Start With A Win - Four for the Fourth: Business Development Q&A with Adam

Episode Date: June 30, 2021

In this episode of Start With A Win, producer Mark asks Adam a series of business development questions that might change your perspective on some aspects of your business.What is more important: maintaining your current clients or growing your business? – In classic CEO-form, Adam converts this either/or question into a both/and question, specifying that you need to strike a balance between investing in your existing customers while also marketing yourself to prospects. The best way to do this is by providing products, services, or thought leadership that is of value to people, which will cause your business to be top-of-mind for them.What is the best strategy for converting a “no” into a “yes”? – Adam will have a lot to say on this topic in his upcoming book, but his main piece of advice is to know the no. Understand that some people will default to “no” out of fear – either of the unknown or of missing out on something else – so your best bet is to give value to them in love.If you were dropped off in an unfamiliar city and told to start a business, what kind of business would it be, and how would you grow it? – The key to starting any business is to talk to the people, to get to know what is working for them, what isn’t working for them, what they need, and how they need to receive it. You won’t be successful without customers, and you won’t have customers if you aren’t providing them with a product or service that solves a problem for them. The same concept applies to real estate; talk to people, get to know local business owners, start telling the stories of the community, and watch as clients come your way.What is your best advice for getting unstuck in business growth? – Adam points out that stagnation or issues in business typically reflect personal struggles, so before you can work on your business, you have to work on yourself. Think and journal through the various aspects of your life and gauge how you are doing. Only when you get your life back on track will your business start to grow again. Links mentioned:https://www.amazon.com/Living-Your-Best-Year-Ever/dp/1733513345 Connect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/ https://www.facebook.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContos https://www.instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/ Leave us a voicemail:888-581-4430

Every day is filled with choices. You're here because you're choosing to start with a win. Get ready to be inspired, learn something new, and connect with the win nation. Coming to you from REMAX World Headquarters in Denver, Colorado, it's Adam Conto, CEO with Start With A Win. And we had some new hand dancing going on today, producer Mark. That's right. I thought, you know, it's kind of like a flag waving. And in honor of this 4th of July weekend, I've got my American flag shirt on. So... Very patriotic, my friend. I love it. I love America. It's one of the best places in the world. And, uh, I'm so thankful to be here and, uh, you know, just feel privileged that I'm

American. So yeah, it's, it's awesome. But Hey, um, I know we have listeners from all around the world. Uh, and so for us, this next weekend is a 4th of July weekend where we have barbecues and we celebrate our independence from Britain from 1776. And we light off fireworks. That's right. Independence Day. And we light things on fire. And it's a fun celebration. There's nothing like celebrating by lighting fires, right?

I mean, what's more celebratory than that? But hey, in honor of 4th of July, I've got four business development questions for you that I hope will educate and inspire our listeners and maybe give them some motivation and some insight. Four for the fourth. That's right. Four questions for the fourth. Oh, look at that. That's three fours right there. Four for the fourth.

That's right. Awesome. All right. Well, let's dig into this, buddy. Okay. So my first question for you, and these are all kind of like business development questions. Okay. So my first question for you, and these are all kind of like business development questions. Okay. So the first question is, what is more important, maintaining clients or growing the business and why? Ah, this is a fantastic question, Mark. And a lot of people try and create a binary answer to this. Is it this or that? I'm going to give you an answer to both of those because I think there's some importance

to both of them. However, it's balanced. Okay. And I don't mean 50% of your time doing one and 50% of your time doing another. But the reality is we have a few things to consider here. One of which is what is our customer life cycle look like? Do we have people come in for one transaction and then head out? Or do we have people come in and stay for a recurring revenue or something like that as a membership based or

whatever? So you've got a couple of things to think about here when it comes to new customers, gaining new customers versus keep old customers or something like that, building a relationship. The reality is gaining new customers is always, building a relationship. The reality is gaining new customers is always important for a business. You have to always be growing your business, must always be growing the business. However, you can't forsake the business that you have. So which one's more important? Well, I mean, the big, bigger question here is which one's less expensive to continue to transact with. Okay. So we have to think about that as well. So there's, there's a cost of customer acquisition, CAC, you know, it's customer acquisition cost is CAC. And then you have

lifetime value of a customer. All these things need to be considered. And it's different for every business. Every business, it's different. I mean, you're in the consulting business, but you also do like one-off type things. You have to get those one-off type things. A lot of times those are bigger than the ongoing consulting business. And it's nice to get those revenue hits.

They should be predictable. I want to get so many of these big revenue hits. What is the cost of getting one of those? What is the CAC of getting a big revenue hit? And then what is that lifetime value of that one time with that customer? Or maybe, maybe you turn them into a lifetime customer. I don't know. So it, you know, and I know I talked back and forth here a fair amount, but the reality is you have to think about both. How do I maintain my current customers? What is, what is that nurture cycle look like?

Because there needs to be a nurture cycle. You can't have a customer and go, all right, I expect them to come back if I never communicate with them. Because as soon as you are not top of mind anymore, you are the back of the line. I always say top of mind is first in line. It's true. So how do you stay top of mind? That's important to stay top of mind. And you do that by giving. You give to those customers. They've done a transaction to you. You've given to them. They've given to you. There's an exchange of value. How an existing customer that brings another customer to you is less expensive than new customer acquisition. That's a good way of getting new customers. When you're thinking about both of these things, retaining existing customers as well as going to get new customers, obviously going to get new customers, you need to be out doing that. But the other thing to think about when it comes to getting new customers is when you are talking to your existing customers, and as you build that relationship deeper with them, you can ask them,

hey, do you have anybody else that I can help like you? Because that's a good place to get new customers. And Mark, I know you and I have traded customers back and forth before. Yep. So, you know, and, and it's, it's not an uncomfortable conversation once you've had it, because we're always looking for helping each other. We're looking to help each other by giving customers to each other. And it's this mutually beneficial relationship. Yeah. So it's not, it's not necessarily what's more important, maintaining clients or growing the business, because essentially both are important.

There's not one that's more important than the other. And so you need to be maintaining clients. And by maintaining your clients, you're growing your business. Bingo. You got it. All right. I like that. I like that.

OK, the second out of four. OK, two of four. Here we go. What is the best strategy for converting a no into a yes? I like that. I like that. Okay. The second out of four. Okay. Two of four. Here we go. What is the best strategy for converting a no into a yes? I absolutely love that. Of course, I love all your questions, Mark, because you're very good at asking questions. I'm a questions guy. You are a questions guy. You're a good interviewer. So what's the best strategy for converting a no into a yes. This is interesting

because in my new book I have coming out, I talk about this. Oh, hello. Book plug. More to come on that. That was a secret, uh, release. Uh, I don't know what we call that, but anyhow, it's an Easter egg. There you go. Hey, um, so converting a no into a yes. Is a no really a no? And what I say in the book is know your no. So K-N-O-W-V-N-O. Oh, look at that. A little play on words there. There you go. So no the no. Typically a no is a block for other yeses. You haven't, you have not convinced somebody of the value of what your question was in order for them to give you a yes. So the reality is you have to convince them of the value. How do we do that? We give,

give, go back, take a step back to that, that emotion of love. Love is unconditional giving. No is fear. Okay. So we have fear and love here. Fear being the no, love being the yes or the giving. That's what I'm seeking here. A yes is a give. Why? Because by somebody telling you yes to something, they're saying no to a whole bunch of other stuff. So your yes has to be so powerful that it steps in front of all the other opportunities for this person. And that might be time, that might be personal life, that might be money, that might be just feelings, trepidation, who knows what, but what is it? You have to know the no. Why is it a no? Is it a fearful no? Or is it a blocking no where I'm saying yes to other things? So I get, I get to say yes to so many things. We all have 24 hours in a day. So I only get so many yeses in that day.

And being somebody who runs a business, my job is to be very careful how I say yes. So I have to think to myself, can this overcome that no? Can this overcome the no blockade for me to do what is right for my business, all my stakeholders, things like that? Or maybe it's a question for your family. Is it best to overcome everything for your family? Yeah. So it's constantly be providing value. Correct. So that you can get that yes. So it's constantly be providing value. Correct. So that you can get that. Yes. That's how you overcome the no. All right. Question three. All right. If you were dropped into a new city and had to start a business, what would it be and what would your plan be to grow it?

Wow. This is, this is like one of those TV shows. You know. Adam. Lost in Metropolis. Adam Katos. Doesn't know where he's at or what he has. What is it? Mark Burnell or whatever.

Who's that guy who does a reality shows? Yeah. Give us a call. We got a show idea. There you go. So the answer is there's no answer until you find the answer. Okay. Is this confusing today? Yeah, man, you're all over the place. All right. So let me explain that. You don't know, you don't know what business you can start until you know what the challenges are you're going to overcome. Hmm. Okay. That makes sense. So you have to go talk to people. You have to go talk and help people. This is where a lot of new salespeople absolutely fall on their face is they're not willing to ask the question, Hey, when it comes to running your business, when it comes to growing this business, when it comes

to finding new clients, when it comes to selling more pizzas, when it comes to, you know, selling more cars or painting more houses or whatever it might be, what is your biggest challenge? What's the answer you're trying to find or what's the question you're trying to answer? I guess you could say, yeah. So really you can't, you can't go start a business and be all things to everyone. I guess you could go start a lemonade stand and try and figure that out. But, but the reality is if you are going to actually find success in something and be able to scale it to growth, you have to niche as tightly down as you possibly can. And whatever that city is, you could be in Alaska or you could be in the desert. I mean, you could be facing two different variables here when it comes to

running your business. You could be in a rainy climate or a very dry climate. You could be seaside or on a mountainside. It just depends on what you're trying to accomplish. You could be where there's a lot of tourism or you could be where there's none. So, I mean, is there farming or is there fishing? I don't know. So you just got to figure out what is the challenge you're trying to solve?

If the town is full of golf courses, maybe there aren't enough golf balls. I don't know. But, you know, or maybe there needs to be a place for golfers to gather. Who knows, you know, a bag storage or whatever it might be, but what is the biggest challenge these people are facing in this town? And then you got to get out there and talk to people about it and get them interested. Hey, if I did this, would you be interested in that? And it's either, you're going to find out real

quick whether or not your idea can hold water. Yeah. So you've, you've just got to, you've got to be able to uncover challenges by asking really good questions and then solve those challenges. And if it happens to be by carrying merchandise, that's different than providing service. So you got a couple of variables here. What challenge are you trying to overcome? Is it a product or is it a service? And how are you going to go get your customers in order to monetize that and provide those things?

All right. Then I guess I would ask this. This is kind of maybe it ties onto that question. Question 3.5. 3. guess I would ask this. This is kind of maybe, it ties onto that question a little bit. Question 3.5. 3.5. This is the bonus question. Okay. All right. So how about this? You're the CEO of a real estate company called Remax, which is full of brokers and owners and real estate agents. And so say you were dropped into Denver and had to be a real

estate agent. What would your first plan of attack be as far as trying to grow your real estate business? I think I would just start asking people on the street, hey, where do you live? Do you find that an attractive area? And do other people want to live there? And just start asking those. You're going to find a trend. People are going to go, oh, I'm right over here. I live in the city here. I live in that suburb or that outlying area.

And then go there and go start knocking on doors. So what you're trying to do is you're trying to find product and you're trying to find customers. You're trying to find something to sell and people to buy. So I mean, the best way to go and talk to people as a real estate agent is to go talk to people and find out, one, where are you at? Because you need to start specializing in an area.

You get to that area and start asking people, what's the best park here? Where do you take your kids? How do you like the trails? What do you like and what do you not like about this area? And then I would go to the local businesses and talk to them about, hey, what's going on in the neighborhood? Tell me about your community.

And then start marketing. Start a social media site that has to do with that area. Go start interviewing people. Post videos up online. You're going to hear crickets for a while, but go interview some of these store owners, you know, the Mark's pizza or, you know, the go down to the YMCA or the community center and talk to people, interview them. Hey, I'm doing a video on this place for the community because people are, a lot of people are looking at this as a nice place to live. What do you love about X, Y, and Z? Exactly. Yeah. So start marketing the business, but market the community, but market the businesses in the community because they already have customers there. They already have people that

are interested in them and like being there. So, I mean, my recommendation would be figure out the place. Where's the highest transaction rate, things like that. Where's stuff happening? Go talk to the people and establish a presence and then give to that community by doing the marketing for these businesses and then tag them in the, you know, on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, things like that. And see if you start getting some traction there, which you will, and become the mayor before you're the mayor. So you're going to start making connections. People are going to, and every time you talk to people, they're like, why are you doing this? Well, I'm a real estate agent here. And I really like this community and I want to do the very best I can for it.

And back to my earlier statement, top of mind is first in line. Top of mind is first in line. And the other one, presence creates trust. You being present there builds people's trust in you to have knowledge on that community. So it's going to take a while to generate the business, but you'll generate the business. And we've seen this process work. It ramps and ramps and ramps putting, you know, putting an ad on Google going, I'm a real estate agent in Littleton, Colorado or whatever. It doesn't make the phone ring, but doing things for people in Littleton, Colorado makes the phone ring. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. That's awesome. Okay. Our fourth question for the four, four, four, four, four, four, four, four, four. Here. Okay. Our fourth question. Four on four. Four for four.

Four for four. Here we are. Our fourth question. Okay. And this is probably something that a business owner, entrepreneur, they kind of feel on a consistent basis, or it's like a valleys and hills kind of thing. So if someone feels stuck in their business growth, what should they do to get unstuck? If you feel stuck, what should you do to get unstuck? This is a really interesting question, Mark, because the stuck in your business, this is going to sound weird, but stay with me with this. Not that I haven't sounded weird yet today. When you're stuck, it's not just your business,

it's your life, okay? So we live in multiple aspects of successes and challenges in our lives, like our relationship with our spouse, our relationship with our kids. Maybe our dog continues to misbehave and is ruining the house or something. I mean, maybe we have a terrible diet Maybe our dog continues to misbehave and is ruining the house or something. I mean, maybe we have a terrible diet and we're spending too much time on the sofa and we're losing energy as a result.

Maybe we're consuming a lot of doom scrolling on social media and it's making us really feel down on ourselves. All of these different things play into each other, including business. So the first question I ask somebody, and I do a lot of mentoring, masterminds, coaching, things like that with different business leaders is, how are you doing yourself? Because if I don't fix you first, your business is not going to follow. So the first thing, you have to fix yourself, write down the different aspects of your life. There are seven or eight of them, everywhere from faith to finance, to family, to fitness, to health, to then there's business, of course, and then hobbies or entertainment or

whatever it might be. I mean, write down all these things. And Darren Hardy has a really good way of doing it. He has a journal called Living Your Best Year Ever. It makes you analyze all of these things. And you look at it like a clock. And each of these things has a place on the clock. And the middle is a zero. So you look at each of these things. Let's start with finance. How are you with your finances? Well, I ignore them. OK. So you're not paying attention to them. So you're like a zero or a one. So you only go out like incrementally. All the way to the end of the clock is 10.

With yay, I'm rocking it. So map all these things out. How are you doing with each of them? And map them out on this wheel and see, is it a flat tire? Because if you're performing a 10 on each of these, it'll be round. Because you're going to draw a circle around where you meet all of these numbers. And you have to figure that out. How are

you doing? And then go to business and look at the other people in your business. Are they as screwed up as you are? Because if that's the case, you got to sit down and figure out how to make yourself right. And if you make yourself right, you can go to your business happy. And then you can look at what are the challenges I'm solving for my customers. And it's so much easier to solve their challenges when you have yours solved. So think about that. Start there. And that will make drastic improvements on your business if your business is struggling.

Because it's not a function of not knowing what to do. You've been in business. It's a function of doing it with the enthusiasm to succeed. Yeah. Wow. Great. Great answers to four questions for the fourth. Hey, Adam, thanks so much for your time today and sharing with our audience. And yeah, just thank you for listening. If you're listening to this, I hope that you were encouraged. You got some good information and some inspiration today. Go enjoy this 4th of July weekend with your friends and family if you're here in the States. And if you'd like to ask Adam a question or tell us to start with a wind story of your own give us a call leave us a message at 888-581-4430 uh and then if you're listening to this uh show on autopilot you just go into your podcast and play the episode also click on that subscribe button at the same

time then you'll get notified every time a new episode gets released and uh it'll help us reach more people uh if you want more great content and to get more information about when that book might be coming out, head over to startwithawin.com. You can also follow Adam on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. And remember, start with a win. Bye.