Latest / What is Business Development? / Episode 96: BD Book...Top 3 Tactics from Lee Salz’s newest book, “The First Meeting Differentiator: Transforming Sales-Focused Discovery int

Transcript

Episode 96: BD Book...Top 3 Tactics from Lee Salz’s newest book, “The First Meeting Differentiator: Transforming Sales-Focused Discovery int · What is Business Development?

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Business Development podcast, brought to you by
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: the Global Business Development Association, delivering the strategies and tactics
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: to boost your career and corporate growth.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Hello BD pros, and welcome to the Global Business Development
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Association podcast called What is Business Development? You know, sales
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: is tough, Getting the right meetings is tough, and the
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: first meeting is where everything begins or it ends. You
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: get it right, you build unstoppable deal momentum. Get it
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: wrong and the deal is in big trouble. Hey, before
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: we jump into the interview with our guest author today,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: if you want to get things right in your bed career, well,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: get the Business Development Body of Knowledge that's available on Amazon.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Read the book, and then you can take the Business
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Development Professional certification by the Global Business Development Association and
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: boost your BD career. And if you're listening to this
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: and you're a follower of the show, give us a like,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: give us some comments, give us some good reviews, because
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: that enables us to spread all of this wonderful knowledge
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: to business developers around the world. Okay, folks, we are
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: going to talk today with the author of a fantastic book.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: It's called The First Meeting. Differentiator transforming sales focus discovery
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: into client centric consultations. And our guest today is Lee Saltz.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: And Lee is the publisher and author of multiple books,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: not just The First Meeting Differentiator, but other fantastic books
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: with hundreds of five star reviews on Amazon. He is
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: a BB Book Powerhouse, and he's also published a book
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  Speaker 2: called Sales Differentiation and Sell different Now, let me tell
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: you a little bit about Lee. He's a globally recognized
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: sales differentiation strategist and author of the hot new sales book,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: The First Meeting Differentiator transforming sales focus discovery into client
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  Speaker 2: centric consultations. And he's known as a sales contrarian. Lee
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: combat's old school ineffective selling methods and challenges you to
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: think differently about your selling approach. He's the creator of
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Sales Differentiation Strategy and Lee guide sales organizations to win
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  Speaker 2: more deals at the prices you want by differentiating what
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: in how you sell. In twenty twenty two, the Institute
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: of Sales Excellence named Lee Speaker of the Year, and
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  Speaker 2: he was recently named by Global Gurus to their Top
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  Speaker 2: thirties Sales Thought Leaders for twenty twenty five, ranking him
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  Speaker 2: number six in the world. Lee specializes in building salespeople
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  Speaker 2: into world class sales forces.
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  Speaker 3: Lee's salts. Welcome to the show.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you, Tony. Great to be here.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's great to have you Lee.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, Lee, let me ask you, how did you get
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: into the sales and business development profession and why did
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: you write the book.
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: That's a great question, So let's start with your first question.
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: How I got into the sales world. I fell into it.
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: So my summer job back in the nineteen eighties was
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: as a weight room supervisor in a gym. I never
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: lifted a weight in my life, and I fell in
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: love with working out. And then when I went to college,
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: while I was in school full time, I was managing
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: a gym, and of course got introduced to this sales
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: side in addition to the fitness side. And while I
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: was in college and managing this gym, one of the
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: members comes up to me. He said, Lee, I really
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: like what you've done here. He was a banker. He said,
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: we just loaned a bunch of money these muscleheads and Syracuse.
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: They've got four gyms. You need to be running that.
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  Speaker 4: My first job out of college was the executive director
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  Speaker 4: of a chain of health clubs, and I was making
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: you ready for this tony six hundred bucks a week.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: Wow, big numbers, big, big money.
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  Speaker 4: So I did that for a year and it was
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  Speaker 4: very successful, and then I got recruited by the largest
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: health club chain in the world at the time. Bally
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: became the youngest executive with them, got a nice bump
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  Speaker 4: to fifty thousand dollars all right, And then I discovered
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  Speaker 4: I was at the top of the food chain, and
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  Speaker 4: I said, you know, this fitness thing is a great hobby.
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  Speaker 4: As a matter of fact, I compete in powerlifting still today,
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: fifty six years old. But it needs to be a
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  Speaker 4: hobby that's not a career because there's no money in it.
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  Speaker 4: But I really like this sales thing. And so that
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  Speaker 4: was my launching pad into the sales world.
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  Speaker 2: Wow, I love that. And so tell me why did
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: you write the book. You've had several very successful books,
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  Speaker 2: even even more books than what I mentioned earlier.
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  Speaker 3: So why this book? Why now?
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  Speaker 4: And that question is normally coupled with and why should
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: I read it? And any of you are listening to
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: this and you say, yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking.
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  Speaker 4: You're going to love chapter five on empathetic expertise, which
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: dives into the art of emotionally connecting with your buyers.
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  Speaker 4: You see, countless studies have shown that if you want
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: to increase win rates, it's not by a manipulative closing techniques. Here,
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: that's what a lot of salespeople looking for at the
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: very end of the process. Can I find some manipulative
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  Speaker 4: technique that's going to make the checkbook pop open. It's
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  Speaker 4: twenty twenty five. That's just not going to happen. What
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: the studies have shown is the key to success is
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  Speaker 4: what happens in that first meeting. That first meeting is
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  Speaker 4: the deal foundation. If it's weak, that deals weak because
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: there's so much that's going on right We're acquiring information,
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  Speaker 4: sharing information, engaging emotions, providing meaningful value, differentiating ourselves. It's
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  Speaker 4: a critical step of the sales process. And what I've
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: found is most companies they've left that to chance. Hey, salespeople,
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  Speaker 4: you just got to ask some questions. You'll tell them
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  Speaker 4: about our stuff, and we just fine. And that assumption
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  Speaker 4: is deeply flawed and it causes sales organizations to underperform. Now,
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  Speaker 4: this isn't new, This isn't like some modern problem we've
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  Speaker 4: just discovered. This has happened since the beginning of sales.
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  Speaker 4: It was just as true a century ago as it
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  Speaker 4: is today because the principles of human connection, trust building,
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  Speaker 4: and differentiation they're timeless. See if your first meeting last
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  Speaker 4: fifteen minutes or two hours, there are non negotiable elements
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  Speaker 4: that have to be addressed. You got to qualify, differentiate,
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  Speaker 4: get that emotional engagement. So that's why I wrote the
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: First Meeting Differentiator, was to put a framework in place
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  Speaker 4: for salespeople as well as the executives that want to
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  Speaker 4: build this for their salespeople, so that they had a methodology.
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  Speaker 4: Because what's interesting is, and you've seen this, Tony go
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  Speaker 4: on Amazon, there are literally thousands of books that say
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  Speaker 4: this is how you get a meeting. Now find a
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  Speaker 4: book that says, okay, great, you got the meeting. Here's
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  Speaker 4: how to put together a game plan for that. Believe
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  Speaker 4: it or not, it didn't exist until I wrote the
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: First Meeting Differentiator. Sure, there's books on storytelling, there's books
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  Speaker 4: on asking questions, but a book solely dedicated to this
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  Speaker 4: step of the process didn't exist. And that's why I
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  Speaker 4: wrote it. Now, why should I read it. Well, like
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: I said, the first meeting is the deal foundation. So
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  Speaker 4: if you want to win more deals at the prices
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: you want, you need a better first meeting strategy because
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: if you don't get the first meeting right, you know something, Tony,
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  Speaker 4: there won't be a second one. And that's what this
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  Speaker 4: book helps you do.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's great, Lee, and I love how you're a
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: contrarian in the kind of the status quo of what
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: some people think is the right thing to do, particularly
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: when it comes to being a contrarian about discovery meetings.
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  Speaker 2: Can you share a little bit more about that with
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: the audience, like the overarching strategy if you will, of
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: about the book before we deep dive into the tactics.
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  Speaker 4: Okay, So, how's this for a bold sales contrarian statement,
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  Speaker 4: traditional discovery must die. That's actually the title of chapter one. Well,
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  Speaker 4: what's wrong with discovery? Now, Tony? Think about how salespeople
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: prepare for that interaction. Well, I'm going to make the
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  Speaker 4: list of questions I'm going to ask and the message
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  Speaker 4: points are going to share, right, Well, what's wrong with that?
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  Speaker 4: So here's the big question, Tony. If I agree to
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  Speaker 4: take a meeting with you, what do I get out.
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  Speaker 4: I love asking salespeople that question because they go quiet
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  Speaker 4: for a moment and they say, well, you'll learn about
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  Speaker 4: my company and you'll learn about my stuff. That's a
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  Speaker 4: big fail, and they're puzzled. I'll say, well, let me explain.
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  Speaker 4: There's two types of sales, and I'm gonna use a
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  Speaker 4: bathroom metaphor to depict those two. Tony, you ready, Yeah,
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  Speaker 4: I made you a little nervous, didn't I you did?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah?
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  Speaker 4: Okay. You buy toilet paper. I sell toilet paper, But
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  Speaker 4: you're buying my competitor's toilet paper, And I'm saying you
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: should be buying my toilet paper because it's superior. That's
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: a takeaway sale. That's the environment most salespeople are in.
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  Speaker 4: And let me give you the other sale type. You
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: buy toilet paper, I sell bidetz. It's an alternative way
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  Speaker 4: of addressing an issue. But like I said, most salespeople
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  Speaker 4: are in this takeaway sale environment, which means they already
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  Speaker 4: have a provider in place. So think about this. You're saying, Leek,
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  Speaker 4: I want you to put aside the four hundred things
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  Speaker 4: that you have to do on your desk. Put those
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  Speaker 4: aside and meet with me. And the only value you're
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: going to get out of that interaction is learning about
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  Speaker 4: my stuff that ain't gonna happen. It's just not gonna happen.
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  Speaker 4: And so right there is the fundamental issue that we
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  Speaker 4: have with a discovery mindset. It's an ego centric sales
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  Speaker 4: step because we're only looking at what we want from
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  Speaker 4: that interaction. But if you think about the times when
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  Speaker 4: you've gone to the doctor, you go there for two
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  Speaker 4: reasons to become wiser about your circumstances and to understand
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: potential remedies. You sure wouldn't go if the whole purpose
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  Speaker 4: of that meeting was for the doctor to gather all
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  Speaker 4: this information, all this data about you, and you got
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  Speaker 4: nothing out of it. That's what discovery is. An ego
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  Speaker 4: centric sales step. Now, doctors don't call first meetings discovery.
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  Speaker 4: They refer to it as a consultation. And that's the
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  Speaker 4: expression that I've embraced. What it implies is that the
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: person you're meeting with also has to get meaningful value
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  Speaker 4: out of that interaction. So I'm on this mission right
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  Speaker 4: now to eradicate the expression discovery from the sales mindset
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  Speaker 4: and replace it with consultation, with an emphasis of providing
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: meaningful value during that first meeting.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it goes back to your original point, empathy.
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  Speaker 2: It's all about empathy. What's in it for them, not
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: what's in it for you? Right, So this is fantastic,
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: all right, Lee, I can't wait to jump into the
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: top three tactics or takeaways from your book. So let's
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: hit number one and let's spend about ten minutes total
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: talking through these things.
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  Speaker 3: What's number one?
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  Speaker 4: All right? So let's talk about this. You work so
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: hard to get the meeting right. Prospecting is pretty darn hard.
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: You finally do it, and you're gonna blow it in
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: the first few seconds because you're going to use two
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: words that I guarantee you turn buyers off, turns everybody off.
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: Because here's how we've been taught to start a discovery meeting, Tony.
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: What I want to do today is ask you some
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: questions about your business, and then I'll share with you
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: some information about what we offer. What I want to
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: do today, we've just convinced them. Remember I said before
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  Speaker 4: it's an egocentric step. Well, guess what, we've just proved
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: it because we said what I want to do today.
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: You know, rule of thumb, Tony, only one person in
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  Speaker 4: the world cares what you want. You know who that is?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah? You, no, Mom.
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: No one else cares what you want. But if we
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: look at that first meeting through the lens of a consultation,
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: we're going to ask a question rather than make a statement, Tony,
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  Speaker 4: for this to be a great use of your time,
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: what do you want to make sure we talk about
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: here today? Because the answer to that question can chart
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: the course for the entire meeting. Sales is an open
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: book test, and we make it so much harder than
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: it needs to be. You know. The other thing it
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: does we've just communicated in the first few seconds that
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: we genuinely care that they get meaningful value out of
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: our time together.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I love that.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: And you're asking them just the simple question of Hey,
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: what would you like to get out of this today?
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: And the other thing, if we could just drill down
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: on this a little bit, because I hope you're one
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: of those things that bothers me, especially in twenty twenty five,
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: is this whole discovery concept of tell me about your business?
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: What what are you talking about?
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's so much information we have information to
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: overload on any business out there, you should be walking
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: in going yes, you know everything about You should know
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: everything about then, and you should be prepared when they
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: come back with that answer to your first question of well,
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: this is what I'd like to accomplish today. Hey, that's
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: really interesting because I saw on your website you have
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: X Y Z.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: Oh wow, you've done your homework.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so I love tactic number one. Can we jump
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: into tactic number two?
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  Speaker 4: Tony? Let me just add one one little wrapper to
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: that first one, please, So, if you've done the womework
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: exactly as you describe, and I highly recommend that you do,
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: the lead in to that question is you know, from
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: our work with manufacturing CFOs, we've found that three things
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: that they're really struggling with are A, B and C.
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: So given that what I thought we would do today
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: is da da da da for this to be a
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: great use of your time, what else do you want
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: to make sure we talk about today? Now what that
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: does is they go, Okay, this person really understands manufacturing CFOs, right,
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: because you did the homework and again it charged the
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: course for a very productive time together.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: Oh I love that, Lee, because you know and you're
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: that's like the hook. The hook to the conversation is
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: what wait, wait, you told me there's three things that
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: other companies are doing that I don't know about.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: Tell me more. I'm in. Now you got my attention.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: You ask me what I want to get out of this,
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: and now you're giving me intel on what what's going
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: on in the market.
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: I'm in.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: Let's let's do this all right, Lee? Uh, okay, let's
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: jump into tactic number two.
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: Okay. So there's an expression in sales, Tony, I'm gonna
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: guess you've heard this expression four million times in your career?
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: Are you ready? What's that people buy based on emotion
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: and justify their decisions with logic? Did I get the
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: number rights with four million?
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: Or now four million and one? Right?
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: You just heard me say it, right.
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: Every salesperson on the planet has heard that at gazillion times. Yep.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: Now find a person that actually puts it into practice.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: I'll bet you the deeds of my house, Tony. If
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: we picked one hundred first meetings across all sale types,
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: all market segments, all around the world, ninety nine of
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: that one hundred, if not all one hundred, the entire
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: conversation was logic. Every salesperson is on the planet has
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: heard people buy based on emotion, justify their decisions with logic,
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: and no one does it. And I really struggled with that.
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: Why aren't they doing it? Do they not believe in it?
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: Then I finally had this epiphany. I have two sons
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: that played college baseball, and I remember Tony, when they're
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: first learning the game, little kids and coaches would say
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: to them, now, Steven and David, the name of the
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: game is to hit home runs, and then a big
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: smile back to go, got it? Hit home runs. They
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: didn't hit home runs until they were taught how to
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: hit home runs. So the flaw is we're preaching to
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: salespeople this expression people buy based on emotion, justify their
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: decisions with logic, but we haven't taught them how to
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: do that. And in the first meeting Differentiator Chapter five
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: is on emotion the deal Energizer, where I talk about
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: this concept of empathetic expertise and developing that emotional engagement
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: when selling. I'll give you an example, Tony. There's a
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: question we're asking during first meetings and it sounds like this, Tony,
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: what's the biggest challenge you facing your business today. And
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: as a result of that question, you're going to give
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: me information information. I want information with color, flavor, texture.
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: I want to know how you feel about the information
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: that you're sharing with me. What if we phrase the
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: question this way, Tony, what's that one thing in your
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: business that you're like, Oh, we have got to get
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: this figured out. What is it, Tony? You felt that question,
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: didn't you. Yeah, So you can only imagine asking it
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: that way in the field. Yeah's And so we need
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: to be asking emotive questions when we're in the field
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: because that's how we're getting engage their emotions. Now in discovery,
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: we've been told the way you share information is with
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: features and benefits. Right, that's the best practice. So there's
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: a chapter in the book titled Features, Benefits, and Boredom,
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: because if you're going to talk features and benefits, bring
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: a pillow with you, because you're going to put them asleep.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: No one wants to lecture on your features and benefits.
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: But everyone loves a well told story. Love it, absolutely
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: love it. And it started when we were children. Nothing
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: was better than the day ending with getting in bed
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: with mom and dad. They read that little story, last
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: thing you did for the day. Nothing was better than that,
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: and that doesn't change. Because we're adults. We love stories.
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: So what you do is take those features and benefits,
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: fold them into your client's success stories and they become
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: much more memorable. Because there are countless memory studies that
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: have been done and what they say is people are
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: much less likely to remember facts and figures when they're
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: shared independently than they are when they're enveloped in well
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: told stories.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the power of stories is absolutely incredible, and I
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: love how you say, focus on the emotive empathetic engagement
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: and focus on the emotional aspects of the customer or
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: the prospects perspective. And it doesn't have to be rocket science.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: All emotions come from three fundamental survival mechanisms. It's fight, flight, freeze,
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: and fuse. Fight is an anger emotive, freeze is an apathy,
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: flight is fear, and fuse of course as a sense
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: of love, which hopefully, if you're doing your BD right,
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: they're gonna they're gonna field number four. But you have
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: to get through, you know, a hit on those three
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: fundamental initial emotions that they feel. And usually it's either fear,
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: or its anger, you know, frustration, as you said, Lee,
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: you know what's really really got you upset about things?
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: And you know, I think also sharing the stories that
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: you've been able to help other companies who had that
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: same emotion, that had that same frustration, get past that
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: and succeed. And then you know what that prevents from
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: doing is getting into this mutually assured destruction of data bombardment,
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: back and forth of let me show you my feature
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: and benefits and you list all the great things about
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: your company.
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: Oh yea, yay, let's just start.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: Let's just start with emotion as humans, and let's get
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: the story straight right.
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: Absolutely. You know, there's a very simple expression of whether
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: or not you possess empathetic expertise at least if your
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: prospect feel as you do. It's three worse. They get me,
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: they get me. And if you think about the people
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: that you've done business with, particularly repeatedly, I'll bet you
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: can make that statement about them.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, Yeah, is it particularly when you understand
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: their intrinsic requirements, not the stuff that they publish, not
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: the data they publish in public solicitations, but what really
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: scares what really scares them? Yeah, having that kind of
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: they get me approached. This is powerful stuff.
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: Lee. Let's jump into tactic number three.
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, number three. So we have this first meeting, this consultation,
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: because we're not calling it discovery anymore. We're gonna see
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: through the lens of consultation. And we say, okay, So
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: we got this first meeting, and I got the questions
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna ask. I got all this stuff. IM gonna
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: tell them. I'm gonna bring my CEO with me. I'm
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: gonna have a slide deck ready, and I'm gonna also
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: have the tech all set because I'm gonna demo some
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: of the tech too. And on and on and on.
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: We are trying to do too much during first meetings.
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna pause one second. Let me close my door.
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: So is that okay?
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, go right ahead. I don't mind pets. Okay,
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: this is great, it's fun.
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: That's my security. That's my security guard. Clearly, somebody is
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: walking by.
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: I don't Lee, Look, you're you're a heavyweight lifter. I
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: don't know that you need a dog for security.
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: I think a tough cockapoo. She's a tough cockapoo, all
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: eighteen pounds of her Okay, so we are trying to
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: do way too much during first meetings. Are you familiar
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: with Herman Ebinghouse? Have you ever heard that name?
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: Yes?
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, forgetting the amount of stuff you forget after a
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: certain right.
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah. So what he found this was a research in
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: the late eighteen hundreds. What he found was people forget
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: fifty percent of what they learned within twenty four hours
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: and remember less than ten percent a week later. So
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: let's do that math. You have a one hour meeting,
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: they remember about six minutes of it. So unless you're
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: expected to walk out of that first meeting with an order,
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: you need to pace the process. Pace the process, because
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: if you try to get all of the stuff in,
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: like the examples that I shared, you didn't ask enough questions,
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: you didn't share information appropriately, you didn't best use the
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: resources that you brought. They're not going to remember all
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: those things in the demo that you showed him. So
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: how do you go back and say, let's do the
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: demo again? Got awkward? Pace the process the demo, the
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: slide deck, that's the that's another meeting, meeting your executives, meeting,
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: your onboarding team, meeting, your CIO. That's later that's later.
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: The overall objective of a first meeting is singular, to
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: peak a high enough level of interest that they want
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: to continue interacting with you afterwards. And if you accept
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: that concept, you recognize I don't have to do everything.
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: I don't have to ask everything in the first meeting.
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: I need to ask the right questions. I need to
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: share the right information. Well, what's the definition of right? Well,
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: when we plan a discovery meeting, we start by making
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: a list of questions and message points we're going to share.
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: But there's an infinite number of questions you can ask,
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: and only so many someone's going to tolerate. You can
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: talk about your company and what yourself for sixteen hours,
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: but I don't think you want a sixteen hour meeting,
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: and not that anybody's offering one anyway. So when we
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: think about a consultation, what we need to do is
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: define success asking this question, it was a great first
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: meeting if I accomplished what what is the set of
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: outcomes that I need to achieve that will have made
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: this first meeting a success and achieve the overarching objective
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: of peaking a high enough level of interest that they
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: want to keep engaging with you afterwards. Once you identify
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: those outcomes, imagine a chart, left hand column all the
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: outcomes you need to achieve and across the roads. What
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: am I going to ask? What am I going to say?
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: And what am I going to do? So back to
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: what I said before, What questions are we going to
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: ask only the ones tied to the outcomes that we've identified?
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: What information are we going to share only the information
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: tied to the outcomes we've identified? Now it becomes almost
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: like a project plan.
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: Well, as a project management professional certified individual, I have
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: to say that I appreciate your project management approach. But fundamentally,
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: what I really like about what you said, Lee, is
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: if you ask the questions.
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: Here's my experience.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: If you ask those questions correctly, you'll have a whole
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: list of things that are action items for you of oh,
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: you know, let me get you that used kid scenario,
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: or yeah, I'll get you some more data on.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: This what's going on in the industry?
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: Right?
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: And if you do it right, you finished that first meeting,
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: You're gonna keep them wanting more. It's like, well, I
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: can't wait till that guy comes back. He talks to
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: me more and tell you.
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: There's a concept that I introduced in the book. I
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: call them consultation cliffhangers. Exactly what you just said, And
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: I'm borrowing from television and movie. So you know what
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: a TV show is. Reaching the final episode of the season,
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: they create a cliffhanger, and the cliffhanger the sole purpose
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: is to get you back watching in the episode one
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: of the next season. Right. Yeah, And the most famous
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: one is the TV show from nineteen seventies Dallas, where
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: there was a cliffhanger of who shot Jr?
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: Who shot JR?
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah, all summer long, and that's all anyone talked about,
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: and the whole purpose of that was to get you
• 26:02
  Speaker 4: back for episode one of the next season. And to
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: this day, viewership of that episode one next season is
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: a record, just a crazy number, millions and millions of
• 26:14
  Speaker 4: people tuned in. And that's the same thing we want
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: to apply. We talk about consultation cliffhangers. Instead of us
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: begging for that next meeting, we run the first meeting
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: that we've created that intrigue that they're asking us. Okay,
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: so when can we get together again? I'd love to
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: see that system. I'd love to meet so and so
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: I'd love to learn more about this exactly what you
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: were just describing. I refer to those as consultation cliffhangers.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well I love it, Lee, and a huge cliffhanger.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: Now for a lot of people listening, because I'm sure
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: they can't wait to get a copy of your book.
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: You mean, oh, I mean that one.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: Yes, first meeting differentiator, and hey, while you're at it,
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: you can three of these babies while you're on Amazon.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: I'm talking hundreds of five star reviews for Le Soliz.
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: Lee.
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: Let me just kind of summarize what we talked about today,
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: Tactic number one. When you're when you're doing that first
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: meeting and you're trying to differentiate nail the opener, and
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: the opener should be from a position of giving.
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: Let me give you.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: Insights, Let me hear what, Let me ask you that
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: right question that you know. I want to understand what
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: you want to get out of this meeting today, mister
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: or missus prospect Please tell me.
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: Right he Tony, If I could add a piece, we
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: talked a lot about meaningful value and a lot of
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: salespeople may not know or have ideas of what they
• 27:36
  Speaker 4: can be providing. I'm going to share with you are
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: a very easy to remember ur l meaningful value dot com.
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: If you go to meetingfulvalue dot com, you can download
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: my tip sheet that has ten ways to provide meaningful
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: value during first meetings without their buying your stuff.
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: I love it because that's a nice segue into the
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: takeaway number two, which is focus on empathy. Understand fundamentally
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: what frustrates them, what angers them, those four fundamental emotions
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: that people have. Hit that get it because if you
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: get it, they will feel like you get them. And
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: then finally, tactic number three is hit that cliffhanger. Leave
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: them with the cliffhanger. If you're walking through the first
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: meeting properly, it becomes a story. You start with the opener,
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: they're a low point, what they're frustrated with. You get
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: to the second point of hey, let's talk about next
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: best actions that we can get to, and then finally
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: you leave them wanting more with that cliffhanger of hey,
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: who shot JR?
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: Come back?
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: Please tell me more. Let's do the next meeting. I
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: want it on my calendar. Here's a list of things
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: we need to talk about next. And Lee's salts I
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: can't wait to have you back on the show again
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: because you left us all with a massive cliffhanger. Here, Lee,
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: how can folks follow your work connect with you.
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: So first of all on all the social media sites.
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: If you enjoyed the conversation today, if you go on YouTube,
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: you'll see the Lee's Lessons video series. If you're interested
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: in the book, the First Meeting Differentiator, if you go
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: to First meetingbook dot com. First Meetingbook dot Com, you
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: do a couple of things. You can download the first
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: chapter for free, and then wherever you buy the book, Amazon, Barginal,
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: wherever you like buying your books, come back to that
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: website and sign up for the bonus again First Meetingbook
• 29:32
  Speaker 4: dot Com. I'm going to be delivering three private masterclasses
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: just for book purchasers to help you implement what you're read.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: Wow, that's a huge amount of value that you're delivering
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: to our listeners, Lee, and thank you so much for
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: sharing that you are a powerlifter of business development. You
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: have the trophies on your shelf and the background for
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: people that are just listening to show that you are
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: a true champion. And at the end of the day,
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: this is what we are as business developers, are champions
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: for our customers and our prospects. We are advocates. We
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: help them succeed and we shepherd them through their story
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: to get them from the low point to the high point.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: This is what we do as business developers and lead.
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for everything you've done with many
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: of your books for the business development profession.
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: Thank you, Tony. I greatly appreciate you having me on
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: the show and I'd love to come back and we
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: can keep it going well.
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: We can't wait to have you back Soonley.
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: Thank you.
• 30:32
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• 30:36
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• 30:40
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• 30:45
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