Think about it \u2013 when you\u2019re talking to people and you have something in common, it\u2019s clearly easier to converse. So, I was on the plane reading the profile and really trying to digest as much information as possible. Unfortunately, my head is not a computer and there\u2019s only so much that I can absorb. So, what I usually do is pull out three tidbits. Three little things that potentially connect me with the person I\u2019m speaking with. I have a solid understanding of the whole, but it\u2019s helpful to have focus on a few specific facts.<\/p>\n As I surveyed the profile, I noticed that one of his right hand guys, John, happened to produce, Love in an Elevator,<\/em> by Aerosmith. Aerosmith is a Boston band, and for some reason, I thought, \u201cMaybe there\u2019s a connection, and I can use this in the meeting\u2026I\u2019m from Boston and\u2026I\u2019ll probably never meet this guy John\u2026\u201d but, it stuck in my brain. There were a couple of other tidbits as well.<\/p>\n But let\u2019s fast forward \u2013<\/p>\n We get to the meeting. I\u2019m sitting down with Stevie and I\u2019m pitching him, and he\u2019s into me. He\u2019s getting<\/em> me. He\u2019s calling me the \u201cMoneyman.\u201d He\u2019s kind of crazy and larger than life, like most athletes and entertainers (in a good way, ultra creative and expressive). I become more comfortable because I know how to deal with athletes and owners, and I am now viewing Stevie in the same way. I\u2019m giving him the whole spiel, and I\u2019m bringing him to the river of dreams, and he\u2019s grabbing the bucket getting ready to pick it up, and he\u2019s excited, when all of the sudden, John walks by, and Stevie calls out, \u201cJohn, John come here! Meet the Moneyman!\u201d<\/p>\n So John comes over and Stevie says, \u201cHey, this is John so-and-so.\u201d And I respond, \u201cJohn so-and-so\u2026that name sounds familiar\u2026 Hmmm\u2026 Hey, you\u2019re the dude who produced, Love In An Elevator<\/em>.\u201d And Stevie almost dropped dead on the floor. And he said, \u201cHow do you know<\/em> that?\u201d My answer \u2013 \u201cI\u2019m the Moneyman, I have<\/em> to know that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re hired! You\u2019re hired!\u201d shouted Stevie.<\/p>\n Something as silly as that (I had the gig anyway, I think) put him over the edge. That little tidbit sealed the deal.<\/p>\n So I have to ask; why would anyone go to a meeting unprepared? The only way to win is to practice, practice, practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How will you become great at building business relationships that lead to closing deals? Practice, practice, practice. The only way you can be a skilled relationship architect is if you know the tools needed to build good relationships, and then practice. Football teams practice for five days to prepare for one game. Bands practice every […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,190],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","category-relationship-architecture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/louimbriano.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/louimbriano.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/louimbriano.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/louimbriano.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/louimbriano.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=305"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/louimbriano.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2067,"href":"http:\/\/louimbriano.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions\/2067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/louimbriano.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/louimbriano.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/louimbriano.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}