Ann Marie Sabath - Courting Business: 101 Ways for Accelerating Business Relationships

COURTING BUSINESS

101 Ways for Accelerating Business Relationships

101 Ways for Accelerating Business Relationships

Ann Marie Sabath

Author of Business Etiquette

Copyright 2005 by Ann Marie Sabath

All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press.

COURTING BUSINESS
EDITED BY GINA M. CHESELKA
TYPESET BY STACEY A. FARKAS
Cover design by Johnson Design
Printed in the U.S.A.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition of this title as follows:

Sabath, Ann Marie.

Courting business : 101 ways for accelerating business relationships / by Ann Marie Sabath.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 1-56414-769-X

1. Success in business--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Creative ability in business--Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title.

HF5386.S22 2005

650.13--dc22

2004056560

My grateful thanks go out to:

That man of vision, my publisher, Ron Fry.

My parents, Mary and Camille Sabath, who taught me how the power of nice could take you far.

My assistant, Suzy, who went beyond the call of duty to help me with this book.

To Brandon Toropov, who continues to be a very important part of my writing team.

My editor, Gina Cheselka, for her infinite patience in getting this book into its final form.

Herb Liss, who invited me to his Managing the Entrepreneurial Venture class at Xavier University to address how to develop business relationships long before I knew I had anything to say about it.

Tom Swink and Dave Petersen, who invited me to be part of their Fifth Third Bank Regional Sales Blitz, which became the foundation for this topic.

Chena Dederian, who introduced me to her mothers Stroke, Dont Provoke concept.

Mr. Klekamp for sharing core business practices that readers of this book will find invaluable.

My June 27th friend, Laura Kozlowski, who taught me the Ask, Dont Tell principle.

Todd Jenkins, who taught me how to tune into the way auditory prospects do business.

My children, Scott and Amber, who are walking the talk of this books courtship tips as they climb the slippery ladder of success in their careers.

My pooches, Micah and Daisy, who so loyally kept me company as I was writing this book.

The year was 2000. I had just started my 13th year in business. My banker called me and asked if we could meet for coffee.

I dont know about you, however when anyone from a financial institution asks me for a meeting, my antennae start twitching. What was this all about? Both my business and personal equity lines were with this bank. My debts had been paid in full for some time.

Did he know something I didnt? If so, what?

We arranged to get together the following morning. It was with some relief that I heard my banker say, Ann Marie, Id like you to speak at our Sales Blitz next month. Ive watched you grow a lean and mean business on a shoestring budget, with a tiny staff. Id like you to explain to our sales team what it takes to be successful.

Of course, I was stunned. Moi? Being asked to share my views on how to be successful with the rainmakers of the most profitable super-regional bank in the country?

Until that moment, I had never considered myself successful!

During the following weekend, I tried to figure out what I could possibly tell a group of savvy salespeople that they didnt already know. Ever since I launched my business in 1987, I had given it my all. I had acquired a strong work ethic and good values from watching my parents and grandparents. Like them, I took work very seriously.

Even though I owned my business, I had never played hooky from work (unless hooky was part of a scheduled vacation, of course).

One thing I realized that I could talk about was the values that drove my company. My team and I have maintained the philosophy that each and every client is extremely important to us. Whats more, we demonstrate our respect for them by consistently under-promising and over-delivering.

I also gave some thought to the systems that my team and I had in place for developing and accelerating business relationships. We simply do what it takes to get the job done. Period. Our workday is over when deadlines are metand not before.

I also realized that no client or project was too small and that all our clients were given the same attention as the largest ones.

It occurred to me, too, that we did not take rejection personally and that we consistently followed up with prospects and clients in a way that displayed our sincerity in wanting to work with them.

Whats more, we were politely relentless with prospects.

We positioned our firms services so that potential clients could contact us when (not if) they were ready.

I recognized that we also made a point of arriving at meetings first to avoid keeping others waiting.

I realized that we abided by the follow-up philosophy of sending a thank-you to anyone who took more than 15 minutes to do something for us. (Yes, anyone!)

I realized that I loved what I did perhaps because I did what I loved (namely, telling people what to dootherwise known as giving advice). As a result, I found it pretty easy to work 60-hour weeks.

One of our firms policies wasand still is to schedule time to be off duty on weekends to spend time with family and friends. I realized how important this time was for reenergizing for the upcoming week.

I noticed that the quality of our services and our follow-through was so high that it transformed many of our clients into marketing reps by them recommending our services to their clients. My assistant and I always acknowledged (and still do) our raving fans with a little gift and a note within 24 hours of learning they had recommended us to another firm.

I consciously worked on business development during the most productive times of the dayand in the administration of the business before the workday began or after business hours. Any business practice we adopted three times became a system in our firm (for instance, documenting phone numbers when an organization was contacted more than once).

I realized that I did indeed have something to share with these savvy rainmakers. In fact, I had more information than I needed for a 45-minute talk.

The Sales Blitz event was a success and also the the starting point for a new workshop, Key Ways for Accelerating Business Relationships.

Time passed. The more I presented this new workshop, the more convinced I became that relationship development was a foreign concept to many professionals. And how easy a problem to fix!

This book is offered as the solution to that problem. I hope the contents of