The Official
Moosylvania Blog

I attended my first “The Rise to the Top” Luncheon, which is hosted by our friends over at Rangency and none other than David Siteman Garland. To tell the truth, I was kind of nervous, but it was a good nervous. It was gorgeous day as I walked into Araka in Clayton (also for the first time) and was greeted by Jennifer Volk. She was manning the registration booth and then handed my name tag. From this point on I mingled. I went on a recon mission on what to expect at the event. The event was going to focus on business development and how not to screw it up. I’ve been to plenty of these “lunch and learns” and most of them delivered stuff I already knew or outdated information.

Not this lunch. David brought some guest speakers that gave some short but powerful nuggets of knowledge. Like Jason Bahnak of Gateway Biz Development and a spitfire named Patti, who in the shortest time possible had me fired up to close something. I didn’t care what it was but I was going to close it. I felt like Rudy in the Notre Dame locker room. Through the lunch we worked through the different phases from getting leads to getting the meeting to closing that meeting. At most of the business “lunch and learns” I have been to you see people eat then nod as the host speaks. Not here. People did eat but then scurriously (So I made up the word, deal with it) found paper to write notes on. Everyone was actively engaged and contributed some great questions. The audience included a mix of owners, managers, and sales people; all who were truly involved in the conversation.

So you begin by trying to generate leads. Jason expressed the opinion that no matter what technology is available to you, still the best school is old school, and that is picking up the phone and calling. People these days are inundated with emails and quick “follow ups”, and a good ol’ fashioned phone call usually beats out the email. David Garland agreed with this sentiment, and with his boisterous and contagious personality it would be difficult to contain yourself within an email.

So what happens once you get that appointment? Don’t screw it up right? Jason and David tag-teamed this topic like the robots in Voltron, which came together nicely and to the audience’s benefit. The main ingredient in getting the appointment and being in that appointment is building rapport. The key difference between you and your competitors is you. If you went to work for your competitors you would say that your company is the best. So what it comes down to is you – your personality, your knowledge, and how your knowledge answers the PAIN or needs of that potential client.

I would give David Garland, Jennifer Volk and the rest of the speakers an “A”. I would give the Strawberry Shortcake I had for desert an “A “….Holy cow, it was amazing. Kudos to Araka for making a great first impression on me as well for their culinary arts. I would certainly go to another “RISE lunch” and hopefully next time David will answer The Loud Few’s question on how his hair stays so perfect.

About the Author
Adam Hallas is the Business Development Lead at The Loud Few and specializes in interactive marketing strategy. You can learn more about him here or follow him on twitter at twitter.com/MrHallas.

No related posts.