Latest / What is Business Development? / Episode 129: BD Book..."The Closer" with Lisa Laird
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: Welcome to the Business Development podcast, brought to you by
- 0:07Speaker 1: the Global Business Development Association, delivering the strategies and tactics
- 0:12Speaker 1: to boost your career and corporate growth.
- 0:21Speaker 2: Hello BD pros, and welcome to the Global Business Development
- 0:25Speaker 2: Association podcast called What is Business Development? And today we
- 0:31Speaker 2: have a great guest, Lisa Lage's the author of a
- 0:34Speaker 2: brand new book, and let me ask you, folks, sales
- 0:39Speaker 2: it's tough, right, but sales is not about pressure. It's
- 0:43Speaker 2: about preparation, it's about standards, it's about leadership. And we're
- 0:48Speaker 2: going to talk about all of those things today. But
- 0:51Speaker 2: before we do that, why don't you lead yourself on
- 0:53Speaker 2: over to Amazon and grab yourself a copy of the
- 0:56Speaker 2: Business Development Body of Knowledge, and that book will then
- 1:02Speaker 2: allow you to take your Business Development Professional certification. Just
- 1:06Speaker 2: go to the Global Business Development Association's website to learn
- 1:10Speaker 2: more at GBD Association dot org. Okay, now, let me
- 1:16Speaker 2: tell you a little bit about Lisa and her brand
- 1:19Speaker 2: new book. And the book is called The Closer Winning
- 1:23Speaker 2: in the Game of Sales and again it's by Lisa
- 1:25Speaker 2: Laird and Lisa is the chief executive officer of NOLA Persistence,
- 1:32Speaker 2: specializing in field techniques for direct sales, referral building and
- 1:38Speaker 2: networking techniques, and as you could imagine, the book talks
- 1:44Speaker 2: about a lot of these great tactics that are associated
- 1:48Speaker 2: with what her firm does. And let me tell you
- 1:52Speaker 2: about the book. The book called The Closer is winning
- 1:57Speaker 2: in the game of sales, and Lisa breaks down what
- 2:01Speaker 2: most sales professionals were never taught, things like how to
- 2:05Speaker 2: control the conversation, how to set the standard and build
- 2:10Speaker 2: long term business relationships that produce consistent results, from mastering
- 2:16Speaker 2: cold calls and getting past gatekeepers to handling the dreaded.
- 2:21Speaker 2: I'm not interested to building a powerful referral network. This
- 2:25Speaker 2: book gives you real scripts, real strategies, and real mindset
- 2:29Speaker 2: shifts that turn effort into appointments and appointments into revenue. So,
- 2:37Speaker 2: Lisa Laird, great to have you on the show. This
- 2:42Speaker 2: is I love the title the Closer. As we say
- 2:47Speaker 2: in sales, it's always be closing. But I think we're
- 2:50Speaker 2: going to get to after we talk through this. I
- 2:52Speaker 2: think we're probably going to come to another determination that
- 2:55Speaker 2: still uses the ABCS. But let's talk through this. Lisa,
- 2:59Speaker 2: tell us a little bit about how you got into
- 3:01Speaker 2: business development, and why did you write the book?
- 3:05Speaker 3: So real quick? City of New Orleans. You know, we
- 3:07Speaker 3: had Hurricane Katrina, which is very historic. Everybody knows about
- 3:11Speaker 3: the flood. So in twenty oh five, I was eight
- 3:14Speaker 3: months pregnant. No electricity for three weeks, So that might
- 3:17Speaker 3: be why I'm so fearless these days. But my house
- 3:21Speaker 3: was gone. I worked for a safety and health company
- 3:24Speaker 3: because that's when I graduated from college with a safety degree.
- 3:28Speaker 3: And after I had my child and I was home,
- 3:30Speaker 3: I thought, I don't want to work eight to five.
- 3:32Speaker 3: I think I would be great at sales. So I
- 3:34Speaker 3: actually applied for a pharmaceutical company and I didn't have
- 3:37Speaker 3: any direct sales experience. So I applied for an insurance
- 3:41Speaker 3: agency and they took me. I had no flew with
- 3:48Speaker 3: commission only. Do you know a year later I was
- 3:52Speaker 3: nicknamed the closer. I learned a lot of techniques and
- 3:55Speaker 3: people say, oh, how'd you get so good? Well, I
- 3:58Speaker 3: was a single mom. I had to be good, there wasn't.
- 4:01Speaker 3: I mean. The problem with sales is, and I call
- 4:04Speaker 3: it the game of sales. Either you learn or you win.
- 4:08Speaker 3: And sadly I was learning from months and months and
- 4:12Speaker 3: then you change your tactics. Either you quick or you
- 4:15Speaker 3: make a change. I decided to make a change, and
- 4:18Speaker 3: that's how I got into the sales position. And I'm
- 4:20Speaker 3: gonna tell you I love sales. I absolutely love to win,
- 4:24Speaker 3: and I feel like everybody loves to win. So I
- 4:26Speaker 3: wrote the book because after twenty years of training sales teams,
- 4:30Speaker 3: I learned one thing. It's not about personality. It's not
- 4:32Speaker 3: about the product. It's not about lack of motivation. It's
- 4:35Speaker 3: about lack of systems and training. I've had so many
- 4:40Speaker 3: people tell me, oh, I'm an introvert. I couldn't do this.
- 4:42Speaker 3: My introverts are my best appointment centers. That's not true.
- 4:45Speaker 3: My extroverts are great closers. They're not afraid to ask
- 4:48Speaker 3: for the business. But both of them have to have
- 4:50Speaker 3: the same system. So when I wrote this book, I
- 4:53Speaker 3: was so motivated to teach the world we are all salespeople.
- 4:57Speaker 3: I actually stopped my career for two years because as
- 5:00Speaker 3: my eighteen month old at the time was autistic. He
- 5:03Speaker 3: wasn't speaking very violent with other kids, so he couldn't
- 5:06Speaker 3: go to school. But I learned Tony really quick. God
- 5:09Speaker 3: was prepping me to coach people, so I can work
- 5:12Speaker 3: with my son. And I learned one day I was
- 5:14Speaker 3: in Target and he saw a toy he wanted. He
- 5:17Speaker 3: was so excited for that toy he wouldn't let it go.
- 5:20Speaker 3: He has no words, but that sells. That was sales.
- 5:24Speaker 3: He was persistent from the moment to the cash rusher
- 5:27Speaker 3: that he wanted that toy. He didn't need words, the
- 5:30Speaker 3: body language, the eye contact. And I realized, we are
- 5:33Speaker 3: all salespeople. My son can learn without being able to speak,
- 5:38Speaker 3: So don't tell me your personality is preventing you from
- 5:41Speaker 3: learning to sell. And I thought, let me write a
- 5:44Speaker 3: book that I can put my system in and teach people.
- 5:47Speaker 3: You already have the skills, Now let's go win.
- 5:51Speaker 2: Yeah. I love your fighter's manifesto, Lisa. It's not about
- 5:56Speaker 2: winning and losing. It's about learning and winning.
- 6:00Speaker 3: And you have to fail to learn. I had a
- 6:02Speaker 3: sales rep not to stop the rhythm, that said, I
- 6:05Speaker 3: hate being rejected, so you need rejection to have a
- 6:08Speaker 3: follow up list. I mean you have to be rejected
- 6:12Speaker 3: to go back. I mean, I've been doing this twenty years.
- 6:14Speaker 3: There's a lot of people who told me no twenty
- 6:16Speaker 3: years ago that I got five ten years later. You
- 6:19Speaker 3: have to be rejected. It's a part of learning.
- 6:21Speaker 2: It is.
- 6:22Speaker 3: It is.
- 6:23Speaker 2: Well, let's learn today about your book. I'm really excited
- 6:26Speaker 2: to jump into it. And again, first, the book is
- 6:28Speaker 2: called The Closer, it's Winning in the Game of sales,
- 6:33Speaker 2: and it's by our guest today, Lisa Laird. So, Lisa,
- 6:36Speaker 2: let's jump into the first key takeaway or tactic from
- 6:40Speaker 2: your book that you would like to share with everybody.
- 6:43Speaker 3: Well, just like you asked me why I wrote the book,
- 6:45Speaker 3: I have a chapter that basically tells you why you're
- 6:48Speaker 3: already in sales. Then I go over the benefits of
- 6:50Speaker 3: having a system. But then we get into the cold
- 6:54Speaker 3: call essential skills, and I'm going to give you this
- 6:57Speaker 3: important takeaway that I teach sales teams. You have to
- 7:01Speaker 3: be prepared. So in my book you'll see a quote
- 7:04Speaker 3: that says, the one that's most prepared wins. And that's
- 7:06Speaker 3: the truth. When you walk into a business and you
- 7:09Speaker 3: ask someone when are you available to meet number one?
- 7:12Speaker 3: You just told that owner you're fully open. Business owners
- 7:16Speaker 3: want to do business with productive business owners. If you
- 7:19Speaker 3: tell someone your calendar is empty, no one else is
- 7:23Speaker 3: doing business with you. So why would that and here's
- 7:26Speaker 3: number two. It is not your potential customer's job to
- 7:29Speaker 3: set your appointments. Sure job. My sales teams know when
- 7:33Speaker 3: you walk into business, Tuesday at two doesn't work, Wednesday
- 7:36Speaker 3: at ten that doesn't work, Thursday at three. We know
- 7:39Speaker 3: our top six times because we are prepared. When we
- 7:42Speaker 3: walk in, we're prepared to do business. The biggest failure
- 7:46Speaker 3: I have seen with appointment set it is just not
- 7:48Speaker 3: being prepared. And I've trained real estate agents, mortgage lenders,
- 7:53Speaker 3: I've done call centers. The game is the same. When
- 7:57Speaker 3: you tell someone can you let me know when you're available,
- 8:00Speaker 3: what they'll probably do is hang up and say I'll
- 8:02Speaker 3: call you back. You lost, Oh can you follow up
- 8:05Speaker 3: with me? Well, they just went on your follow up list.
- 8:07Speaker 3: That wasn't the goal. But you also told them you
- 8:10Speaker 3: weren't prepared. You would like the other one hundred salespeople
- 8:13Speaker 3: that walked in. Why are you different? Be prepared? Number two.
- 8:18Speaker 3: I follow the whole stream of it. The one that's
- 8:21Speaker 3: most prepared win. So you know, when I was growing
- 8:23Speaker 3: my business, I was the closer. I was closing accounts.
- 8:26Speaker 3: But all these books told me to work smarter, not harder.
- 8:30Speaker 3: But what people don't tell you. Working smarter is hard work.
- 8:35Speaker 3: I wasn't getting referral for my existing clients. I'm like,
- 8:38Speaker 3: why am I not getting referrals? I'm a tent of
- 8:41Speaker 3: I'm great customer service, great relationships. And then it came
- 8:45Speaker 3: to me, it is not my customer's job to build
- 8:48Speaker 3: my business. It is my job. So then I started
- 8:52Speaker 3: preparing my list. I would have a list of fifteen
- 8:54Speaker 3: Let's say I was at a plumbing company. I wrote
- 8:56Speaker 3: down fifteen plumbing companies. Let's say I was at a
- 8:59Speaker 3: tugboat company. I wrote down fifteen tugbow companies. Let's say
- 9:03Speaker 3: I was in a certain zip code. I would actually
- 9:06Speaker 3: walk into the office and say, listen, I'm gonna go
- 9:08Speaker 3: to these fifteen places and introduce myself because I love
- 9:12Speaker 3: doing business with these industries. Can you highlight who you now?
- 9:17Speaker 3: I got eight referrals in less than ten minutes. Do
- 9:21Speaker 3: you know how long it took me to get eight
- 9:23Speaker 3: appointments cold calling? I learned the game very quickly. The
- 9:27Speaker 3: one that's most prepared whens. When I gave my customers directions,
- 9:31Speaker 3: they were happy to help me. But to tell someone,
- 9:34Speaker 3: do you know someone that I can help make money.
- 9:37Speaker 3: Can you go look in your Facebook something. It's not
- 9:40Speaker 3: their job. It's your job to be prepared. So I
- 9:43Speaker 3: always teach my sales reps before you go into meeting.
- 9:46Speaker 3: You have to be prepared for what you want and
- 9:49Speaker 3: give that relationship that type of direction. Here's my number three.
- 9:54Speaker 3: You're gonna love this. Whenever I'm teaching business to business relationships,
- 9:59Speaker 3: everybody wants to to teach me how to get relationships,
- 10:02Speaker 3: how to grow, how to grow. The problem is, I
- 10:04Speaker 3: can't teach you how to grow if you don't know
- 10:06Speaker 3: how to retain. So I'll ask everyone in the group.
- 10:09Speaker 3: Write down your favorite realtor. Everybody does. Write down your
- 10:12Speaker 3: favorite plumber, everybody does. Write down your favorite business banker.
- 10:17Speaker 3: Everyone does. Have you ever done a recommendation or testimonial
- 10:21Speaker 3: for that person without I'm asking, I've never gotten a
- 10:24Speaker 3: hand up. Yet, You've got to show value who's already
- 10:29Speaker 3: supporting your relationship and your business, But yet you want
- 10:33Speaker 3: to go find more value. You're not even showing value
- 10:36Speaker 3: to who you know. If you want people to remember
- 10:39Speaker 3: what you do, you have to stay memorable. You will
- 10:43Speaker 3: not believe what I will get when I send a
- 10:45Speaker 3: recommendation for someone that didn't ask, and they're like, wow, Lisa,
- 10:50Speaker 3: that was so nice of you. Look you're gonna laugh.
- 10:52Speaker 3: When I'm chasing an owner do business with them. I
- 10:56Speaker 3: will do a recommendation and say your staff in the
- 10:59Speaker 3: front office, great communication, so professional, and look I'm a
- 11:03Speaker 3: cold calling. You know they're trying to get rid of me.
- 11:05Speaker 3: He will actually email me back and say, boy, you
- 11:08Speaker 3: gave me five stars. That was wonderful. I guess I
- 11:11Speaker 3: owe you an appointment. You got to show value, show
- 11:15Speaker 3: why you're worth that handshake. Why are you worth that conversation?
- 11:19Speaker 3: You have two hundred people that want that business, want
- 11:22Speaker 3: that relationship. Why are you better? And that's why when
- 11:25Speaker 3: I do my system and when I train people actually
- 11:28Speaker 3: have a If you read my book, I have the
- 11:30Speaker 3: day of the week theme Friday's car take Charge Fridays.
- 11:34Speaker 3: My sales team is responsible for three testimonials or three recommendations.
- 11:39Speaker 3: You know why. Imagine when someone has a hard day
- 11:42Speaker 3: on Friday, they have something over the week and to
- 11:44Speaker 3: make them feel good before they put out those fires
- 11:48Speaker 3: Monday morning, You're able to give a professional who's trying
- 11:52Speaker 3: to grow like you, that type of thought. And guess
- 11:56Speaker 3: what when they say, hey, do you know someone that
- 11:59Speaker 3: does this? Guess what, I know a person because you
- 12:02Speaker 3: just showed value to them recently. It's a good example
- 12:06Speaker 3: like when people tell me, oh, my CRN sends happy
- 12:09Speaker 3: birthday emails, my CRN sims postcards. Everyone does that, why
- 12:14Speaker 3: are you different? And I always start that conversation before
- 12:18Speaker 3: I teach you how to build more relationships, because you
- 12:22Speaker 3: can't build a hundred if you can't retain a hundred.
- 12:25Speaker 3: And that's basically how my book is written. I take
- 12:28Speaker 3: you on a journey of why you're in sales, how
- 12:31Speaker 3: to hunt, how to get sales, how to get referrals
- 12:34Speaker 3: for your hard work, and then how to build those
- 12:37Speaker 3: relationships because look, after twenty years, if I have to
- 12:39Speaker 3: go hunt a hundred cold calling every week, that means
- 12:42Speaker 3: I'm losing clients. That's why I'm putting clients back on
- 12:45Speaker 3: the books. Your goal as a professional is to have
- 12:48Speaker 3: a client list like this, but a relationship list like
- 12:51Speaker 3: that that should be bigger. My final chapter teaches you
- 12:55Speaker 3: how to do seminars, how to brand yourself. I actually
- 12:59Speaker 3: started doing three for mentoring sessions free, just having people
- 13:03Speaker 3: come sit with me at coffee shops. Then it grew
- 13:05Speaker 3: to ten twenty. Now I'm getting booked for one hundred
- 13:08Speaker 3: people seminars. It's all because I learned how to look
- 13:12Speaker 3: at the crowd. Because when someone says, teach me how
- 13:15Speaker 3: to do public speaking, Lisa, have you ever mentored? And
- 13:19Speaker 3: when they say no, well, how can you inspire thirty
- 13:21Speaker 3: people in a row when you never inspire one person
- 13:23Speaker 3: across from you. You have to know those feelings. You
- 13:27Speaker 3: have to practice. But again, I think mentoring prepared me
- 13:32Speaker 3: to be a great speaker. So the one that's most
- 13:34Speaker 3: prepared wins. I'm very passionate, Towny.
- 13:39Speaker 2: You are you are, So there's a lot to impact there.
- 13:42Speaker 2: Let me try and break it into three kind of
- 13:43Speaker 2: functional areas so people can track along. So the top
- 13:48Speaker 2: thing that I liked when you started right off the
- 13:50Speaker 2: bat is being prepared and you give some great examples
- 13:54Speaker 2: and some great tactics there. And this is one of
- 13:56Speaker 2: my pet peeves too, when people ask for an appointment
- 14:00Speaker 2: and they haven't prepared, they don't know their own calendar
- 14:03Speaker 2: to be ready with it. You had three time slots.
- 14:05Speaker 2: I usually like to have one, but three is always great.
- 14:09Speaker 2: And it's even from a neuroscience standpoint, a psychological standpoint,
- 14:14Speaker 2: it's a lot easier. You're reducing that inertia on the
- 14:18Speaker 2: part of your prospect to think if you just give
- 14:21Speaker 2: them three dates, Hey, which one of these is open
- 14:23Speaker 2: for you? Odds are one of them is going to
- 14:24Speaker 2: be open for that person. Shows you've done the homework.
- 14:27Speaker 2: It makes it very easy for them just to pick
- 14:29Speaker 2: and go, oh, okay, timeslot number two. That works great
- 14:32Speaker 2: for me, Let's do this. But if yeah, if you
- 14:35Speaker 2: increase that inertia on their part and say, well, tell
- 14:38Speaker 2: me what works for you. Okay. Now, I'm curious to
- 14:44Speaker 2: know your thoughts on this, because you do have some
- 14:46Speaker 2: software out there that is appointment setting software. You can
- 14:50Speaker 2: send some a link to somebody and they can click
- 14:55Speaker 2: on that link and very easily pick something convenient for them.
- 14:59Speaker 2: I think when when you're talking to somebody face, either
- 15:02Speaker 2: face to face or over the phone, having those three
- 15:05Speaker 2: choices for them is better than saying, okay, now, wait,
- 15:08Speaker 2: I'm going to send a link to you pick something.
- 15:10Speaker 2: I think if you're doing something kind of remote, it's
- 15:14Speaker 2: easier to probably send them the link and let them choose,
- 15:19Speaker 2: or even have that as a backup. You've done your
- 15:21Speaker 2: three none of those times work. Then the fallback is
- 15:25Speaker 2: as opposed to trying to rifle through your your calendar,
- 15:28Speaker 2: going okay, well let me give you five, six, and seven,
- 15:30Speaker 2: is to say, okay, well, I know none of these
- 15:33Speaker 2: three don't work. Here's my link. You pick a time
- 15:36Speaker 2: convenient for you, and heck, we can even do it
- 15:39Speaker 2: while we're on the phone. I'll send it to you,
- 15:41Speaker 2: I'll get it, pop it open, and you know something
- 15:44Speaker 2: like that. What are your thoughts?
- 15:46Speaker 3: So you're gonna laugh? The last presentation I did, I
- 15:49Speaker 3: had a goud It was like, oh my gosh, I
- 15:51Speaker 3: send my calendar all the time and I'm brand new,
- 15:54Speaker 3: like nothing's dotted. So I told him, I said, well,
- 15:58Speaker 3: pick you six times, just like I said six times
- 16:01Speaker 3: when I walk in. You have to look busy. I
- 16:05Speaker 3: can tell you. As a business owner, I still have
- 16:07Speaker 3: an interance agency. You have to look busy to get
- 16:11Speaker 3: my attention. Not busy that you're good at what you do,
- 16:14Speaker 3: but that you are constantly growing. Because I'm a growing
- 16:18Speaker 3: company myself. I want to do business with people who grow,
- 16:21Speaker 3: don't chase. If I see you're desperate, then I'm worried
- 16:24Speaker 3: on how you're going to service me after you get
- 16:26Speaker 3: that profit. I take a lot of pride in how
- 16:29Speaker 3: service looks after you make your commission because I know
- 16:32Speaker 3: that game. But with the candily, I do use that system.
- 16:36Speaker 3: Especially if i'm mentoring or if it's an existing relationship
- 16:40Speaker 3: I've already met with, I will use that system. It's
- 16:43Speaker 3: a pretty good follow up system. But if I'm trying
- 16:46Speaker 3: to get that first appointment, I'm I'm very much so
- 16:50Speaker 3: in front of you or over the phone. Why because
- 16:53Speaker 3: I got to earn your respect before I earn your relationship,
- 16:56Speaker 3: before I earn your business. So I want to make
- 16:59Speaker 3: a strong first impression that you know I'm a persistent person.
- 17:03Speaker 3: That means if I have your business, I will be
- 17:05Speaker 3: persistent serving you.
- 17:08Speaker 2: Yeah, I often tell prospects in advance. I'm more persistent
- 17:11Speaker 2: than I am perceptive, So I apologize in advance, but
- 17:15Speaker 2: persistence pace. As they say, well.
- 17:18Speaker 3: Think of it. Think of it this way. If you
- 17:19Speaker 3: made a mistake, your customer will expect you to be
- 17:22Speaker 3: persistent taking care of it. So show the standard from
- 17:25Speaker 3: the beginning.
- 17:26Speaker 2: Mm hm. Now, I also liked your idea of having
- 17:30Speaker 2: a list of prospects that you would like referrals for
- 17:36Speaker 2: and that's fantastic. We have that in the business development
- 17:39Speaker 2: body of knowledge as well, that that's something you know.
- 17:42Speaker 2: Oftentimes people think, oh, I need to ask my existing
- 17:46Speaker 2: customers for referrals, and that's not the case. You could
- 17:49Speaker 2: be going through a prospecting process and you have a
- 17:51Speaker 2: prospect who really loves you, but for whatever reason, uh,
- 17:56Speaker 2: you know, maybe they don't have the budget, maybe they'll
- 17:57Speaker 2: ont the authority, maybe it's just not an issue for them,
- 18:00Speaker 2: there's no pain point. But they really like you, they
- 18:03Speaker 2: like your product. You know, a lot of people are
- 18:07Speaker 2: nice out there. They're happy to help. They probably feel
- 18:09Speaker 2: a little bit bad that they're not buying from you.
- 18:12Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and you've already told them, hey, there these
- 18:15Speaker 2: are ten other people that they should definitely know because
- 18:17Speaker 2: either their competitors or they're.
- 18:19Speaker 3: Remember the word in I'm going there anyway, it can't
- 18:23Speaker 3: be Can you tell me who's any good? When you
- 18:25Speaker 3: word it as I'm going in there to introduce myself,
- 18:28Speaker 3: shake some hands. But I'm sure you know if you
- 18:31Speaker 3: know someone, it helps the introduction a little bit better.
- 18:34Speaker 3: And I'll see people highlight put cell numbers. I had
- 18:37Speaker 3: one guy say, oh, you have contact name is Deborah.
- 18:40Speaker 3: Miss Deborah died two years ago. You're not going to
- 18:42Speaker 3: look like you know what you're doing. The new person
- 18:45Speaker 3: is Shane, and it's like, Wow, if I would have
- 18:48Speaker 3: known this back in five Wow. Yeah. I mean, they're
- 18:53Speaker 3: cleaning my list and it's not that they're expecting commission
- 18:56Speaker 3: or a high five. It's relationships. Like you said, they
- 18:59Speaker 3: want to help me, just like I want to help them.
- 19:02Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I love that. I love that being prepared
- 19:05Speaker 2: and having some real finite things that you can grab onto,
- 19:07Speaker 2: whether it's asking for referrals or getting that time slot
- 19:11Speaker 2: for the next meetings. And then the second major thing
- 19:14Speaker 2: that you talked about was delivering value. And you talked
- 19:18Speaker 2: about value by providing reviews or testimonials, and so I
- 19:24Speaker 2: thought that was kind of interesting because that could kind
- 19:26Speaker 2: of there's two sides of that equation, right, you could
- 19:30Speaker 2: be providing a testimonial, let's say a Google review or
- 19:35Speaker 2: some sort of online review of their business, because you've
- 19:39Speaker 2: probably used them. If they're a retail type of business,
- 19:43Speaker 2: you've probably been a customer. Like you said, you called in,
- 19:45Speaker 2: you talked to their front desk folks. They were very kind,
- 19:48Speaker 2: and you wrote about that in an online review and
- 19:51Speaker 2: you let them know about that. That's great. And there's
- 19:55Speaker 2: another aspect to that, and that is your customers providing
- 20:00Speaker 2: a review for you and providing that testimonial that you
- 20:05Speaker 2: can share with other prospects of Well, Bob's tugboat, very
- 20:09Speaker 2: happy customer of mind loves me, and here's his testimonial.
- 20:15Speaker 3: Well, as you know, we pay a lot for social media,
- 20:18Speaker 3: we pay a lot for our websites. And my thing
- 20:22Speaker 3: is if someone's bringing value to me, that is the
- 20:25Speaker 3: ultimate gift. Yeah.
- 20:27Speaker 2: Yeah, And there are a lot of other ways to
- 20:29Speaker 2: provide value as well, and you mentioned some of those briefly.
- 20:32Speaker 2: I know they're packed into your book and we have
- 20:34Speaker 2: just a few minutes left here in the podcast, Lisa,
- 20:37Speaker 2: and I liked your final point too about creating seminars
- 20:42Speaker 2: and branding yourself. Some people use the overused phrase of
- 20:47Speaker 2: thought leader, whatever that means, but it's really getting your
- 20:50Speaker 2: voice out there and demonstrating to your community that you're
- 20:56Speaker 2: giving you're looking out for their best interest. And the
- 21:00Speaker 2: other great thing about those seminars is you have your
- 21:03Speaker 2: prospects coming, you have your clients coming to those seminars,
- 21:08Speaker 2: and they're all starting to meet each other. They're often
- 21:11Speaker 2: in the same others.
- 21:13Speaker 3: Yeah, they bring others.
- 21:15Speaker 2: So they're probably picking up business while they're at your
- 21:17Speaker 2: seminars learning whatever you're teaching. And so that's the beauty.
- 21:21Speaker 2: I'm a big advocate for seminars and bringing business leaders together.
- 21:27Speaker 2: That works so well and it really plays into the
- 21:32Speaker 2: overarching concept that we talk about really in the first
- 21:35Speaker 2: chapter of the Business Development Body of Knowledge, is the
- 21:39Speaker 2: business developers operate at the intersection of the corporation, the community,
- 21:45Speaker 2: and customers, and you're right there in the middle delivering
- 21:49Speaker 2: value and creating trust. And Lisa, you've done such a
- 21:54Speaker 2: great job delivering value to all of our listeners today.
- 21:58Speaker 2: How can folks connect with you? You follow your work.
- 22:02Speaker 3: Of course on LinkedIn you can find me Lisa Costilla Laired.
- 22:07Speaker 3: But my Instagram is Nola's favorite Solicitor. I know it's bold,
- 22:11Speaker 3: but that's who I am. Nola is New Orleans Faith solicitor.
- 22:15Speaker 3: I don't know if all of them think I'm their
- 22:17Speaker 3: favorite solicitor, but I've probably been in every business.
- 22:20Speaker 2: Yeah, well you're my favorite, Lisa.
- 22:22Speaker 3: Oh that's all that matters. Is all that matters. And
- 22:25Speaker 3: then on YouTube, I also have Nola's favorite solicitor. I
- 22:28Speaker 3: have a podcast show as well called Persistent Bosses, where
- 22:32Speaker 3: I interview just like you do, and I do it
- 22:35Speaker 3: more just to hear everyone else's techniques, because that's a
- 22:38Speaker 3: great thing about having a system. We all will find
- 22:41Speaker 3: our cup of tea, but you got to start with
- 22:43Speaker 3: that system first. So I love to have those conversations.
- 22:47Speaker 3: But I love working with people. I love people being successful.
- 22:52Speaker 3: And I do want to add this. I know where
- 22:54Speaker 3: at didend. But my son that was declared probably would
- 22:57Speaker 3: never speak. He speaks and he reads at a first
- 23:00Speaker 3: great level. So persistence does win.
- 23:04Speaker 2: Persistence does win. And like we started off with the show, folks,
- 23:08Speaker 2: we said, always be closing. What we've learned from one
- 23:11Speaker 2: of the top closers is always be caring and folks. Again,
- 23:18Speaker 2: this is all in the book called The Closer Winning
- 23:23Speaker 2: in the Game of Sales by Lisa Laird. Lisa, it's
- 23:28Speaker 2: been fantastic having you on the show today, and thank
- 23:31Speaker 2: you for delivering so much to us.
- 23:36Speaker 3: Thank you so much. I was so tickled and honored.
- 23:38Speaker 3: So I can't wait to see it.
- 23:40Speaker 2: Yeah, and we can't wait to have you back again
- 23:42Speaker 2: on the show sometime soon.
- 23:44Speaker 3: Lisa, absolutely, next book, next book. I'm writing another one,
- 23:48Speaker 3: so next time.
- 23:49Speaker 2: All right, bring it on. We'll have you back.
- 23:51Speaker 4: Thank you, thanks, thank you for listening to the Business
- 23:58Speaker 4: Development Podcast. Join our free community of corporate partners and
- 24:03Speaker 4: business development professionals advancing the art, science.
- 24:07Speaker 1: And ethics of the business development profession at Gbdassociation dot org.