Five Habits That Increase Your Income
Written by Dave Lorenzo on August 1, 2016 / Archived Podcasts / Mindset
Five Habits That Increase Your Income
This is Dave Lorenzo and you’re listening to the sixty second sales show and in today’s episode we’re going to talk about the five daily habits that make you more money. Five daily habits that make you more money. This episode actually comes about from an experience I had right when I first started out in sales and in selling. I was running a business for Maria and I needed to attract more people to come to stay in the hotel that I ran. This was something that was not native to me. It was not something that I was used to doing so I did what a lot of sales people do when they start out. I did probably what you did when you started out. I went out and I joined every group possible. I joined every chamber of commerce, I joined every networking group, I joined every organization I could and I was going to a breakfast, a luncheon, a dinner, it seemed like every day of the week.
I was meeting a lot of people and I didn’t really know what to do after I had met them. I met an older gentleman at one of these Chamber of Commerce meetings and one of the first things he said to me was, when you meet somebody that you really like you should try to follow up with them in a way that’s special and personal to them. My thought was okay how am I going to do that? I decided I was going to pick two or three people from every networking meeting that I went to. I was going to just follow up with a note. This is a handwritten note and the reason it was a handwritten note and not an email quite frankly is because this was in the time before everybody had email. People had it and maybe they checked it once a week or maybe they didn’t have access to it all the time so if you were going to communicate with people send a note to them in the regular mail.
I went out to the local drugstore on the corner and I bought some white note cards that just said … I think they said thanks on the front, the first batch that I got. I would go to these networking meetings and I would meet people and I would pick three people who were the most interesting to me who I thought I probably could do business with down the road and I would write them just a handwritten note and it was very simple. I would say something to the effect, “It was great meeting you, I really enjoyed the experience, I’d love to speak with you again soon, have a nice day.” Something along those lines and I would throw my business card in the envelope and I would send it off. I did this every networking meeting I went to for the first couple of weeks and something amazing happened. I probably sent out fifteen of these in the first two weeks, twenty maybe in the first two weeks. I got four or five phone calls people calling me thanking me for the handwritten note that I sent them and asking if they could connect with me and have lunch and learn more about me and what I did and how they could possibly help me.
This was something that for me it was a breakthrough at the time because it was a way for me to schedule follow up meetings, potential sales meetings. These people could have been prospects. It was a way for me to schedule these without having to cold call. It was a way for me to schedule sales appointments without having a cold call. I thought to myself this could be the breakthrough that I’ve been looking for let me go through the paper and highlight some of the most influential and important people in our community and let me write them a handwritten note. I went to a printer and I got some stationery printed up with my name on it, very nice stationery with my return address printed on the envelope and I started to read the paper every day and pick three people out of the newspaper.
I would write them note cards that said congratulations on being featured in the paper. I saw the article in Tuesday’s … And I’d put the name of the paper there. I’d love to connect with you and learn more about what you do. Best wishes for the future. I hope your business is as accessible as you would hope it would be and I would throw my business card in the envelope. Sure enough one out of every six or seven of those people would call me up and they would say it was really nice of you to send me the note, I really appreciate it, I’d love to get together with you. Again it took the place of having to make cold calls.
This habit is something that I’ve done now for … When I first did this that was probably twenty five almost thirty years ago. This habit is something that I do every day. I pick out three people in the newspaper and I write them handwritten notes congratulating them on being profiled in the paper and I pick three people who I’ve connected with over time and I write them a handwritten note saying it was great to meet them I’d love to see them again soon. I do this every day and it opens up a number of doors for me even today, even in the business that I’m in now. You can do this. It can make you a much more successful sales person because it’s a great way to introduce yourself to people with whom you can do business.
Let’s talk about how you can put this habit which is by the way a daily habit number one. I call it the handwritten note habit. Very sophisticated title, the handwritten note habit. Daily habit number one, here’s how you can put this into practice in your business right now. Each day go through the Internet or go through the newspaper and highlight three people, three people you want to connect with and write them a handwritten note. Simply congratulate them on being profiled in the paper, congratulate them for their success, whatever you need to say to get them … Whatever you need to say to connect with them on a personal level. Congratulations are great, recognition is great, everyone is under recognized. Write them a handwritten note, hand address the envelope, drop it in the mail with a real stamp. Don’t run it through your postage meter but a real stamp on the outside and drop it in the mail. You’ll be amazed at what happens.
Three people from the paper and then three people with whom you’ve connected in the past but only one time. These could be three people you meet at a networking event or three people who you’ve done business with who you’d like to do more business with. It’s a great opportunity to thank someone for the business they’ve done with you. It’s a great opportunity to connect with them and say, “I really enjoyed the speech I attended that you delivered on Thursday. I’d love to hear more about you and what you do, let’s connect again in the future,” and throw your business card in the envelope, hand address, it and send it out.
The handwritten note is powerful because it shows that you’ve taken the time to recognize someone. It shows that you’ve taken the time to recognize someone. When you do that people appreciate it and one out of every five times they’re going to reach back out to you and they’re going to say that they want to meet you, they want to learn more about you and what you do. Again, our focus with sixty second sales is always to help the other person first. The key to winning someone over in sixty seconds is focus on them and helping them achieve their goals. Your hand written note will show them that you have an external orientation. That you’re focused on them and that you want to connect with them on a personal level.
Moving on now to daily habit number two. Daily habit number two is … I would call it, the call your mom habit. None of us call our mothers as often as we should. We don’t call the people we care about as often as we should and it seems like common sense that if you picked up the phone and you’d said to someone, “Hey let’s connect, how are you doing?” It seems like common sense that doing this would lead to more business. If it’s such common sense why aren’t any of us doing it? Why aren’t you doing it each and every single day? Well, you’re going to start doing this every day now. I want you to pick up the phone and call someone you haven’t spoken with in at least five years, longer is fine. Think about all those people that you connect with on social media. On Facebook, on LinkedIn, you connect with people with whom you’ve worked ten years ago, fifteen years ago.
You connect with them on social media and you think to yourself okay that’s fine. Or you connect with them on Facebook and you think, “Yeah that’s how we’ll keep our friendship alive. I want you to take your business contacts and I want you to look through them and connect with someone who is really influential and could have sent you a ton a business years ago but didn’t or did send you a ton of business years ago in a previous career.
I want you to reach out to one of these people every day. Pick up the phone and have a fifteen minute conversation. Say something to the effect of, “I wanted to call you today because I wanted to connect with you. I was thinking about … “Talk about your past relationship. I was thinking about how we did business on Salmo case ten years ago. I was reflecting on that and I thought to myself he’s a really good guy let me reach out to him and see what he’s doing now so I figured I would connect with you.” The key to this habit, the key to the call your mom habit is you need to make phone calls until you actually have a conversation with someone.
Each of us have a list of contacts that will take our call. The list is probably about two hundred fifty people long. I want you to reach out to just one of those people, have one conversation every workday. One conversation every workday with someone you haven’t spoken with in a while to reconnect with them. In a business context you will be amazed at the results you achieve from doing this. People will say to you, “I have not … I can’t even imagine who I’m using to do what you do now. I forgot that you were in this business.” That’s the key. Instead of making one extra cold call, make one call to someone who did business with you years ago that you forgot about and they forgot about you. That’s habit number two, the call your mom habit.
Habit number three; eat with someone. There are three meals every day. There’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner every single day. Each day you probably eat at least one of those meals with your family, keep doing that, but the other two are opportunities for you to connect with someone who could be valuable to you. I want you to reach out at least two days a week and connect with someone and having their breakfast or lunch with them. Of the five workdays, two breakfasts and two lunches are done with someone else. You don’t have to pay each time, you can split the bill don’t worry about that. I want you to have a lunch with someone who’s influential, someone who could do business with you.
A meal is a perfect opportunity for you to connect with someone and to share … Breaking bread really. Sharing a meal, breaking bread is something that creates a bond with people. I want you to reach out to somebody every day and just ask to take them out to lunch and if they say, “What’s the reason why? Say, “I’d like to get to know you a little better and see if I can help you in your business.” If they say wow that sounds really disingenuous or they seem a little skittish say, “I make it a habit to have breakfast with somebody different every single day. I want you to be the person tomorrow, will you join me?” This habit alone will make you a ton of money. I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking oh my gosh that’s a lot of time, I have to go to lunch, I have to drive to the lunch, I have to sit down, I have to eat with somebody, I have to drive back from lunch, I don’t know that I’m going to get a return on investment of my time. I appreciate that.
If there’s somebody who you’re not sure whether the return on investment will be huge or not, go to breakfast with them. I love breakfast meetings. In fact I do very few one on one lunch meetings any longer. I do a lot of breakfast meetings. The reason why? I get to the person before their day starts, we start out our day together and breakfast I can schedule early and then be finished and back to work before most people even get in the office I can schedule a breakfast for 7:30 am, be finished having breakfast with someone and be back at my desk by 9:00. I want you at least two days a week preferably more, preferably every day to reach out and have breakfast or lunch with people who can do business with you or people who can refer business to you. Those are your two target audiences. They’re people who could either be potential clients or people who could be potential referral sources. People who are referral sources only these are evangelists and they’re influencers. They can influence other people to do business with you. Those are perfect people for you to go to breakfast with or for you to go to lunch with and that’s habit number three, eating with someone every single day.
Habit number four is something that you need to do for yourself. It’s something that takes very little time but it’s critically important for your self-esteem. It’s critically important for your confidence as you grow and develop your business. The number one reason businesses fail … When I first started out as a consultant I thought to myself, “Boy I’m going to find that it’s really tough for businesses to get financing,” and that’s going to be the number one reason why businesses fail. I made myself go out and I’ve formed a lot of relationships with bankers so that I could help people get financing. That’s not the case. The number one reason people are unsuccessful in biz, the number one reason people are unsuccessful in sales is a lack of confidence.
Habit number four is very simple and it will keep you focused on what’s important to grow your self-confidence. Every day I want you to take fifteen minutes maybe even ten minutes, it doesn’t take very long at all. Before you go to bed and I want you to write down three things that you accomplished during the course of the day. They can be three things in your business life or three things in your personal life. Write down just three things that you’ve accomplished during the course of the day that you’re happy about, that you’re proud of, or that you’re grateful for. You’re going to write these three things down because it will focus you on things that went right during the course of your day. Even on the worst day, even the worst day possible three things went well. I want you focused on those as the last thing you think about before you turn out the light and get into bed at night.
Then when you wake up in the morning I want you to look at what you wrote, just keep it in a little notebook. I keep a little notebook by the side of my bed. First thing in the morning I want you to open that note book up and look at the three things you wrote from the day before. You’ll be amazed at how this impacts your attitude. This is so powerful because what it does is it focuses you on the things you’ve accomplished and that boosts your self-esteem. As I said the number one reason salespeople are unsuccessful, the number one reason businesses fail has nothing to do with finances it has everything to do with confidence and self-esteem. If you look at the things you’ve accomplished every day twice a day in the morning and at night you will boost your self-esteem and you’ll be on top of the world.
Habit number five, the last habit is what I call the arm’s length rule. The arm’s length rule. I want you to introduce yourself to anyone who comes within arm’s length of you. I know what you’re thinking here. You’re thinking that I’ll be a crazy person, I’ll be running around all day. On the subway to work I take an elevator up stairs I’ll be introducing myself to fifteen twenty new people a day. That’s exactly right. I want you to introduce yourself to fifteen twenty new people a day. Here’s what I want you to do. Strategically pick out one or two people to do this with tomorrow. Strategically pick out four people to do it with the day after, pick out six people the day after that, the next thing you know you’re introducing yourself to everyone everywhere and you never can’t tell how this is going to pay off. I’ll tell you how it paid off for me.
When I worked for the Gallup organization, I worked at 1251 Avenue of the Americas. That is Rockefeller Center. It’s right across from Radio City Music Hall. It’s 6th Avenue in New York City. In that building was the Canadian consulate and also the headquarters of the National Hockey League. I was getting into the elevator one day to go up to our floor, I had a cup of coffee in my hand. I walk in and there was a very small gentleman small in stature but big in importance. A short gentleman in there with two very large gentlemen who are obviously with him. I walk in the elevator it’s just the four of us in there and I said, “Hi my name’s Dave,” and he said my name’s Gary and he stuck out his hand he shook my hand. I said, “Gary, what do you do for work?” As were riding up in the elevator. I was going to the thirty eighth floor he was going up even higher than that.
He said, “Well Dave it just so happens I’m the commissioner of the National Hockey League.” This was at a time when the National Hockey League had just gone through a horrific strike it had resulted in the cancellation of a season. They had just made a deal to get back into playing again. I said, “Wow Gary that’s fascinating. I bet you’ve got a lot on your mind now. What’s the biggest challenge you’re facing today?” He chuckled and he said, “It’s funny I just came from a meeting with the referees and we’re having a hard time determining how we’re going to select referees moving forward.” I said, “This is fate because our company the Gallup organization helps select referees for the National Basketball Association,” and he said, “Really?” I said, “Yeah, I’d love to help you with that if you’re looking for some help. Do you want some help with that?” He said, “Absolutely. Stop by my office later today, will make an appointment and we’ll get together to talk about it.” Not only did I stop by his office but I ended up working with them and it became a highly productive account for us just because I introduced myself who was within arm’s length of me.
This is not going to happen every time you do this. Sometimes people are going to think you’re crazy. Sometimes you’re going to walk away from you. People may even say nasty things to you sometimes, it happens but that one time, that one time is worth fifty or one hundred embarrassing awkward situations and believe me none of them are ever embarrassing or awkward you just move on with your day. That one time you create a valuable relationship that puts money in your pocket. These are the five daily habits. We talked about writing a handwritten note. Write three handwritten notes every day. We talked about picking up the phone and calling someone you hadn’t spoken with, common sense but common sense isn’t all that common. Eating with someone two, four times a week. Expressing gratitude which will help you focus your confidence and the arm’s length rule, introducing yourself to someone who can perhaps change everything for you.
As the mailbag section of our show today and we have actually a question from Twitter. Matthew [inaudible 00:19:46] asks, how do I ask good qualifying questions when cold calling? Matthew I really appreciate the question. When you’re reaching out to people on the phone and you’re cold calling, one of the toughest things to do is to qualify the person to see if they’re a good fit for you. What I like to have folks do is you have to have a reason to call. You can’t just call people up. You have to have a reason to call and once you’re on the phone with them you have to ask them about something that’s going on in their business or their life that you can help them with. I prefer to choose my lists for cold calling from either news events or through some means where I know I have something in common with the person and then I just start by asking them a question.
For example I’ll cold call and I’ll say, “Hi Matthew this is Dave Lorenzo calling from Valtimax consulting. I just wanted to check in with you because I saw you quoted in the paper about your staffing situation. I’m wondering if you’d like some help with staffing up your organization from a sales perspective?” Then they’ll either say yes or no and at that point you know they have a problem you can solve. When you’re looking to qualify people you need to figure out whether they have a problem you can solve, money to pay you, and the ability to make a decision.
Asking qualifying questions starts with determining whether or not they need help and if they do say they need help whether or not they want help from you. Simply asking about something that you know is a point of focus for them is a great way to start the qualifying process. Thank you Matthew for the question we take questions on Twitter. My Twitter name and my Twitter handle is @the_DaveLorenzo, @the_ DaveLorenzo and that is our show for today. I’m Dave Lorenzo and this is the sixty second sale show and until next time I hope you make a great living and live a great life.
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