I wrote this to a client just now in our private Slack channel…. he is visiting potential clients and having first conversations to find out more about them and start a professional relationship that could go on for years and multiple engineering projects… I hope it helps you also… “[CLIENT] I want you to think about this…. in your meetings with architects or with contractors etc…. you need to BRING VALUE …. SERVE THEM… think not about selling but serving them. Even come out and tell them that is why you are there.

Business may or may not come later but you want to make THIS a powerful and serving conversation.

When you get to the end of one of these meetings, and an Architect or other “Prospect” says “Thank you for your time.” I want you to stop them and say…. “Wait, this isn’t about time … what Insight or idea did you get from our conversation today or what action will you take as a result of our meeting?”

Listen….and wait… if they don’t have anything then you failed…. and then you can try again later. BUT…. if they do have something that they tell you they learned or an insight….then say – “well, great….thank me for that Insight and not the time.”

Then thank them for anything you learned from them…and you can thank them for THEIR time… lol… and then say “What would you like to have happen next?” When we all get to the point where we serve that deeply in our initial conversations, then we won’t need to worry about Sales anymore.

Please tell me if you got any insights from THIS – anyone…. and thank Steve Chandler and Ron Wilder for what they gave to me today if it helps. SPECIFICALLY it is Ron Wilder who said “Don’t thank me for my time” – Good stuff.