Happy Monday Everyone:
Banks are closed for Columbus Day, including us, so Kim and I dumped the kids with the folks and split town, now typing from Napa.
“I don’t know how to put this but I’m kind of a big deal, people know me”. Some of you are laughing, some of you are scratching your heads….That would be a quote from Ron Burgundy Aka Will Farrell in Anchor Man, one of the funnier movies I’ve seen. I don’t actually consider myself a big deal, hopefully none of you do either, but I do consider my time reasonably valuable, as I think we all should. Not to get too deep but every time you’re choosing to do something, you’re choosing not to do something else. Why do I bring this up? I was asked by someone I’ve started to work with a bit if I’d be open to meeting one of his friends who is in the insurance business, and I of course said “absolutely”.
Insurance is what I’d consider “downstream” from me i.e. I’m going to have the opportunity to refer more business to him because I come across more opportunities as people are buying homes who would need home owners insurance….so being in this position, I’d consider him to be the happier one to meet w/ me vs. the other way around i.e. he’s asking for the meeting, he’s going to benefit from the meeting probably more so than me. It’s a Wednesday, I show up after scrambling all morning, he’s wearing vans, black jeans, and untucked very tight polo, and I’m thinking “you’ve got to be joking”. He’s a nice enough guy, but there was no structure to our conversation, there was no plan, no value, no nothing, in large part, it was a waste of my time.
Why am I writing about this? Because we need to respect other people’s time. We need to appreciate the time others are giving us. We need to be aware of the seat of which we are sitting and act appropriately. So many times I’m in his seat, I’m asking other people for their time and when I was sitting there, and more so after leaving, I was thinking about how others might view the time they gave me and whether or not I was worth their time. Hopefully I’m not coming off here as a jackass, my point is make people want to help you and a big place to start is by showing people respect for their time. How do you show respect for someone’s time?
1. Understand your position. Drive the conversation by asking questions, preferably about them and their business.
2. Do some homework on the person and their business.
3. Take notes, hopefully you’re interested in what the other person is saying but even if you’re not, act like it.
4. Dress professional. If you’re asking for a meeting, NEVER go casual.
5. Tell them how much you appreciate their time.
I think sometimes we just need to reflect on the basics and make sure we’re respectful of others and if you’re going to ask for a meeting, make it count.