How to Win a Pitch and Impress Your Client

I have been reading a book called "Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life" by Eugene O'Kelly. The book has been very inspirational to me, not only because of the views on work, family, and life shared by Eugene, but also the way he handed crisis situation at work.

I have never worked in a company with a boss like him before. I think it would be great to learn from someone who values the client management and relationship building experience like he did. People just don't seem to understand that you need to INVEST to build a relationship and there is always RISK involved.

On p.21 "Back when I was the head of the firm's financial services division, its biggest arm, and we were competing to become the auditor for a major investment bank, I knew that if we were really serious about winning the account, I would need to get a face-to-face meeting with the president of the bank's Australian unit. The bank was expected to make its decision very soon. I did everything I could to schedule a meeting with him - made my calendar completely available, called his secretary repeatedly.

Sorry, I was told. His secretary said there wasn't single moment her boss was in the office that was unbooked. For weeks. If I waited until he had an opening, I knew, the business would be lost.

I called his secretary back. Given how often I'd called her, we'd developed a bit of a rapport. So I figured I'd try: Would she be so kind as to tell me her boss's upcoming travel plans? He was a man on the go, in transit much of the day - surely a pocket of that travel time was not taken up with meetings? She told me that in two days, he was flying from Sydney to Melbourne. Nothing was scheduled for the time he was in the air.

"Perfect," I said.

I asked her for his seat assignment. She told me. I called the airline and booked the shortest longest business trip of my life, reserving the first-class seat next to his. That night I packed, showered, and shaved, and the following day I flew the 22 hours from New York to Sydney, landed, boarded my 90-minute flight bound for Melbourne, sat down, and introduced myself to the banked I'd flown halfway around the world to meet, briefly. When I described what I'd done to get there, he was dumbstruck. I asked if I could explain why I believed we were the best firm to audit his bank's books. An hour and a half later, we touched down. I offered him our presentation, shook his hand, and headed to another fate for my 20-plus-hour trek home.

We won the account."

I'd love to meet a manager with such courage and vision to get the job done. If you are the one or if you know someone, let me know.

Think Twice Before Scheduling a Meeting

I just came across the above picture in Seth Godin's blog. The picture captures everything essential about the meeting.

It's a plague in many firms that they schedule so many unnecessary meetings and phone conferences without any agenda in hand. I think it's a complete waste of everyone time. To make any meeting effective, all participants should receive an agenda beforehand so that each can prepare prior to the meeting.

Where are the old good values of meeting I used to see a decade ago?

Now meetings are turning into ways for people not to do any actual work, for people to bullshit without having anything to back up.

Cut the crap. Be real and let's get to work.

Business is Human: Relationships Power Your Growth

I have just listened to another webcast by American Management Association. This time, Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets of Success, One Relationship at a Time, is the featured speaker of the webcast. Keith has been called one of the “world’s most connected individuals” by both Forbes and Inc. magazines.

In this Webcast, Ferrazzi shares powerful advice and tips to amplify your personal and professional relationships. The key secrets show you how to enable everyone in your personal and professional life to win.

The bottom line is that Ferrazzi knows what distinguishes highly successful people from everyone else—a powerful world of connections. Attend this Webcast to discover:

* Simple steps you can take today to start building the relationships of tomorrow
* Key mindsets needed to successfully form and manage deep relationships, inside and outside of your organization
* Powerful ideas for planning and executing savvy relationship-building strategies
* And many other secrets for success!

You can listen to the webcast by visiting the site at
http://www.amanet.org/editorial/webcast/2007/business-is-human.htm

Enjoy!

The Seven Deadly Sins of Negotiating

This morning I was listing to one of the web-seminar hosted by the American Management Association. The topic is called "The Seven Deadly Sins of Negotiating"

You can access the slides and listen to the seminar by clicking http://www.amanet.org/editorial/webcast/2007/seven-deadly-sin.htm

Enjoy!

From AMA Website:

“Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes.” — Oscar Wilde

Yes, experience may be the best teacher, but when it comes to negotiating you can't afford on-the-job training.

From the simplest to the most complex negotiations, there are pitfalls and traps that are easy to fall into if you're not aware of them. Commit one of these "deadly sins" and you are virtually guaranteed to lose the deal.

As a negotiator, you may be a buyer or seller, a customer or supplier, a boss or an employee, a business partner, a diplomat or a civil servant. On a more personal level, you may be a spouse, friend, parent or child. In all these cases your negotiating skills strongly influence your ability to get ahead in both your career and your other interpersonal relationships.

Regardless of your negotiating situation, you won't want to miss this Webcast. This will not be just more "tips and tricks" or "ploys and tactics" that you've already heard. We will be drilling down into the core issues essential to every successful negotiation.

Executives, managers, salespeople and top-level deal makers who are responsible for negotiating the best possible terms of an agreement for their company.

About the Presenter:
Frank Acuff is an adjunct professor of organizational behavior at Northwestern University. He is the author of Shake Hands with the Devil: How to Master Life's Negotiations from Hell and How to Negotiate Anything with Anyone Anywhere Around the World.

Mr. Acuff was formerly corporate vice president for employee relations for First Commerce Corporation, a $3.8 billion bank holding company. While working for McDermott International, he held key management positions in the United States, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. His diverse clientele includes Accenture, Caterpillar, Centers for Disease Control, Coca Cola, Delta Air Lines, Exxon International, Home Depot, MasterCard International, Microsoft, Ogilvy & Mather, Pfizer, Pillsbury, Rockwell International, Royal Bank of Canada, Sears, Unilever, the U.S. Army, Walgreens, Wilson Sporting Goods and the Wrigley Company.

Larry Ray has a private practice specializing in mediation, negotiation, arbitration and facilitation. Mr. Ray mediates for The World Bank Groups, U.S. Postal Service and National Archives; directs the Mediation Center of Greater Washington, D.C. Metro Area; and arbitrates for the National Arbitration Forum, National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) and the United States Arbitration and Mediation (USAM).

After serving for five years as a prosecutor in Columbus, Ohio, he was executive director of the American Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section and the National Association for Community Mediation. He is senior lecturer on mediation and negotiation at the George Washington University Law School and an online instructor for Keller Graduate School/DeVry University. He is coauthor of The Conflict Resolution Training Manual.