Respect the Prospect: The Art of Positive Business Interactions

Respect the Prospect: The Art of Positive Business Interactions

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 105 of the business development podcast. And on today's special one year anniversary episode, we are talking all about our prospects, the amazing people that carry our worlds forward. This episode is dedicated to clients and prospects everywhere. Stick with us. You're going to love this episode.

Intro: The Great Mark Cuban once said, Business happens over years and years. Value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal. And we couldn't agree more. This is the business development podcast based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and broadcasting to the world.

You'll get expert business development, advice, tips, and experiences. And you'll hear interviews with business owners. CEOs and business development reps, you'll get actionable advice on how to grow business. Brought to you by capital business development, capitalbd.ca. Let's do it. Welcome to the business development podcast, and now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy: Hello, welcome to episode 105 of the business development podcast. My gosh, it is our one year anniversary today and I could not be more ecstatic. What an absolutely wild ride the business development podcast has been. We have a lot of updates for you today. I want to just kind of bring you up to speed on where we're at with this show and get into today's episode.

But I just wanted to start today's episode by saying thank you so much to all of our supporters. To all the listeners who have joined us on this initial one year of the business development podcast journey, I could not have done this show without your kindness, your support, your kind words, your reach outs, and just.

Just you guys are amazing. We have an absolutely amazing rock star community. And I want to start today's episode by saying on our one year anniversary, my rock stars, you now have a name. You now have a name. It is our business rock stars, our business development rock stars, our entrepreneurial rock stars.

You are all rock stars of one type or another. And as such, that is the new name for the listeners of the business development podcast. And we appreciate you all. I also want to remind our listeners. To come by our LinkedIn page, our LinkedIn page, our business development podcast LinkedIn page. I should be some more specific.

We have lots of stuff going on there. Lots of comments, lots of communication, lots of posts. So if you guys are currently not following the business development podcast page, please do come by, check us out, give us a follow. Feel free to connect with me. I always love to talk to you. You can always connect with us on the business development podcast on LinkedIn.

That's an absolutely great place to do it. And I would encourage. Each and every one of you to do so, and also just for a show update of where we're sitting. So 12 months, we're at over 125, 000 downloads. I think we're actually at 125, 258 as of this recording, guys, that's 10, 400 downloads on average a month or 2, 600 per week on average during our.

first year of the show. And guys, this is definitely not you know, even the first five months, like this is really took off here in the last, you know, six months or so it is really developed a life of its own and it is due to you. It is due to our amazing listenership and I appreciate each and every one of you.

Thank you for supporting us. We have been top 100 in over 20 countries. Guys, we won. 2023 Business Podcast of the Year from Quill Inc. We accomplished top 30 in Canada just last week. It was amazing. We have a worldwide audience and you guys are absolutely, absolutely amazing. Thank you for your support during the first year of the show.

And just another really wild and weird coincidence. So, We had an accident at the Kennedy Household last week, it was horrible, it was terrifying we had a, a mop spillover on our on our island countertop, and I had been doing work there, using the production laptop for this show, and yeah guys, it got fried, our production laptop for the show that we have used for the last year, for, that I used recording the very first episode of this show, right up to, actually I'm using it now, but it is a, it is a mess, It got fried in this horrible mop bucket accident.

But yeah, so it's kind of a strange coincidence that the very first show of the Business Development Podcast and our one year show, it'll be the last show that this computer ever records. Which I think is just a wild and wacky coincidence. I don't know about you guys, last week was a bit of a mess. We had it was just a crazy week.

We had dog issues. We had laptop issues. We just had all sorts of fun junk. We've been fighting colds and sickness. Like my gosh, I'm just well enough now to actually record this episode, which is just a fluke. But yeah, I don't know about you guys, but it's been a wild week. So I'm excited to see what the remainder of this week brings.

And we have, yes, a brand new production laptop showing up here on Thursday. And wow. It sucks to always lose a, you know, a laptop. It sucks to lose equipment. I'm also really excited to have a brand new piece of production equipment for the show. So you got to look at the wins and you got to take the positives in the negatives.

There's always something positive in the positive. In this case is we got a brand new production laptop showing up here on Thursday and I am psyched about that. I would like to thank Shelby and Cole for all of the incredible hard work they have put into over the last week here. If you've been following us on the LinkedIn page, we had a release for the last six or seven days in a row, highlighting all the expert guests.

for the last year, every episode they had been in, and that was a concerted effort on our side. That took a lot of work, and I wanted to thank Shelby Hobbs and Cole Chorney for the hard work and dedication they have put in to making our one year great, to really just putting in the extra efforts here to make sure that we are going above and beyond, and I couldn't have done it without them.

So I just wanted to spend a quick minute here and say thank you so much to Cole and Shelby for all the hard work as we move into today's episode. All right. So let's just get into it. One year. Episode 105. I wanted to talk about respect the prospect. I thought that this would be kind of fun. And I wanted to just give a nod today to the people who make business development and business growth possible.

And that is our clients and prospects. That is, that is the people who make our organizations go round, who buy our products and services, who Allow us to build great relationships with them. I wanted to highlight our prospects today and just hopefully give some tips on how we can better interact with them and how we can create better long term relationships with them.

And I think it's really easy. It's easy to look at prospects as just a call you need to make, or an email, or a message. But it is important to remember that our prospects, they're people. They're people on the other end of this line, and they deserve your respect, right? I know, I mean, I fall into this trap too.

I'm not calling any of you out. I also, you know, get it. I get it. We have a job to do. We have a lot of people to talk to. We have meetings we need to book and we have business we need to close. I totally, totally understand. But I think it's important that in every interaction that we make in LinkedIn digital introductions, whether it be our phone calls for the day, whether it be our meetings, to remember that these people, these prospects, they're people.

They are people just like you and me, they have families, they have likes, they have dislikes, they have people problems, okay? And so it's really important that as we conduct our business as business development specialists, as business owners, as anybody doing prospecting, marketing, sales of any type, it's really important that we take a step back and we recognize that yes, while we have a call list of people we need to talk to today, while we have a bunch of digital introductions to make, while we have meetings we need to attend, it's It's critical to remember that our prospects are actually real people and we have an opportunity to stand out by treating them as such.

And so, I wanted to potentially just talk about a few things today with regards to that. I'm going to break it out a little bit. I'm going to break it out into essentially over the phone and in person, just so that we can kind of Take some time and think about those particular aspects and the way that we should conduct ourselves in those situations.

I think that's a great opportunity for us today to do better as business development people, to do better as entrepreneurs, to do better as marketing people, and truly build great relationships. It's really important that we make an impact in our prospects lives, okay? These are amazing people and it's an amazing opportunity for us to build relationship with them to stand out from the crowd.

So over the phone, I always think it's really important that when we are calling people that we are a light in our prospects day. I used to make it a goal of mine whenever I called any of my clients, whenever I called any of the accounts that I was working with their new prospects to put a smile on their face to be a light in their day.

Because you have to remember, most of us are working at a desk. Most of us have a lot of tedious, hard work to do, and it can be really draining. And us as salespeople, as business development people, as entrepreneurs, as marketers, have an opportunity to truly put a smile on somebody's face every single day.

And I think it's critical That we, we take advantage of that, that we work to do that with every single call, and remember that these are people, and that we can treat them as such, and that we can build great relationships, that we can be human with them before we're salespeople, before we're in business development, before we market them, we can be human with them first, and so, It doesn't hurt to just, you know, ask them how their day is going, you know, ask them a little bit about, you know, something that they bring up.

It never hurts to just build a relationship and try to have a little bit of human interaction ahead of your pitches. So my tip number one is always to be a light in their day. You always want to be the best call that your clients have. That should be a goal of yours with every single interaction with a client.

You should be the best call they have every day. You should make it a goal to put a smile on their face, to make them laugh, and to just be an enjoyable moment. And obviously this has more than one effect. It does not just brighten their day, it brightens your day too. It really does. I remember getting off the line with interactions with some of my most favorite clients, people that I just love to talk to, and just honestly smiling for probably three to five minutes after that call because they made me feel just as good as I made them feel in that interaction, and so I think it's really critical that we take the time to just really be a light in people's day and that doesn't matter whether we're doing marketing, sales, digital introductions, add a little bit of yourself in there, build a little relationship, be human, be human.

Right? Be human. A tip for you guys is always to smile on the line and let your light shine through. Okay? I know it sounds kind of cheesy, and I know it sounds a little cheeky, but believe it or not, when you smile on the line, your tone changes. The conversation changes. The things that you might say even change.

And you can see a smile over a phone. Believe you me, you can see a smile over a phone. And so it's critical that when we're having interactions with people that we are smiling, that we are upbeat, that we are kind, because they remember those people. They remember the people who put smiles on their faces.

And so if we can do that by smiling on our end, by having a kind conversation, by keeping it positive, by never going negative with them, We are going to create an interaction that is valuable. We're going to create an interaction that is valuable for our clients, that makes their day a little better. And that makes you a lot more memorable.

You are far, far more likely to book meetings with people with a smile on your face than you are. If you're being serious or frowning or coming across salesy, right? We want to come across as kind, happy individuals. And if we can do that by simply putting a smile on our face, which we can. It really does exude through the phone and it will give you a higher success rate over time and make your interaction with your client considerably better.

Remember, over the phone, it's important that what we're trying to exude is that we're being human. Right? It's important that we are showing that we are a human and we care about the human on the other side of the line. Why? Well, we don't sell over the phone, right? We don't. We don't sell over the phone.

We don't sell over the email. You know where we sell is in person. And so you have to remember all of our interactions on the phone, on email, digital introductions, whatever you guys are doing, lead generation, it's all All to get you to a stage where you can have that face to face interaction, right?

Where you can come across and you can build trust and you can build rapport and you can build a relationship with people. People buy from people they like. They don't buy from emails. They don't buy from phone calls, especially not in B 2 B. Okay, it's really critical. That you remember your goal. Your goal is always to book a face to face meeting.

And you are going to do that with kindness. You are going to do that with authenticness. You are going to do that by interacting like the human you are. By coming across like a great, kind individual. And you do that by smiling, you do that by aiming to improve their day, you do that by remembering that your prospect on the other side of the line is not a computer, is not a robot, they are a human.

And it doesn't matter how big that organization is, and it doesn't matter how many wheels are in that cog, you're going to have to build relationships on the way to get you to where you need to be. And so if we remember that in every interaction, we will get further than people who do not. And so. That's it.

Be a human. You don't sell over the phone anyway. We must respect our prospects time. Remember, you know, if you're calling supply chain, if you're calling supply chain, if you're calling, you know, buyers groups, if you're calling owners, you know operations people, my gosh, guys, they're busy. They are incredibly busy people.

They're lucky half the time to pull five or 10 or 15 minutes to speak with you. And so if you are fortunate enough to get them, remember that. Remember that. Respect their time. If they say, you know what, I only have five minutes, they only have five minutes. They probably only had two and they're being kind.

And so you need to remember that. If they say they only have five minutes, get to it. You know, introduce yourself, ask for the meeting and say You know what? I get it. You're very busy. I look forward to hearing back from you. You can get me back at this email or you can call me back in this line when you have a little more time, respect their time.

Guys. Remember the people that you were trying to deal with are also people and they're incredibly, incredibly busy. If you're part of a supply chain group, if you're a buyer, if you're an operations manager, a founder, a CEO, a president, whoever you are trying to reach. Mark my words, they have no time. They are already booked solid.

And so you need to remember that in your interactions, remember that when you get them on the phone, be respectful of their time, be kind, acknowledge that they're busy. Let them know that, you know, and let them know you still can't wait to meet them at a time that works best for them. So respect their time.

Listen to what they say and honor it. Okay, if you talk to somebody and they say, you know what? They don't have a need for your product or service, guys, they don't have a need, or at least you're not going to change their mind, at least not in that moment. Okay. And so it's really important that we don't get butt hurt.

When people say that to us, that we don't take it personally. It's not personal guys. It's business. Okay. It's just business. And if you get a prospect who says, I appreciate you calling, I don't have a need for this product or service. And if you could please not call me again, I would appreciate that greatly.

Listen to them guys. Please listen to them. They're telling you that they're not interested. And this is okay. This is okay. There's always another prospect. Okay, there's always another prospect. And so just keep that in mind. Thank them for their time. Let them know that if they change their mind in the future, you would love to hear from them.

But you will not be bothering them and respect that. Okay, it is very important that we are respecting our prospects time and that we are not wasting their time. And believe me, if you call this person back, you are not helping yourself. You are digging yourself deeper and deeper into a hole of they are never going to call you back ever.

They are probably also blacklisting your company because they're very frustrated. I've seen a lot of pushy salespeople. I've been on the receiving end of these calls, and it is absolutely critical that we are respecting people's wishes, specifically our prospects and clients, okay? It is our job to help them, not hinder them.

If they are saying that they are not interested, or they do not want to be contacted anymore, or there is not a fit for your product at this time, the next best thing might be to say, Okay, I understand that there's not a fit at this time. Would it be okay with you if I tried back in six months? This is the exception, and this is something that I do typically ask, but once again, I'm asking for permission.

I'm not telling them I'm going to call them back in six months. I am asking my prospect for permission to try them again in six months to see if anything has changed. Most of the time, the prospects that I've dealt with, the clients that I've dealt with have said, absolutely, that is perfectly okay. You can put it in your CRM and you can call me back in six months.

This is the appropriate step to take from people who say that they don't have a need at that time is to ask them, do you think potentially a need may arise in six months time? If they still say no. Respect it guys. Remove them from the CRM, put them in a back burner stage, make a note that says that they're not interested, and don't bother them again.

But, if they say, you know what, you're absolutely right, try me back in six months, I think there might be an opportunity then, then you have a go ahead, you have an instruction, and you may follow that instruction, okay? But keep in mind, what I'm doing here is I am asking permission. I am asking permission in a kind way.

And if the answer is please don't bother me anymore, then that is the answer that I'm going to respect and the answer that you should respect as well. They are incredibly, incredibly busy and it's important that we listen to what they say and honour it, okay? How about our follow up? We never, ever, ever want to come across as pushy, right?

If you come across as pushy, you've already disqualified yourself. Okay. So it is absolutely critical that we are never pushy, never pushy with our clients. And a good way to do this guys is one call per week. Okay. Reach out once per week. If you get their voicemail, leave them a voicemail. If you're going to send them an email, send them an email, but only bother them once per week until they either get back to you or you choose to disqualify them at that point.

Okay. But once per week is a cadence that most people Can respect and be okay with anything more than this will come across as pushy and it can become overbearing. And once again, you're going to start digging yourself a hole and people do not respect this. Okay. So make sure that when we are contacting prospects, that we limit ourselves to once per week, hit the ball over the net and wait for them to hit that ball back.

Wait for them to email you back or call you back. If they do not call you back. The next week is fine, but once per week is the rule, and you need to follow it. Anything more than this is pushy. Anything more than this will come across as aggressive, and you do not want to do that. It is negative. You will not have success if you do this.

Remember guys, be kind. Be kind, show people that you're genuinely interested in them, right? We want to be kind in every single interaction. And I get it, sometimes you're going to get people that are not kind back, okay? It is important that we do not get triggered in these situations. I have dealt with plenty of people who have clearly dealt with too many pushy beady people, pushy salespeople, who their automatic reaction is to get grumpy and aggressive.

And in these situations, The secret is just to say, you know what? I'm sorry that I bothered you. If you change your mind, please call me back. You can get me back at the number that I'm calling you on, right? I hope you have a great day. The secret is to stay kind. You need to be kind in every single interaction.

It is absolutely critical in business development that we do not get angry. Okay. I know, I know it can hurt sometimes. I know it can be frustrating. I know getting yelled at sucks. And I have been on the other side of this, but it is absolutely critical to be a professional and to keep your cool. And if you're going to get upset about it, get upset about it after you hang up the call.

Okay. Don't get upset about it when you're talking to them and try not to let these people wreck your day. Okay. These people are dealing with a lot of their own personal challenges, right? You have to remember that. Remember, they're people. There's people on the other side of these lines. We don't know what they're dealing with.

We don't know. You don't even know what your co workers are dealing with. Guaranteed, your co workers are dealing with things that if you knew about them, it would blow your mind. It would, it would be unbelievable because I have been that co worker who the things going into my life in a given moment were unbelievable, okay?

It is really, really critical that we remember that every single person is dealing with their own things. We're all dealing with things. We're all struggling in our own ways. We're all excelling in our own ways. And it's really, really important that when people tear a strip off you, and I know it sucks, and I know it's hard to remember that whatever they are dealing with, you don't know.

You don't know what happened to them that day. Maybe their, maybe their, maybe their dog died. Maybe, maybe their wife is sick. Maybe their parents just passed away, okay? We don't know. We just don't know what is happening in people's lives. And while it's not fair, I agree. It is not fair. to get torn a strip when you're calling people to do business development or sales or whatever else I get it.

It's not fair. I agree. But it's very important that we remember that if we, if we play their game and yell back at them, we are not helping ourselves. This is going to hurt your interaction with them. It's going to hurt your future interactions is going to put you in a bad mood. It's going to make things harder for you for the rest of the day.

The best thing for you to do. Is to just disengage in the kindest way possible and move on because that is what you need to do as a good business development person, as a good salesperson, as a good marketer of any type, you need to be able to take a lick in and keep on ticking. Right? We have to be able to push through.

We have to be able to keep going. One bad call can't wreck your day. So the way to do this is to stay kind in every interaction in all the situations that you're going to run into. Stay kind. and move forward. This will give you the most success over time. Even though I know it's hard, even though I know that it can be a challenge, try to be kind in every single interaction, even the hard ones.

Remember to ask about people, right? When you're talking to a prospect on the phone, does it hurt to ask them how their day is going? You know, if the weather is crazy in your day, you know, or maybe it was a hard day to get to work. Right. We live in Canada. Canada is a crazy place. You know, we can have, we can have three feet of snow overnight.

Sometimes, you know, if that's the case, don't hurt to comment on the weather. Don't hurt to ask them how their day is going. Ask them, you know, if you just got back from vacation, just say, Hey, I just got back from vacation. And that woman's the last time you were on vacation, start an interaction with people, you know, try to improve their day.

Don't just jump right to sales. Yeah. I get it. It's easy. It's. It's the thing that you're trained to do, but at the end of the day, remember, it's a person. Do you like picking up the phone and somebody just jumping right into a sales pitch on you? Probably not. Think about that. Right? Don't, don't hurt to talk to people.

Don't hurt to introduce yourself. Hey, I'm Kelly. I work with, you know, XYZ company. We do this, but hey, before we get into that, I'd just love to ask you, you know, how's your day going? You know, it doesn't hurt to be a human first. Actually, this helps. It does not hurt in any situation. It helps in 99 percent of situations.

And so don't be afraid to try to start an interaction with someone. Don't be afraid to go a little deeper than the next guy. It's not going to hurt you. It's going to help you over time. AI and robots, what do I always tell you guys? Be a human. All right. When we're in person, okay, let's talk about meetings.

Let's talk about getting in front of people. Remember to be courteous, book meetings in a way that respect people's time. Okay. When you're booking meetings with clients, I always try to book meetings close to their office. Why? Because it's respectful of their time. I know they're really busy. I know that they're only taking an hour, maybe.

To come and meet with, meet with me and have a conversation or to come and have lunch with me and, and start, start a relationship. But the reality is, is that their time is very precious. So try to accommodate them. Be as accommodating as humanly possible to your prospects. Like I said, book, book a lunch that's just down the road from their office.

Find ways to help them out. Find ways to improve their day, but do it in a way that is courteous and respectful of their time. Okay. When you are booking meetings, and this is one that, you know, a lot of people screw up on, okay, where depending on what city you guys are in, you guys know the restaurants get really busy at lunchtime, right?

How many of you are making a reservation, right? And I know a lot of you are like, Oh, crap. Yeah. Right? Make a reservation. There's nothing more embarrassing than having a lunch meeting with a client and showing up to the restaurant and them saying, sorry, sirs, or sorry, ma'am, we're full. We don't have a, we don't have any more booths left.

You're going to have to go somewhere else. That is super, super embarrassing. Has it happened to me? Yes. Yes. I'm telling you from experience. I have done this. I have made this mistake. Okay. Make a reservation and save yourself, you know, a lot of heartache and a lot of headache. Okay. This is really embarrassing and it's not a situation that you want to put yourself in.

Once again, it talks about respecting the client's time. If you make the reservation, you know, you have a seat, you know, that you can get down, have a conversation, start building a relationship and that you'll have a place to do this. Okay, so make a reservation. Remember to bring business cards and brochures guys.

Give some, have something to give them, right? Have something to give your prospects. Business cards are not dead. Brochures are not dead. These are actually more important than ever. And they help you stand out in a time when people are just not doing this anymore. And You know what, frankly, when you're sitting down with a new prospect, especially at a lunch or something like that, I spent time waiting in college.

And so I remember setting out table numbers and placement when you guys are in, you know, large scale group meetings where you're having to deal with four or five people, it might start to get a little bit hard to remember everyone's names. The secret is to have business cards with their names on them and lay them out in the seating order so that you can remember who everybody is.

There are just amazing secrets to this. But for the point is, is that. Business cards are not dead. Bring business cards to every meeting. Bring a brochure to every meeting that explains your services and why you guys are the best, and why this is the best option for them. Physical brochures are awesome, and they're a great conversation starter at a meeting, and people do appreciate them.

Mark my words, people appreciate you taking the time to bring a business card and a brochure to a meeting, so make sure that we are doing that, okay? Be a friend, right? What are we trying to generate in all of these interactions, especially with new prospects, is a trusting relationship, a relationship that brings value to both parties, right?

Don't, don't hesitate to try to treat these people like friends, to look after them, to ask them how they're doing, to ask about their family, to ask them what they love to do. Do you love golfing? Do you love Hunting. Do you love clay shooting? Do you love, I don't know, do you love ballet? Who knows, right?

Who knows what people love, right? But at the end of the day, ask them. Ask them what they're passionate about. Start a conversation. Ask them about their last vacation. Ask them about their kids. Tell them about your kids. We are people first, business people second. Do not forget that. People buy from people they like and trust.

What better way to get someone to like and trust you than to become a friend with them? And this is beneficial for both parties. Who doesn't need more friends? Who doesn't need more friends? Who doesn't need more people they can call when they need a hand? Guys. Look at building friendships. Look at building great relationships with your prospects.

You do this by treating them like a friend, by being a friend. Not just a client, you know, not just a prospect, but a friend. Be genuinely curious, okay? Be genuinely curious. You guys know. I am genuinely curious about every guest I have on this show. I'm genuinely curious about every client I have. I ask them lots of questions.

I try to learn a lot about them and I try to learn lessons from them. This is because I genuinely care. I really do want to know. Because, you know, I have been an entrepreneur myself for three years. I've been in business development an incredibly long time, but I've only been an entrepreneur for three years.

And so I still have a lot to learn. So do you. Be genuinely curious about your prospects. Ask them lots of questions. There's a lesson to be learned from every single person you sit down with. Try to learn it. Try to learn it. Make that a goal of every single time that you sit down with someone to learn something new.

To learn something new because they have something to teach you and you have something to teach them. Be genuinely curious and genuinely care about them as people and just watch your relationships change. Watch your relationships turn around because if you can show that you truly do care about people, you truly do care about that interaction, it has nothing but positive benefit for your life and your business.

Nothing but positives. Genuinely. Care about them. Be genuinely curious. Do not sell people. Help people. Right? The reality is you aren't selling products or services. You're selling solutions to problems. But you need to understand what the problem is before you can sell a solution to it. I see so many salespeople jump right in about how their product and service can change the world and make everything better for their customer without even understanding if that's a problem the customer even has.

Right? Right? I know I'm talking to you. I got a bunch of people right now nodding their head. Yep. Yep. Been there. Totally get it, Kelly. Yes. Yes. Have a conversation with them and let your customers tell you what their challenges are. And then say, Hey, that's interesting. I think we might have a solution for that.

Stop selling products and services and start selling solutions. Start helping your customers, but remember, you cannot help your customer until they tell you what their problem is. So your questions, your interactions should not be about telling them all about how great your product is. It should be about understanding their challenges and saying, Hey, you know what?

I think we might have a product or service that could help you with that. Would you like to learn a little bit more about it and see if it fits for you? That is a much, much better way to market and sell your products over time. And then for you to just jump in and start jamming your product or service down people's throats before you even understand if it's something that they need.

So please take some time, let your customer tell you what their challenge is before you just start blurting out solutions. If you take the time to understand what your customer's challenges are, you're going to be much better equipped to create a proposal. To solve that problem, but you can't do that without sitting back and listening, spending some time to really understand that'll take us right into the next tip.

Don't speak, ask good questions and listen, right? Stop talking in your interactions. Just ask questions and sit back and listen. And guys, I'm, I'm preaching to the choir here. I know, you know, I mean, at the end of the day, I've done this. These are hard lessons learned. When I got into business development in the first place, it, you know what I mean?

I'm, I'm honestly a little bit embarrassed to say this. It probably took me two to three years before I got good at business development. And the reason is because I used to talk, I used to sit down and start talking to a prospect and saying, this is what we do and this is why I can help you. Instead of just sitting back, having a natural human conversation with them and saying, tell me about some of the challenges you're facing.

I'd love to learn a little bit more about about these things. Tell me about your business. Tell me about. How you use these services right now, before I could even understand if there was a fit for mine, it made far more sense to just sit back and ask questions and let the customer talk. I can't tell you how many times that I've been in a business meeting now where I've I've asked a lot of questions.

I probably did 10 to 20 percent of the talking the entire time. And that customer leaves and says, you know what, Kelly, you're one of the best conversationalists I've ever sat down with. Thank you so much for taking that time and listening to me. Because so many people just talk and don't listen. And it's really critical that we take the time, especially as good business development people, as good account managers, as good marketers and relationship generators, to just ask good questions and sit back and listen.

And instead of trying to just figure out where our product and service fits, letting the customer really explain to us who they are, who their company is, what they do, what they value, what challenges they're facing. before you jump in and just start pounding solutions down their throat. Okay. It's really important that we take a good understanding.

And you know, one of the tips that I'll provide you in this is in every single meeting that you guys attend, make sure that you're bringing a notepad with you. Bring a notepad. I have a notepad with me all the time. It is not outdated. They are more needed than ever. Okay. A notepad, a phone is not a good replacement for a notepad.

You can enter that data into your phone later. Bring a notepad with you, have a pen and paper with you. And when you're talking to clients, just say, Hey you know, I just did this literally today. I had a meeting today and I just said, Hey sorry, do you mind if I just take some notes during this conversation?

And they're like, oh yeah, like, awesome, yeah. And I remember him saying, like, I take these notes on my phone. And I'm like, no problem, I just do better writing. So I like to have them here. Do you mind if I just pull my notepad out and take some notes during this meeting? And, and I've never had somebody say, no, guys, I've never had somebody say, no, don't take notes.

That's weird. Don't do that. It's not, it's not weird, but what it does is it allows you to take down the information that they're giving you and put it in, you know, a order and really be able to go back to that and understand what their challenge is later and be able to really formulate a solution to their challenge.

But. It doesn't hurt to just have a notepad with you and take notes during these meetings. Believe me, it is very respectful. It shows that you care. It shows that you're listening. It will actually stop you from talking as much because you're going to be taking notes and listening. And if you do this, you are going to have more success in business.

Mark my words. Just bring a notepad with you. Take notes as they're talking so that you can better understand their challenges and you can reflect back on it. Hey, you know, I just see here, like I took down a bunch of notes and I think, I think your challenge is this or. Just correct me if I'm wrong, but is this your challenge?

And you'll be able to just circle what their challenge is and then you'll be able to say, you know what? Yeah, I think I have a solution for this. Or let me go back to the office and review this and I'll get back to you with what solutions we can provide for you. This is a great way. So just make sure that we are, we are taking notes.

And this is just a very respectful thing, right? Just very respectful thing to do. Taking notes is a great habit. Highly, highly recommend bringing a notepad with you, okay? Be respectful of their time. Remember, if, if your meeting is only an hour or you've only booked an hour's time, be respectful of that.

When you guys are closing in on your hour, just say, Hey, you know, we're coming up on that hour. I don't want to hold you any longer. If, if we're out of time, that doesn't hurt guys. That's super, super kind. It's the right thing to do. We want to make sure that we are always respectful of our customer's time.

And yeah, most of the time it's no big deal, but. Some people, it is a really big deal. And you know what? I'm one of those people. I'm really, really busy. If I take an hour to have lunch with somebody, that's probably the only hour I have before I'm running into another meeting or before I have something else to do, whether it be at capital, at a client or with the podcast.

So make sure that we are respecting people's time. If you only book an hour of the time, only take an hour of their time and maybe just notify them when you are closing in on that time to make sure that you are being respectful. And at the end, guys, just be a light in their day. Be a light in their day.

Every single time you take somebody out for a lunch, every time you take a prospect out or you're visiting them, you could be the highlight in their day. You might be the best thing that they get to do that entire day. Don't, don't forget that. And don't take that lightly. That's a really important position.

That's a really important role to play in somebody's day. And so remember that. Remember that. Be the light. Be the light. Be the best interaction they have that day. And leave them wanting more. Leave them wanting more. Prospects are all potential friends. You just don't know them yet. Treat them as such and watch your world change.

You get what you give, so let's make the world a better place one day. At a time. Thank you, everybody, for an absolutely amazing, amazing year from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for making the business development podcast what it is. We could not do this show without you. Thank you so much for following us and for reaching out over the last year.

And I really look forward to the next year with you. I want to give some really special shout outs. Today's shout outs are reserved for the people who have made a gigantic difference. so much. in the business development podcast and in my life over the last year. And so I want to shout out to my beautiful fiance, Shelby Hobbs.

Thank you so much. Cole Chorney, my right hand at Capital Business Development. Honestly, this show couldn't have come together the way it did without you. Thank you for your steadfast support. Colin Harms for being an absolutely amazing human and a great sponsor with HyperVac Technologies. Rodney Lover for also just being a shining light in my world.

Frankly, Rodney, you're always so kind and so motivating and we really appreciate the support of Atwork Office Furniture and Rodney, we couldn't have done this without you. Vince Phillips, our newest sponsor. We appreciate you, Vince. Thank you for jumping on board. Thank you for trusting us. And McKinley Hyland, who is a client of Capital Business Development, who is a sponsor of the Business Development Podcast, and who has been a friend since the very beginning of the show.

Thank you so much for your support. Until next time, everybody, thank you for an amazing year. We'll catch you on. The flip side.

Outro: This has been the business development podcast with Kelly Kennedy. Kelly has 15 years in sales and business development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry and founded his own business development firm in 2020.

His passion and his specialization. Is in customer relationship generation and business development. The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development, your Business Development Specialists. For more, we invite you to the website @ www.capitalbd.ca. See you next time on the Business Development Podcast.