I have a question. Have you ever jumped into a relationship at first sight? You’ve committed to the relationship with someone when you first met them. That is the question for today. Ponder that, ’cause you may have to think back. It may have been awhile.
Just like with personal relationships, business relationships aren’t built overnight. They’re not built from one meeting. It takes time, and there’s a process to building an attractive reputation that will not be easily forgotten.
Anybody can put their best foot forward for a short period of time. You’ve probably seen that happen, but the real person will reveal themselves, eventually.
That’s what we’re going to be talking about today, the process of dating, being committed, and even marriage, but we’re talking about that as it related to business relationships. You know that it takes time, right? From the point of meeting someone to the point of committing to them in some shape, form, or fashion. It just doesn’t happen overnight. That’s the reality.
This is where you’re going get to shine and be unforgettable.
In building that reputation that you want to have so that you’re NOT EASILY FORGOTTEN:
- When new opportunities present themselves
- With teaming relationship
- When bidding on projects together
- Contracting opportunities
This is what we’re talking about. This is the point of not being easily forgotten.
For those of you that don’t know who I am, I’m Felicia Streeter, the performance and growth strategist for government contractors that are looking to take their business to the Next Level. We focus on Sales | Systems | Scaling. In this video, I’m going to be sharing with you, how you can build a reputation for yourself and your business that will make you not easily forgotten.
Oh yeah, I’m going to be sharing five Meeting Styles. You’ll want to start implementing these five Meeting Styles as you’re going out networking, attending events, conferences, and any other gathering.
So, get your pencil and paper, if you’re going digital, get your iPads, your iPhone, whatever method you’re going to use to take notes because you’re going to want to write this down. If you’re not taking notes, you’re going to want to write this down. Here we go.
The first thing is you just want to make sure that you are unforgettable.
How do you do that? You always want to foster ways to help the potential partner achieve their goals. If you’re coming from a place of…
- How can I help you?
- How can I help you take your business to the next level?
- How can I help you meet your contracting goals?
Whether it’s business goals, personal goals, whatever it is… how can I help you? That should be your mindset because the more people you help, the further your business will grow as well.
If you come from a place of fostering how can you help your potential partner versus what can they do for you, and of course you know why you’re going to them, but if you flip the script on that and just change your perspective and your outlook on the relationship, that will make you unforgettable.
Because I can tell you, I get people coming to me all the time wanting things for free or wanting me to help them in some shape form or fashion not realizing the end result is they’re going to make money and so I should make money as well for helping them do that. It’s only right.
And the same thing for you in whatever service or whatever you’re offering. Your ultimate goal is to make money. You’re not doing it for free, so just keep those things in mind and just think of ways you can foster being unforgettable. Okay?
Here are your second takeaways trust and respect.
You know the lack of trust and respect is a deal breaker in personal relationships. It’s also a deal breaker in business as well. If there’s no trust, there’s no respect. It can crush a relationship really fast. It usually takes longer to grow a relationship that has trust and respect, but you can darn sure crush it really fast in that same regard.
- Keep your word. If you say you’re going to do something, do it. If you’re not sure you can deliver, then don’t make that promise.
- Have some integrity. Appreciate the opportunity. Here’s what I mean by that. You have an opportunity. Now a lot of times, what’ll happen is, once you build a relationship and you guys are working on projects together, the partner has a project they are going to just hand to you. They’re like just give me your numbers and it’s yours. Well, you don’t want to escalate your numbers because you know they’re going to give you the project. They’re not going to bid it out to see if your numbers are competitive. That’s what I mean by appreciating the opportunity and don’t take advantage of it.
- Communication is really, really key. Communicate issues that may come up in the relationship and any challenges. Also, communicate any issues and challenges in your business that may hinder or prevent you from doing something collectively in the relationship. Coming from a place of transparency is a good thing.
Let’s recap.
- The first takeaway is to be unforgettable.
- The second takeaway is to have trust, respect, and come from a place of integrity.
- The third takeaway is wanting to cultivate the relationship.
Here’s how you do that. I’m going to give you Five Meetings Styles that you want to implement as you’re building key relationships. If you’re taking notes, you’re going to want to write this down. If you’re not taking notes, you’re going to want to write this down.
Because I want you to take action on these Five Meeting Styles, I’m laying this out for you where it’s tangible. If you’re going out later today, you can implement it today!
Here we go. Cultivating relationships.
(1) FUN meeting.
The first type of meeting you want to do and you may do this with multiple people as you’re building relationships have a fun meeting.
Here’s what I know, people will share more, like to spend time with those that they have fun with, and that they laugh with. When I say share more, they’ll share opportunities that are coming up. Available opportunities. If they like having you around, you’re going to pick up on some key information as well because you’re going to hear things as they’re happening. Make sure you schedule the fun meeting.
(2) LUNCH Meeting.
The second type of meeting you want to schedule a lunch meeting. The lunch meeting is just basically to:
- Shoot the breeze,
- Get to know each other a little bit more
When you break bread, you’re having general conversations, and you get to know the person personally:
- Who they are
- Their industry beliefs
- Their values
You can guide the conversation. What you discover will translate into how they act in their business as well.
(3) NETWORKING Meeting.
The third meeting style you want to have is a networking meeting. This one is a game changer, and it could be a:
- Conference
- Networking
- Trade show
- Industry day
- Matchmaker
- Mentoring day
It doesn’t matter. Go somewhere where you guys are out with industry people. You want to see how:
- They’re representing themselves.
- They’re representing their company.
- How they present their company.
- How they speak about their company.
- How they speak about themselves.
Here’s the thing, it may not always be the owner that you’re going to interact with as you’re building the relationship and as you’re working on projects together. It could be an employee, so you definitely want to make sure you do the network meeting to see how they’re presenting the company, how they present themselves, and how they talk about those that they’re working with, in general.
If they talk bad about others, when they’re not around, when you’re not around, they may talk bad about you too. That’s just the reality. This meeting style will give you a clear indication of how they represent themselves and what their beliefs are.
(4) VALUES Meeting.
The fourth meeting style you want to have is a values meeting. Here’s where you’re going to learn about their beliefs and character. How they feel about their:
- Family
- Mother
- Father
- Wife
- Kids
You’ll also find out if they believe in investing in training, seminars, workshops, and courses. You know things that will better themselves personally as well as professionally. We’re talking about personal development and business development. How do they feel about continuing education? Remember, we’re talking about building a relationship, so this stuff is important.
Before we get into the deals meeting, let me recap this real quick. We had a fun meeting, a lunch meeting, a networking meeting and a values meeting and in neither one of those did we ask for anything.
You can always ask again, how can you help them. We did not ask for a contract or any of that type of help or support. We’re just focusing on building the relationship up to this point.
(5) DEALS meeting.
The fifth meeting style to have is the deals meeting. Here’s where you want to start talking about what the team and relationship will look like because, by this time, you should know if you want to continue the relationship.
Do you want to go from dating to being committed? When I’m talking about committed, I’m talking about maybe on a project or two, it doesn’t have to be anything long term because you’re still feeling each other out.
You can talk about:
- The types of projects you guys would work on together.
- The scope of work for each of you.
- What percentage of the project each company will perform.
- The type of work each will do within the project.
- Profit split.
These are key details. Profit split is a huge key issue that people don’t talk about until after the deal is done, it’s kinda like a day late and a dollar short. You want to talk about profits, how will the profit split look. I’m talking about after everybody’s paid and you have clear profit.
- How will the profits be split up?
- Where will the project money be deposited?
- Who’s going to hold the funds?
- Who will manage the accounting books?
- Who will do the bookkeeping for this project?
Those are the types of conversations you want to have as it relates to the deals meeting.
From that, you can now determine if you want to go into a committed relationship.
Let’s recap on how to be unforgettable. How to be attractive and not easily forgotten.
(1) Key takeaway number one is to be unforgettable and fostering relationships. Helping them achieve their goals.
(2) Key takeaway number two is trust, respect, and integrity. Keeping your word, communicating, not taking advantage of the situation.
(3) Key takeaway number three is cultivating the relationship. I gave you Five Meeting Styles to start implementing today.
- Fun meeting
- Lunch meeting
- Network meeting
- Values meeting
- Deals meeting
Game changer right?
There you have it. Here’s what I want you to do as you’re going through this process. Let me lean in, ’cause you need to hear this. (Yes, I leaned in.)
I want you to act like you’ve done this before. Okay?
Don’t act like you’re brand new to this process. If that entails you making a list of questions so that you can have them handy when you’re interacting with people, then do that.
You don’t have to have your phone out while you’re talking to them and ask a question and then look down, but you can definitely have your questions listed and then, prior to going to the meeting review your questions and objectives. Make sure you’re touching on those key points.
I want you to go through the five phases that I shared with you. Then answer the questions as you need. As you’re going through these phases, list out your questions and make sure you’re moving through each style. As you’re moving through each style, I want you to think about things and make a decision.
Do you want to proceed to the next meeting style because you may not want to? If you find out something that really turns you off or just hits you in the gut in a bad way, then you can definitely end that relationship because you’re just dating. Be mindful of the ultimate decision to be made at all times.
Remember you can make a list of questions that you want to ask. Get the answers to those questions. That will help you make the decision whether to proceed with the relationship. You’re going from dating to committed and then after you work on a project or two you may decide to go into a marriage relationship. Something more long term where maybe it’s for a year or for a period of time and just see what happens. Don’t jump into years at a time, baby step it.
Learning about potential partners, their business goals, their financial objectives, the type of projects they want to win, and then their personal goals will definitely tell you if it’s a good fit for you and your business based on your business preferences.
You need to know what your business preferences are as well, and then when you take what you learn about them, and match it up with your business preferences, you should be able to make an educated decision on where to take the relationship.
For those of you that maybe need more, I do want to let you know that I offer one-on-one mentoring through my Next Level Contractor program. We’d focus on building an attractive reputation that’s unforgettable for dealing with the right people, but also increase your performance on government projects, and growing your business. We focus on three key areas sales, systems, and scaling. If you need help in your government contracting business, definitely reach out. You can go over to thenextlevelcontractor.com, learn all about it. If you want to work with me privately, definitely reach out from that page.
