This is a true story with a really neat ending that validates my strongest conviction in business, build lasting, meaningful relationships.

On my way to New York one morning I cracked open my new book, Blink, to pass the time for my 3 hour journey from DC.  I was on my way to meet a prospect who I had been tracking for years and it looked like we finally had our opening to win some business.  I don’t believe in “preparing” for a meeting, at least not in the text-book sense.  I will leave this for another post…so I took the time to read and relax.

We got to New York and arrived at our meeting ready to win. Well, long story short…it turned out that we just didn’t meet the fundamental requirements to be a viable candidate.  However, something very interesting happened during the meeting that I will never forget.  The buyer, who shall go unnamed, said to me..”you know, I have a feeling someday we are going to do some business together, you ever just have that feeling?”…

I reached in my bag and pulled out my book, Blink, and handed it to the buyer and told him to read it….with no explanation…Needless to say, he was blown away and thanked me…we finished our discussion, politely left with no business in hand and went off to the rest of our meetings.  P.S. you will need to read Blink to understand the connection, meaning, behind offering up the book.

Something very powerful happened during that meeting.  There was an emotional connection made.   Of course I wanted to win the business, but it wasn’t going to happen, so I gave him an easy out, worked on the relationship, gathered more intelligence and left a very strong impression.  I stayed in touch every 6 months to see how things were and to build the relationship, with no real agenda other than to stay in contact and let him know what we were up to with our offering.

Ok, so, big deal….well, here’s the punch line.  3 years later (I had moved on by then) my cell rang one morning.  Guess who was calling?  That’s right, the “buyer” we didn’t close that meeting!  He remembered me although we hadn’t communicated for years.  He was ready to buy and he called me!   There was an emotional connection made and he knew who to call, because of the relationship we established and his gut feeling about doing business together.  It was a huge victory on so many levels….

It’s a marathon folks and if you want to build a great business and be a great salesperson or a great account manager then handle every relationship like gold.  Sure, we need to meet our numbers but doing that and building great, meaningful relationships are not mutually exclusive…they go together.

Brick