“It’s so powerful when you develop this level of depth in your relationships and go beyond just the super high level, superficial level.” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 380
Happy Birthday, Jack and Scott!
Join the conversation below and connect with Jack and Scott on LinkedIn!
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today we’re going to do something just a little bit different. I am joined quote-unquote Live by Jack Wilson. And for Jack and I, today is our birthday. Happy Birthday Jack!
Jack Wilson: Happy Birthday Scott.
Scott Ingram: So we’re going to talk today about basically just connecting the dots human to human and this birthday discovery the fact that we share a birthday, was it kind of a surprise to both of us given that we’ve known each other for over a year and have collaborated on a lot of things and this kind of came out accidentally. So maybe I’ll let you tell that story and connect the dots to our tip today.
Jack Wilson: I mean, you know, you would think we know each other and we would tell other people that we know each other fairly well. But then to be surprised when you were sharing with me about your goal on running, you know, what was it 3 times iron mans this year?
Scott Ingram: 10 times
Jack Wilson: 10 times. And then to have the first one done by your birthday. And you said your birthday was February 3rd and that’s how I had the AHA moment. Wait a minute, that’s my birthday. And it instantly got me thinking, why do us who we claim to be these great sales professionals who care deeply? How did we not know that? And that kind of prompted me to reach out and say, let’s talk about that. Let’s give a tip about creating better personal relationships as sales professionals and not just better relationships with your prospects, but with your customers and with your network as a whole. And I think one of the ways we could do that, it’s such a simple little thing, but remember the last time you sent out an email that you’re like “Hey, hope you had a great weekend, Scott.” Well if you hope that bad, find out. Stop hoping and just ask. So try this small little adjustment in your outreach. Instead of saying, “I hope you had a great weekend” try “Scott, what did you do this weekend?” Or “How did you celebrate your birthday?” And those questions are going to get more specific answers that’ll help you drill down into knowing that person more deeply and it’s that information and that connectivity that allows you to add a real differentiator to your work. And I actually hate the word differentiator because I think it’s more of a difference-maker because you start to make a difference in their experience both professionally and personally and you make a difference in your whole self and how you present yourself as a sales professional.
Scott Ingram: Yeah, it’s amazing the things that you find right when you get into these real human conversations. The post that I put up a week ago, Monday about Kobe Bryan after getting up at 4:00 AM. I connected with a lot of interesting folks in that and one gentleman who reached out. He was living in Seattle and we discovered again that we were just meeting each other through this experience. We found out we grew up two miles from each other in Fount Valley, California, you know, you never know. The world is so small. We have all these really, really unique connection points and it’s so much fun to find those and they become memorable. And I love your suggestion about asking what somebody did on their birthday. I hate, and I think I probably railed against this in my birthday tip last year, I hate the quote-unquote social media birthday, right? That generates hundreds of generic happy birthday wishes. Like that doesn’t mean anything, right? Instead, generate a real birthday conversation. You know, ask a question? Right? Actually care and find something out and find that connection point. It’s so powerful when you develop this level of depth in your relationships and go beyond just the super high level, superficial level.
Jack Wilson: You know, without LinkedIn or Facebook or insert social media platform here. How many people’s birthday do you actually know without getting the reminder? And you go “Oh no, I forgot I should probably send them a note.” So like do better at keeping your own personal internal Rolodex about when important dates are important information. I’ll share a really quick story with you. When I was in banking, I had a ride along with a manager and I was always terrified of ride alongs and my boss set me up really good cause it was a skip level ride along and he said, “He’s going to ask you about your best customer, so do your homework.” And I met with that director and I had all the details and the stats about their relationship. So he said,” Why are they your best customers?”, “I loved the contact there. We get along so great. We’ve got a great relationship.” He said, “Great, does she have kids?” I said, “Yeah, two kids”, “Well, how old is it?” , “Oh like 10 and 12,” he says, “What are their names?”, “Oh man, I don’t know their names.” I guess I didn’t know her that well and that was kind of a real awakening moment for me to do better, to learn more, to care more deeply and to find out more about my prospects, my customers and my network.
Scott Ingram: Great stuff. Well, Jack, this has been fun but we always like to keep these short so we’ll, we’ll call it there. If you would like to connect with Jack and connect with myself on LinkedIn, we’ll have links for you to do that at DailySales.Tips/380. Happy Birthday, Jack!
Jack Wilson: Happy Birthday, Scott!
Scott Ingram: Come on back. Tomorrow we’ll have another great sales tip for you. Thanks for listening.