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Episode 137: "Already Connected" with Tim Houston · What is Business Development?

• 0:03
  Speaker 2: It's a little slow ring.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Business Development Podcast, brought to you by
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  Speaker 1: the Global Business Development Association, delivering the strategies and tactics
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  Speaker 1: to boost your career and corporate growth.
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  Speaker 2: Hello BD Pros, and welcome to the Global Business Development
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  Speaker 2: Association podcast called what is Business Development Now? What if
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  Speaker 2: the best referral partners you'll ever have are already in
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  Speaker 2: your life and you just don't know it yet. Well,
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  Speaker 2: that's what we're going to be talking about today with
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  Speaker 2: our guest author. And before we jump into that, let
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  Speaker 2: me just jump into a book I always like to
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  Speaker 2: talk about, and that's called the Business Development Body of Knowledge.
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  Speaker 2: And with this book, you can read it, get a
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  Speaker 2: copy of it on Amazon, and after you read that book,
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  Speaker 2: you can go to the Global Business Development Association website
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  Speaker 2: and you can find out information about how you can
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  Speaker 2: get your Business Development Professional certification. And after you have
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  Speaker 2: that Business Development Professional certification, you can put that on
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  Speaker 2: your resume, share it with your colleagues, and we'd love
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  Speaker 2: to get a referral from you. And that's a little
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  Speaker 2: teaser into the book we're going to talk about today.
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  Speaker 2: Our guest author is Timothy M. Houston and the book
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  Speaker 2: is called Already Connected.
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  Speaker 3: Now.
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  Speaker 2: Timothy has thirty plus years and thousands of professionals He's
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  Speaker 2: trained across three hundred plus industry. He has the receipts
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  Speaker 2: to back it up. And Timothy Houston is a best
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  Speaker 2: selling author, professional speaker, and the creator of the Referral
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  Speaker 2: Preneur system, a proven framework for building strategic partnerships that
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  Speaker 2: generate consistent, qualified referrals without the networking treadmill. He's a
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  Speaker 2: contributor to The New York Times, in Wall Street Journal
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  Speaker 2: number one bestseller Masters of Sales, has shared stages with
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  Speaker 2: Bob Berg, doctor Ivan Missner, and Suanne Rohan, and Michael Gorber,
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  Speaker 2: and has been interviewed on numerous podcasts, TV and radio
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  Speaker 2: programs worldwide. Already Connected, that's the book we're talking about.
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  Speaker 2: Already Connected, Your referral gold Mine Hidden in Plain Sight
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  Speaker 2: is Tim's fifth book and the one his reader call
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  Speaker 2: his most immediately actionable. Tim Welcome to the show.
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  Speaker 3: It's great to be here, Tony. Thank you for having me.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, tim Uh, just a really interesting topic area, a
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  Speaker 2: hugely powerful tactic that business developers can use is referrals.
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  Speaker 2: We've talked about it on the show before. Referral tactics
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  Speaker 2: have the highest conversion rate out of any other business
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  Speaker 2: development tactic you can use, and it's on an order
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  Speaker 2: of magnitude higher. It's you know, if you're looking at
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  Speaker 2: cold calls, cold email dms, you're looking under maybe one
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  Speaker 2: percent on conversion rate. Conversion rate on referrals. We've seen
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  Speaker 2: the data and the science proves it can be over
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  Speaker 2: fifty percent. Referrals are hugely powerful. And Tim, I can't
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  Speaker 2: wait for you to tell us a little bit about
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  Speaker 2: how you got into business development and why did you
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  Speaker 2: write this book.
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  Speaker 3: Tony.
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  Speaker 4: My entry into business development, it was not planned. It
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  Speaker 4: was pure survival.
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  Speaker 3: We have to go.
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  Speaker 4: Back in nineteen ninety four, and in nineteen ninety four
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  Speaker 4: I started a business that most people had never ever
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  Speaker 4: heard of, and that is a commercial debt settlement firm.
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  Speaker 4: People know it today for personal reasons. But I worked
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  Speaker 4: with businesses, companies that were in cash flow crisis. They
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  Speaker 4: had unpaid bills that were turned over to collection agencies.
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  Speaker 4: They faced lawsuits. And what I would do is I
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  Speaker 4: would come in and I would negotiate settlements literally for
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  Speaker 4: pennies on the dollars. Now, it was a legitimate service
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  Speaker 4: and it genuinely helped people, it made businesses survive. But
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  Speaker 4: finding clients, well, that was absolutely killing me. And what
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  Speaker 4: I had to do. Remember this is a pre internet,
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  Speaker 4: so I had to go through make phone calls, I
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  Speaker 4: had to do direct mail. I did radio, TV and
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  Speaker 4: newspaper ads and honestly, tony even by today's standards, the
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  Speaker 4: ROI was abysmal. So I started going to networking events.
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  Speaker 4: A lot of the networking events that I went to, well, they.
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  Speaker 3: Felt like glorified cocktail parties, the.
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  Speaker 4: Same people every month talking about the same people that
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  Speaker 4: were talking to and talking about the month before, and
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  Speaker 4: no real business came from it. I started speaking at
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  Speaker 4: business organizations and service clubs like Rotary and Kawanas and
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  Speaker 4: things like that, and that produced some results, but not enough.
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  Speaker 4: I was literally about to become the client I represented
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  Speaker 4: if nothing happened. Soon fast forward to in nineteen ninety six,
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  Speaker 4: a friend of mine invited me to a structured weekly
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  Speaker 4: networking group of non competing professionals and business owners, and
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  Speaker 4: they met for the purpose of developing relationships and to
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  Speaker 4: exchange referrals. So for the first time I actually had
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  Speaker 4: a platform where I could actually educate people about what
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  Speaker 4: I did. But the breakthrough for me didn't come from
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  Speaker 4: joining the group. It was once I noticed what was
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  Speaker 4: happening when I was a part of it. And then
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  Speaker 4: I started tracking where my referrals were actually coming from,
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  Speaker 4: and I discovered that most of them came from a
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  Speaker 4: handful of really specific people, specific relationships. And it wasn't
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  Speaker 4: just in that networking group. Referrals were coming to me
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  Speaker 4: from people who were already in my life, not just
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  Speaker 4: my ideal clients, but other people that I had relationships with.
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  Speaker 4: It's just that at that moment I didn't really recognize
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  Speaker 4: the pattern, and that pattern, which I discovered a few
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  Speaker 4: years later, as I went through this became the foundation
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  Speaker 4: of everything I've ever done in business development. Now, in
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  Speaker 4: nineteen ninety nine, that organization that I was part of, well,
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  Speaker 4: they asked me to help expand their presence in their area,
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  Speaker 4: and I did that, and for the next twenty four
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  Speaker 4: twenty five years, I launched more than forty of their groups.
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  Speaker 4: I trained thousands of their professionals from every industry, and
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  Speaker 4: through that, plus my own work that I've done over
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  Speaker 4: the last thirty plus years, I decide I kept seeing
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  Speaker 4: the same frustration over and over, I saw smart professionals,
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  Speaker 4: smart business owners, attending multiple networking events every week, every month,
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  Speaker 4: collecting business cards, collecting contact information, doing all the right
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  Speaker 4: things that were taught to do in business, and still
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  Speaker 4: not getting consistent referrals. So the conventional wisdom was you
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  Speaker 4: need to network more, and I knew that was inherently wrong.
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  Speaker 4: What I realized is that partnerships were the things that
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  Speaker 4: developed the real referrals, and that wasn't random, It followed
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  Speaker 4: predictable patterns. And the best people that became your best
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  Speaker 4: referral sources, at least for me. And when I found
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  Speaker 4: in others, they were already in your life. They were
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  Speaker 4: people like your accountant, your neighbor, the parent you see
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  Speaker 4: at your kids baseball game, the people that you already
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  Speaker 4: had trust and rapport with, but you just never had
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  Speaker 4: a business conversation with. And nobody was teaching that. So
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  Speaker 4: when I wrote the fifth, this book, my fifth already connected,
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  Speaker 4: I wanted to change the paradigm. I wanted to give
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  Speaker 4: people back their time high And if I could help
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  Speaker 4: someone build five or six high quality partnerships instead of
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  Speaker 4: chasing hundreds of connections, and their business grows and they get.
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  Speaker 3: Their lives back. Well, that's what the book is really
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  Speaker 3: all about.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I love that origin story, and it follows a
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  Speaker 2: pattern similar to my journey into referrals and building that
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  Speaker 2: community of reliable partners where it's almost I like to
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  Speaker 2: call it a hunting party. Everybody's collaborating, everybody has value
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  Speaker 2: to bring. It's reciprocal. It's not just a one way
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  Speaker 2: relationship where you're just taking or somebody else is just taking.
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  Speaker 2: There's a value being exchanged, whether that's referrals into other
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  Speaker 2: people or even market intelligence and things like that. So
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  Speaker 2: I'm big fan of this referral methodology. And folks, again,
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  Speaker 2: we're talking about Tim's new book, and this is his
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  Speaker 2: fifth book. It's called all Ready Connected, Your Referral gold
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  Speaker 2: Mine Hidden in plain Site. Okay, Tim, tell us a
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  Speaker 2: little bit about how we can really mind that gold mine.
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  Speaker 2: You're talking about, what's the first key tactic or takeaway
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  Speaker 2: that you would like to share with everybody about your methodology.
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  Speaker 4: Sure, it all starts with looking at who is already
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  Speaker 4: in your life that you may be overlooking. So I
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  Speaker 4: call it the perfect professional partner audit. Okay, Now this
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  Speaker 4: is not like a serious IRS audit. So the first
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  Speaker 4: step is that you're going to write down the names
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  Speaker 4: of all the professionals, all the business owners, people that
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  Speaker 4: you have a personal relationship with, and also think of
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  Speaker 4: people that are already in your life, your account at
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  Speaker 4: your insurance agent, your kids doctor, parents that you may
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  Speaker 4: know from your kids' activities, you know the people you
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  Speaker 4: see regularly, Okay. And then after you write it down,
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  Speaker 4: one of the things that you want to ask yourself
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  Speaker 4: is three questions. The first question is do they serve
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  Speaker 4: the same type of client or customer and those of
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  Speaker 4: you in health related fields of patients perhaps.
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  Speaker 3: That I serve.
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  Speaker 4: Second question, do we overlap without competing? And the third
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  Speaker 4: question is does the client their client have a natural
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  Speaker 4: reason to eventually need.
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  Speaker 3: What I have to offer.
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  Speaker 4: Anyone who hits those three criteria, well, they're what I
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  Speaker 4: call a potential perfect professional partner. And most people, Tony
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  Speaker 4: have fifteen to twenty five of these folks hiding in
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  Speaker 4: plain sight. Now here's why it works. It works because
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  Speaker 4: when you start this audit, you realize that your referral
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  Speaker 4: gold mine, it's not in your LinkedIn network of twelve
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  Speaker 4: hundred people who you barely know. It's not in the
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  Speaker 4: network necessarily in all the networking events and the people
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  Speaker 4: whose contact information you have, it's the twenty people who
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  Speaker 4: already trust you, who work with you, who work with
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  Speaker 4: your ideal clients, who have some sort of relationlationship with you,
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  Speaker 4: but you never really had a business conversation with them.
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  Speaker 3: So let me give an.
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  Speaker 4: Example that I talk about in the book. One of
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  Speaker 4: my clients a few years back was this woman named Lisa,
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  Speaker 4: and Lisa was a pool and I should say she
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  Speaker 4: is a pool and spa salesperson. And in her life
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  Speaker 4: she had a landscaper named Miguel, and they knew each
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  Speaker 4: other because both of their sons played on the same
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  Speaker 4: baseball team, and they knew each other for two years.
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  Speaker 3: Well.
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  Speaker 4: Miguel's entire client base were homeowners who are investing in
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  Speaker 4: outdoor spaces, exactly the same people that would likely want
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  Speaker 4: a pool or a spa. Now, they both knew each other,
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  Speaker 4: they had rapport, but they never talked about their business.
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  Speaker 3: So all it took.
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  Speaker 4: Really was one introductory conversation that led into additional conversations,
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  Speaker 4: and within a year's time, Miguel became Lisa's number one
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  Speaker 4: one referral source. So you start off with the audit
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  Speaker 4: by taking stock in who is already in your life
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  Speaker 4: and as you see versus random networking, Yeah, you can
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  Speaker 4: have a large contact list and that's okay, and you
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  Speaker 4: could draw from that contact list and see who really
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  Speaker 4: are the five to seven key people. With random networking,
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  Speaker 4: you have inconsistent referrals, right people think of you if
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  Speaker 4: they do, and they're usually reactionary, versus a strategic partnership
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  Speaker 4: where you're getting constant, qualified referrals because those partners know
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  Speaker 4: exactly what is that you do, how you help people,
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  Speaker 4: and more importantly, how they could refer business to you.
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  Speaker 4: You've trained them. And the last part of is the
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  Speaker 4: exhausting treadmill. You know, I call it the networking treadmill
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  Speaker 4: because it's kind of like and even in major corporations
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  Speaker 4: they teach their sales and their BD teams and business
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  Speaker 4: development teams go out there, meet more people, meet more,
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  Speaker 4: meet more, met more, and it's the constant treadmill that
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  Speaker 4: you're on going to different events and yielding the same results.
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  Speaker 4: What we're looking for is a compound relationship that you're
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  Speaker 4: going to invest in that's going to pay over time.
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  Speaker 4: So you know, the book, the back of the book
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  Speaker 4: actually says, you know, shrink your network, grow your business.
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  Speaker 4: That's the teaser on the back of the book as
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  Speaker 4: the headline of the book, and it is true. It's counterintuitive,
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  Speaker 4: but it truly truly works.
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  Speaker 2: So that's the first I love tactic number one, and
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  Speaker 2: I really like how you gave some very specific, actionable
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  Speaker 2: guidance here, Tim, And I'm just going to folks. I'm
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  Speaker 2: going to show the slide I've been for folks that
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  Speaker 2: are just listening, I'm going to talk about the slide
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  Speaker 2: that we've been referring to, and it shows two columns.
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  Speaker 2: On the left hand side. You had the random networking
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  Speaker 2: that Tim was talking about, where you have a large
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  Speaker 2: contact list, maybe it's the twelve hundred people and your
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  Speaker 2: LinkedIn profile that you're connected to, but barely no and
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  Speaker 2: then you're getting inconsistent referrals by going to a lot
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  Speaker 2: of these events. You meet somebody once and maybe three
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  Speaker 2: months later or four months later, out of the blue,
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  Speaker 2: they'll give you a call. But in the meantime, you're
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  Speaker 2: just using up all these cycles, going to the same event,
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  Speaker 2: seeing the same people, not really exchanging any kind of value,
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  Speaker 2: and you're just getting exhausted on the right side of
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  Speaker 2: the slide as a column that shows strategic partnerships. And
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  Speaker 2: this is what Tim was talking about. By taking that audit,
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  Speaker 2: you know you probably have a list of really close
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  Speaker 2: folks that you know, maybe twenty five folks, but whittling
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  Speaker 2: that down to five to seven people that have relationships
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  Speaker 2: with your target audience, your ideal customer profile. And you
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  Speaker 2: also want them to be complementary. You don't want to
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  Speaker 2: compete with them. So those are key factors as you're
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  Speaker 2: trying to shrink your network to grow your revenue. Tim,
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  Speaker 2: I love tactic number one. I'm really excited. Let's jump
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  Speaker 2: into tactic number two. Please.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: The second tactic is what I call the three partnership patterns.
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  Speaker 4: So you've identified the people that you want to build
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  Speaker 4: those relationships with, but now you want to have a
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  Speaker 4: simple framework to reference to recognize why you and they
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  Speaker 4: make natural referral partners and what kind of referrals to
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  Speaker 4: expect from them. So the three patterns start off with
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  Speaker 4: what I called the before and after pattern. This is
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  Speaker 4: where you serve clients sequentially right one of you worked
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  Speaker 4: with them right before they need the other. So the
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  Speaker 4: example I gave before the landscaper will work. And then
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  Speaker 4: you have the pool in store, the wedding photographer, and
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  Speaker 4: the real estate agent right because that real estate agent
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  Speaker 4: may buy within the next.
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  Speaker 3: Year or two.
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  Speaker 4: The mortgage broker and the homeowner's insurance agent. Those fit
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  Speaker 4: the before and after pattern. Then you have the parallel
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  Speaker 4: service pattern, the second one. You're serving the client or
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  Speaker 4: the customers simultaneously but for totally different needs. So examples
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  Speaker 4: would be like the financial advisor and the estate planning attorney, right,
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  Speaker 4: the same affluent client, different services, and you're both active
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  Speaker 4: at the same time. The third pattern is what I
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  Speaker 4: call the shared client values pattern, and your clients are
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  Speaker 4: sharing the same values or lifestyles as even if the
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  Speaker 4: services are not sequential. So for example, a business coach
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  Speaker 4: and an executive health coach, they both serve high performers
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  Speaker 4: who are investing in themselves. Now this works because, well,
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  Speaker 4: once you identify what pattern or patterns, because sometimes it
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  Speaker 4: could be a combination of the three, you'll know what
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  Speaker 4: to expect. You'll know how to give value to your
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  Speaker 4: referral partner and how the referrals are going to flow.
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  Speaker 4: The thing tony is is that before and after pattern
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  Speaker 4: that tends to be the highest frequency source, parallel is
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  Speaker 4: the highest quality source, and the shared value are your
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  Speaker 4: highest trust and longer lasting source. So what you should
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  Speaker 4: do is, after you do the audit, assign a name
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  Speaker 4: each person rather a name of a pattern, the most
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  Speaker 4: predominant pattern, and if there's a secondary you may want
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  Speaker 4: to write down. It takes about ten minutes to do
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  Speaker 4: for every you know, once you go through your list,
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  Speaker 4: but it will immediately tell you which relationships you need
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  Speaker 4: to prioritize and what conversations to start first with those people.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, a lot to unpact there. And I really like
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  Speaker 2: how you're drilling down from your higher level concept. And
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  Speaker 2: we showed the high level concept in the first tactic,
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: showing the slide again here for everybody to remember what
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: we're talking about. So we're now drilling down into the
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  Speaker 2: strategic partnerships column. Thus five to seven key people with
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: those consistent qualified leads that we can receive. And I
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: like what you're doing here, Tim is you're analyzing the
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: customer journey, if you will, and then looking at where
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: those possible partners fit into that customer journey, right, and
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: are they parallel, are they sequential? And can you Can
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: you repeat that a little bit because you said something
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  Speaker 2: that was really profound. You said, parallel delivers a certain
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  Speaker 2: kind of result, whether it's a long term relationship or
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: whether it's higher Can you can you repeat that one
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  Speaker 2: more time? How each one of those falls into acclateigord police.
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  Speaker 4: Absolutely, So when you have the before and after pattern,
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  Speaker 4: those people who fit that pattern, they're going to be
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  Speaker 4: your high frequency source of referrals. You can expect the
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  Speaker 4: most referrals from those types because it's just a natural
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  Speaker 4: I do this, you do that, it's easy to take
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  Speaker 4: the person on the journey. Parallel is going to be higher.
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  Speaker 4: The parallel service patterns are going to be your highest
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  Speaker 4: quality source because you're serving each each other's client for
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  Speaker 4: different needs at the same time. So I use the
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  Speaker 4: example of an estate planning attorney and a financial advisor, right,
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  Speaker 4: the same type of client, but different services, and you're
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  Speaker 4: being active with that person at the same time. The
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  Speaker 4: last one, the shared value, is your highest trust and
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  Speaker 4: longest lasting source because it's based upon that client's value
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  Speaker 4: in lifestyle. Even if they're out of sequence, it's not sequential,
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  Speaker 4: it may even be before and after, So over time
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  Speaker 4: that is going to be your longest lasting source of referrals.
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  Speaker 2: Wow, that's that. I've never heard that before, Tim, and
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: that is fantastic information. And so I okay, So if
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: it's a sequential, you do this, and then that kind
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: of leads into the next part of a customer journey.
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  Speaker 2: I think you use the example of the landscaper and
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  Speaker 2: the individual that does pulls and things like that. That's
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: kind of secondary once the landscape is put in or
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: I guess pool goes in first and you tear up
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: the yard and then you bring the landscaper in. But
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: that kind of sequential, reallylationship is going to give you
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  Speaker 2: the highest frequency, which makes sense. Rights as the as
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: the pool person is there finishing up the pool or
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: even doing a bid, they're letting the prospect know about, well,
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: I have a great landscape. I'd like to refer to
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: you as well. So every time they do work, they're
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: going to refer you in. So there's kind of that
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: high frequency. And then you said in parallel, would be
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: the highest quality prospect, And so I guess if that's
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: the pool guy and there's somebody that does the pull
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: pump separately, that would be the highest quality just because
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: it's it's kind of integral into what's going on at
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: that time. And then finally is those that are value aligned.
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: How would you define value just so that people can
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: identify it.
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: It can be based on your own your own values.
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: For example, let's say you are and I've seen this,
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: and I and this didn't make the book, But I
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: actually had a client that was a financial advisor who
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: worked with people who loved, you know, protecting the environment
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: and would like to see their wealth you know, later
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: on in life maybe be donated to causes, et cetera. Well,
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: they worked in conjunction with a travel agent who specialized
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: in taking people on eco tours, those types of vacations
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: and experiences. So values could be based upon what you
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: hold true and near to yourself. It could also be
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: based on lifestyle. Outside of values, it could also be
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: based on a person's lifestyle, so, you know, using an
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: example of again I'll use example of a financial advisor
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: because I had a client that actually did this. One
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: of one of his clients, very affluency level executives and whatnot.
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: One of his best referral partners was actually a custom tailor,
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: custom clothier. Because they value and car dealers, you know
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: of a high end luxury cars and things of that nature.
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: So those are two types.
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: So those are shared client value if allow the share
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: value a client value pattern.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: Sorry in those.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: Examples, Okay, great, thank you for elaborating on that. And folks, again,
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: we're talking about Tim's fifth book, his newest book called
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: Already Connected, Your Referral gold Mine Hidden in Plane Sight,
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: and we are digging deep into the gold mine. Tim,
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: let's bring it home with tactic number three.
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: So you found the partners, you've identified what pattern they're in.
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: Now the million dollar question, what.
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: Do you say?
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: So you have what I call the Discovery Conversation Framework,
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: and it's five steps that helps you to start the
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: conversation naturally, there are no pitches. You're not asking for referrals,
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: and you're not making it offered awkward. I should say,
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: even if there's a person that you're speaking to that
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: you know for many years. So first we can do
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: is you start all expressing genuine curiosity.
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: It's the first step.
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: Something like you know, Tony, I've known you for a
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: couple of years. I never asked you about your business.
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: Tell me a little bit about what types of clients
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: you really love working with the second step is you're
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: asking questions about their ideal clients, and you really want
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: to get specific. You don't want to say, well, so Tony,
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: tell me who do you serve? You want to say
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: something like, describe your perfect client, why do you like
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: working with them? What makes that client the ideal client
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: for you. The third step you want to ask them
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: how are they currently getting their clients, because that tells
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: you whether they're referral minded or whether you're going to
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: be competing with an existing partnership. The fourth step is
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: to share your observations. Okay, so not a pitch, You're
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: making an observation. So Tony, as you're talking, I'm noticing
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: that our clients probably overlap a little bit. So what
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: I'm doing is at that stage, Tony, I'm opening a
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: door for you. I'm not pushing you through, and I'm
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: not pushing through either. And then finally the fifth step
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: is we're letting the partnership emerge naturally. So the goal
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: of the conversation, the first conversation, it's not a referral commitment.
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: It's an open door to the second conversation.
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: So Tony, maybe we.
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: Should grab coffee, or maybe we should schedule a zoom
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: session so we could talk more how we might be
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: able to help each other's clients. And here's why it
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: works when you follow this framework. It works because people
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: hate being pitched right, and as we probably know, though,
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: people love to talk about themselves. So the framework that
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: I've created, it makes the other person feel heard, it
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: makes them feel valued, and you're going to walk away
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: knowing exactly whether this is a partnership worth pursuing or
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: it's not. And you do it without creating pressure, without awkwardness.
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: It's just a natural conversation with a clear next step.
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: So actually in the book, using the character of Lisa,
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: who's one of our two main characters in the book,
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: she's actually sitting outside in her car and she has
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: another person named Jacob, and she's sitting outside his office
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: for about fifteen minutes and she's frozen trying to figure
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: out what to say. But once she followed the framework,
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: she sent a two sentence text, I've been thinking about
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: your business. I never really asked you about who your
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: ideal clients are. Can we have a brief conversation and
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: the gentleman responds in a few seconds, and later that
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: week they ended up having coffee and it.
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: Was the start of, as they say, a beautiful relationship.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Tim, this is great. How you're walking people through
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: the qualification process, you're essentially qualifying those individuals that could
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: fall into being one of the five to seven key
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: people in your strategic partnerships. And what you're doing is
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: asking those open end questions to learn more about how
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: they could potentially fit into your strategic partnership architecture along
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: with and be complementary to the other folks in your
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: existing network. And it's also a two part process. You're
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: having that kind of exploratory discussion, kind of like what
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: you do with a prospect when you're first talking to them.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: You're trying to unravel learn a little bit more how
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: they fit into that customer journey with you, how they
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: could fit into your overarching network. And then you're going
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: on to the next discussion, which I assume and that
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: next discussion, that second discussion would be essentially bringing them
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: into your strategic partnership network. Is that right? Tim?
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: That is correct? That's going to set the stage.
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: And at that point in that conversation you'll have a
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: better sense as Okay, what is our next steps Okay,
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: leaving that conversation, is it going to be something that
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: we both mutually agree upon and we have mutual expectations
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: that are ironed out, or is it something that this
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: is a relationship that we have to maybe have that
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: third or fourth conversation before we start really are in
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: a position to start trusting one another in exchanging referrals.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and folks, if you want to learn all of
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: the other great methods to really build out that strong network,
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: today we're just giving you a taste of that gold mine.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: We haven't even dug down deep into everything available in
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: this book, folks. Today we talked with Tim Houston about
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: his latest book. It's called Already Connected Your Referral, gold Mine,
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: Hidden and Plane Site. It's available on Amazon and you
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: can grab your copy today. Tim, let me just kind
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: of summarize the key takeaways from your book, if I may.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: Step one that we talked about was taking an audit
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: of all of your existing contacts and your folks in
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: your network and trying to really understand who in your
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: network could really kind of be those two dozen folks
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: that you could talk to. And ultimately, then as you
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: move into tactic number two, you're looking at the customer
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: journey and you're figuring out where in that journey they
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: could fit in. Are they potentially a parallel provider, are
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: they a sequential provider, or are they a value based provider?
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: Maybe there are two of those at once. And then
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: once you kind of have that figured out in your
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: overarching network and architecture, you can then move into tactic
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: number three, where you're really activating them as a partner.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: You're having a two part conversation. One is exploratory, the
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: second conversation. If they're a great qualified partner, you're bringing
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: them into your network. And there are a lot more
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: steps packed into this book that folks, you can read
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: and Tim, how can folks connect with you? Follow your work?
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: Best way go to my website, Timothyhuston dot com. You
• 29:04
  Speaker 4: can find me on all of the social media usually
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: it's under Tim Houston Official. Okay at Tim Houston Official
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: on Instagram, on Facebook and LinkedIn it's under tm Houston.
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: It searched me on that.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: All right, Tim, thank you so much for sharing your
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: wisdom with us today about your book and referrals. Again, folks,
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: this is the most powerful tactic that any business developer
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: can use grab yourself a copy of Tim's book, and
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: Tim on behalf of the entire audience. From the Global
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: Business Development Association, we thank you for joining us on
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: the podcast today and sharing your tactics about your latest book.
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me appreciate it.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the Business Development Podcast. Join
• 29:58
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• 30:03
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• 30:07
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