Get to Know Your Clients

Episode 902: Get to Know Your Clients, with Allison Lanier and Scott Fogleman

Get to know your clients and build authentic connections. Learn from Allison and Scott on how to get to know your clients.

Get to know your clients better to understand their problem and provide them with an ideal solution. This is what our guests, Allison and Scott, will be talking about in this episode. After graduating from Clemson University, Scott Fogleman began his career in advertising sales at The Wall Street Journal, followed most recently by a successful sales career with SYNNEX Corporation managing the Google Brand inclusive of Chrome Education.

Scott’s passion for higher education began during his time with Clemson’s Undergraduate Student Government and as a member of President’s Cabinet. At Up&Up, he leads the East Sales Region with a mission to impact change by bringing strong, positive, executable campaigns to his clients and their constituents.

Allison Lanier’s curiosity for the sales process began as a teenager while working in the retail environment. Years later, she graduated cum laude from the University of South Carolina, Aiken Campus and quickly realized her excitement for sales had developed into a true passion.

As a Business Development Manager for Up&Up, Allison brings her experience in sales leadership and execution from past employers such as Verizon Wireless and PepsiCo. At Up&Up, she uses her passion for people to create a positive, effective, and rewarding campaign experience for the West Sales Region.

What you will learn from this episode about get to know your clients:

• How to get to know your clients and have a better understanding of their needs
• Why defining and focusing on a niche is far more important than serving everybody and how doing so can help your agency find the right clients
• How society is changing the value of education and how that affects messaging to prospective students
• How asking the tough questions and challenging your clients can uncover the real issues and real solutions
• What a client’s “authentic self” is, how to discover it and why learning it can improve marketing efforts for the long term
• What Allison and Scott think are the most relevant skills for business owners to develop and grow their businesses
• Scott’s best advice for transparency and personal growth for business owners
• How to cope with hearing “no” and use it to empower you
• Why it is important to get to know your clients and why you need to change your process

Resources:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: https://www.upandup.agency/
• Facebook: @upandupagency
• Twitter: @upandupagency
• Learn more about the approach on how to get to know your clients

Additional Resources:

• Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
• Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
• Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
• Check out this podcast on how to get to know your clients from Predictive ROI

 

 

Get to Know Your Clients: Full Episode Transcript

 

Get ready to find your recipe for success from America’s top business owners here at Onward Nation with your host, Stephen Woessner.

 

Good morning. I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host for Onward Nation, where I interview today’s top business owners so we can learn their recipe for success, how they built and how they scaled their business. In fact, my team at Predictive ROI while I’ve been talking about it for a while now. But we’re continuing to not only rebuild, but continue to add to our free resources section on predictiveroi.com.

 

I want you to take a look at the new section because we’ve added new books, new insight briefings. There’s just a litany of new resources available. So you can download free practical and tactical guides. Everything from search engine optimization to even how to generate LinkedIn leads to other success strategies. We’ve compiled from the brilliant insights shared by our very generous guests.

 

So just go to predictiveroi.com/resources. Anything you request, we’ll send right to your inbox.

 

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Get to Know Your Clients: Scott and Allison’s Introduction

 

And before we welcome today’s very special guests, Scott Fogleman and Allison Lanier, I want to share some additional context around why I was so delighted. In fact, Over the Moon excited that both of them said yes to joining me here today Onward Nation.

 

This is going to be a really interesting twist on biz dev, because Scott and Allison, they are in the same dynamic. I don’t think that really properly kind of crystallizes or describes the dynamic nature, the teamwork that the two of them have. They both run a point on biz dev at Up and Up, which is a higher education, branding and marketing agency based in South Carolina, that the two of them just not only work so well together.

 

You’re going to hear that in the chemistry, which again, I think that’s dynamic, right? So sometimes among sales teams there’s this competitive environment. And then no, that’s mine. And that’s not yours. But you won’t hear that at all from Scott and Allison. So that is an interesting dynamic that I want to hear play out for you. And they’re in the trenches every single day.

 

They’re identifying the prospects of generating leads or making presentations. They’re certainly in the professional services space, given their business and they’re selling and they’re working hard to close business on behalf of the agency. Every single day, I want you to be able to hear that this is going to be like Biz Dev 101 all the way up through advance.

 

This is going to be like a training curriculum around dev. They understand how to lead with content. Two, they understand how to be helpful to their audience as well. Onward Nation, they understand that it’s important to invest in those relationships and how to build their thought leadership in order to again be helpful to their audience. But in the process, create distinction for their agency.

 

So Onward Nation, I was again super, super excited when Scott Allison said yes, because I know that they’re going to be helpful to you as you look for new and creative ways to double down on your own biz dev efforts. So without said, welcome to you Onward Nation, Scott and Allison. 

 

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Get to Know Your Clients: The Day-to-Day Work of Scott and Allison

 

Thanks for having us, Steve, and we’re excited to be here.

 

Yes, we are definitely looking forward to this. Well, I’m super excited to be so excited that I started kind of stumbling on a few of my words there. It’s like, I can’t wait to get into the conversation. And so obviously you guys are running points on biz dev as I mentioned, and sort of put a little bit of a light on the day to day of what you do within Up and Up.

 

But I know that that is only a thin, thin slice to the day to day, to the story, to being the workers in the trenches every single day moving the agency forward. So actually, before we dive into the questions, actually take us behind the curtain here and give us more view into the day to day, and then we’ll dive in with some of the other questions.

 

Yeah. Thanks, Steve. And so our day to day is never the same. We come into the office with a very open mind. We live by the theory of being curious. And so we are curious every day to see how we can improve and how we can make our clients’ experiences with our agency better. So the key task of our business development team is to uncover opportunities, find where there are colleges and universities that need help.

 

They need assistance. They need a new brand. They need a marketing strategy. They need content. They need a way to message who they are and tell potential students who they truly are, and what an education from their institution can mean. So before we can do that, we really focus on understanding where we are good. Where are the pillars that we can stand behind to truly solve those problems?

 

We’re here to make sure that we have an answer to the challenges that are facing higher education. So with that, we really focus our work around core services. Specifically for us is brand work, marketing support as well as development. So think about your message and tone, the voice that you represent, how you get that message across, what are the channels that need to be used to reach? Says prospective students. 

 

And then how do we create experiences throughout that? So when we think about websites, we don’t really call it a website, we call it a container for a brand, and it’s an experience. So everything that we’re doing on a daily basis is trying to align our services with our client’s true needs to uncover, you know, how do we solve their pain?

 

How do we make sure that they’re able to do what they do? Best wishes as they educate our future leaders. So Alison and I are really working closely with our team on a daily basis to align services that are going to meet those needs and then make sure that we have a very clear process with our customers to truly uncover what that pain is and how we can solve for that.

 

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Get to Know Your Clients: The Agency’s Role to Truly Uncover

 

Love that. Okay, so, Alison, any additional light to put on that? Yeah. I think the number one thing that is a major part of our role as well is to truly uncover. And I think that this is kind of that niche that you don’t really hear that much in biz. Dev is like, for us, it’s about who and what clients do we not serve?

 

Like, what do we not do? And I think that that is something that we’ve done a great job of as an agency is to truly uncover, like who is our client? Like, who is our target market? And like who, who do we not serve? And I think once you figure out that balance, it helps you really move forward.

 

And a very clear and focused manner. Okay. So that is awesome. In fact, let’s go down that path. First, I was making some notes of some additional questions that I want to ask both of you and I think that you’re touching on a really hot topic right now, Alison. And that’s the niching down piece. We talk about that often, within our Onward Nation episodes because it takes guts.

 

Well, but it shouldn’t it shouldn’t take guts for a business owner to say, you know what? We’re going to pursue the higher ed space. And even within the higher ed space, this is how we’re going to niche down even further within that space. Whereas, you know, most business owners are like, wow, I want to do some of this and some of that, and or I don’t want to narrow down my net because then I’ll be limiting opportunities.

 

Whereas you guys and Up and Up have really smartly said higher ed and then define that even further. And that has opened up at least my understanding is that it’s opened up even more opportunities for you in your agency. Would that be fair? I would say it’s opened up more of the right opportunity for us. Right. So to your point, you’re saying, like, you know, most businesses or most mindsets are like, okay, we’re just going to open up our arms to everyone.

 

Well, it’s not that we’re saying we’re not opening up our arms to everyone, but it’s more so like we’re waiting for that really good hug. And not just like walking around and hugging everyone to see if it sticks. I guess that would be my best analogy for it. Well, okay. So let’s see if we can add an even finer point to it.

 

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Get to Know Your Clients: The Up&Up Agency

 

So, Up and Up focuses on and corrects me if I have this wrong focus on four year private institutions, four year universities, private institutions, ideally in my. Am I tracking with you? Yeah. So I would say ideally that that is our first customer that we look at our first target market that we look at is, more so like private liberal arts to take it a step further.

 

Okay but and then to really emphasize this niche, if a brand because you guys are obviously great at branding, but like if a consumer packaged goods brand came to you and said, hey, I see, I saw the branding that you did for XYZ, a university, I would love it if you could do something for my consumer packaged brand or a consumer packaged goods business, you guys would decline that opportunity, I think.

 

Right? Correct. 100%. We would decline that opportunity. Yeah. And so, Scott, anything else to add to this piece? It is so important for business owners to really get this nailed into place. Yeah, I think the reason why we want to be so specialized is because the challenges of higher education are very unique, and so we want our full team to really be understanding what those challenges are and how we solve them.

 

And if we spread ourselves across multiple verticals, if we’re not able to truly refine what that challenge is and how to solve it? Now our outputs are different for every client. Every customer’s pain is different, but there is a similarity there. And so by being specialized in this space, our team is able to add more value than if we were more of a generalist team.

 

So having that specialty, having a team that’s made up of individuals who have worked in other industries, but also in the higher education industry, we’re able to bring that B2B knowledge and that consumer knowledge to the higher education space specifically. But again, at the end of the day, we’re all focused on a singular core vertical, being able to really align with what their needs are and make sure that our services are catered to solve those problems.

 

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Get to Know Your Clients: Planting Your Flag of Authority

 

I love this so very much. I mean, you guys are really driving this home in such a great way, and probably making and rightly so, probably making a few organization business owners maybe even a little bit uncomfortable. But let’s put it into an analogy that is probably pretty common of, you know, the difference between a general practitioner like a family doctor, family medicine versus like a specialist at the Mayo Clinic.

 

Right. You’ll travel long distances to go visit that specialist at Mayo Clinic. You’ll probably pay more, but you’re willing to do that because that person, he or she has a depth of expertise in that one thing, that one challenge that is affecting your health right now. And so you’re willing to do that. But yet when we think about it from a business strategy perspective, then it gets weird and it’s like, oh no, I want to serve everybody.

 

Where were you? The two of you who have have really planted your flag in higher ed for Up and Up, and it’s worked really, really well. So that is super, super smart. Thank you guys. And then let’s talk about some of the challenges too. So because you’ve used that word a couple of times. So let’s talk about some of the challenges in higher ed.

 

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Get to Know Your Clients: The Challenges That Up&Up Solves

 

So what are some of the challenges that you see most often Up and Up is being called in to solve. It’s a great question. There are many challenges in higher education and education as a whole, if you can imagine it. But a lot of those challenges are we’ve got there’s a tough conversation about their on the ROI of education right now.

 

It’s really being challenged and degrees values are being challenged. We have major corporations that are telling students today, Google, IBM, and others, that they don’t necessarily need to have a four year degree. But what they’re not saying is that you don’t need certifications and experience and an education that brings practical experience. So there is a challenge out there.

 

We all know that the financial burden of education can be very taxing on individuals. They don’t necessarily have the resources at all times to afford the education. So one of the challenges is how schools tell students we have options. We’re going to give you flexible learning opportunities so that you can learn the way that you need to, so that we can give you an opportunity that meets your current financial status, your lifestyle.

 

We’re seeing more and more nontraditional students enter the higher education space, which is fantastic. It’s giving people the chance at second and third careers, those to go back and finish a degree that they haven’t been part of. The problem with that, though, is how do we message our offering to a group that is so diverse? We’ve got your traditional undergrad students that are considering where to go when they’re 16.

 

We’ve got those students who are going back for a new career path. We have students who never had the opportunity to afford an education before and are now in a place where they can. Each of those personas have the common goal of wanting an education. However, there’s different ways that it’s going to be related to them, different ways we need to message it.

 

That’s just one of the challenges. But beyond that, it is about how do we keep enrollment strong? How do we make sure that admissions are where they need to be? How do we make sure that our alumni are engaged and that they’re giving up their talents, their treasures, really their time, their gifts financially, their ability to offer job placements?

 

There’s a lot of things that go into it. But at the end of the day, a lot of the challenges come down to resourcing. Schools are extremely resource limited. They don’t necessarily have the teams in place to support all of their needs. So that’s where we can really come in to kind of be a consultant, be a guide for them, help them take some of the pressure off and have someone who’s got experience with dealing with multiple challenges at once to kind of help guide them in the right direction because they don’t have the time, the resources, as you mentioned, in order to experiment right.

 

If they’re going to do it, they have to do it with excellence the first time around, because there’s not a lot of time, there’s not a lot of money to rework it, to go over and over and over again and see if something sticks. Right? Absolutely. There is no money. We have to find a way to make a penny stretch, to be $5, essentially.

 

Right. And that’s something, just to kind of piggyback off of that point is like, as we were just mentioning, our main target market is the private liberal arts. And one of the main concerns that they’re having is this, like the whole idea of like, liberal arts is dead, right? Like people don’t truly understand what it means to have a liberal arts degree anymore.

 

And you’ve got parents and students who are focused mainly on the outcomes of what that degree is going to get them. And like, is my kid going to go to school and then they’re going to get a job like that’s what they’re mainly concerned about. I think the challenge there is what is the value of that education style and how are we.

 

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Get to Know Your Clients: Helping Clients Solve the Problem

 

So a lot of schools are moving towards, you know, is liberal arts the best way because it’s not necessarily career path oriented where other institutions are so I think we’re also seeing the challenges, like, how do we prove that liberal arts is still a very valid choice for an undergraduate or graduate experience, because it is going to provide opportunity for career and advancement?

 

Well, but, you know, and I too have heard the ROI of education. I’ve heard that traditional education is under attack. And I think that at least from my perspective, the writing’s on the wall that there’s going to be some disruption in space. But that’s why I really like where you went with this, Scott.

 

And that’s where the Harris schools tell the students that they have options. We can’t be high. We can’t hide behind $50 million buildings or $70 million buildings and all of this infrastructure. We have to think of the students. That’s who we’re here to serve. And we’re here to serve them in such a way that sets them up for a wonderful future.

 

And in giving them the right resources and the right education. So the fact that you guys are in the trenches and helping your clients solve that problem, because there’s a lot of infrastructure concerns and all of that, you know, a lot of investment. But to be able to figure out, okay, what’s our communication strategy going to be around options for the student?

 

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Get to Know Your Clients: Asking the Right Questions

 

I think that’s really, really smart. It takes guts to have those types of conversations. But Onward Nation, those are the types of conversations, whether you’re in higher ed or not. Those are the types of conversations we have to be gutsy enough to have with our clients. That’s why they’re paying us for our expertise. Right, Scott? Well, we hope that’s why they’re paying us.

 

But yeah, it absolutely is. Asking those questions that make you a little uncomfortable. And really, one thing that Allison and I do on a daily basis, we have clients and partners that come to us saying, here’s what I need. Here’s my problem. And we’re like, but is that actually what you need? Because when we pull back the layers and we truly do our job of uncovering that pain, a lot of times, what’s so perfect?

 

Example, we’ll have a customer and they’ll say, I need a website and we’ll say, but do you need a website? What’s the actual pain? Are you not enrolling? Students? Are students having trouble finding information? What’s the actual problem here? Maybe a website is a potential outcome, but is that what you need? Maybe not. So a lot of our job on a daily basis, you can call us the question twins because we ask a lot of questions.

 

And that’s our job, where we’re supposed to challenge our partners to think in a way that’s going to solve problems for them in the long term. Let’s not do Band-Aids. Let’s truly solve that problem and give you something lasting. So an example of that. It’s kind of cliche, but when we talk about a marketing effort, it’s not about touching and speaking to that student for just when they’re an undergrad or a potential student, it’s going to be impactful for the next 40, 50, 60 years if we bring them into a university and they have a positive experience, attracting that right student up front is going to make sure that what is done in their undergraduate or graduate experience is going to be with them for the rest of their life. 

 

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Get to Know Your Clients: Thinking Strategically About Your Clients’ Needs

 

So we like to say a marketing campaign is not for four years. It truly is for a lifetime of a student. What I really like about your approach, one, the strategy that you just talked about. And again, this transcends industry, Onward Nation, being able to think strategically about your client’s pain and being able to help them through in understanding what it is that they truly need, in this case, a website or not a website.

 

You know, and thinking about it from the perspective of your own services at your own firm. But the point is thinking strategically about what your client needs and being able to have the guts to have that conversation to really uncover the pain. What I really thought was interesting to Scott that you mentioned, was really kind of step one of the process, if you will, in that is being able to help uncover who that institution in this case, who that institution really is like, who they actually are.

 

And so why do you start it? What might seem like on the surface? Well, that’s kind of fundamental, but like but really important to why do you start with that type of cornerstone. That’s a great question. So we start there because part of our process is to uncover the authentic self of an institution. What is it that collectively, this institution, the students, the faculty and staff, what are the perceptions that are shared?

 

Because the school may think they’re one thing, but if all of those who are involved in it think it’s another, that’s truly who they are. So we want to help uncover that so that they can message to who they are on an authentic level and not who they think they are, but truly who they are. Love that. So Allison, how does Up and Up like to go about doing that?

 

So really valuable the way that Scott just described it. What’s the process like? Is it focus groups, is it interviews? Is it collecting data from the student body? Like how are other stakeholders? How does Up and Up go about doing that? Yeah. So I think it’s a multi-step approach. One it starts with us with Scott and I, as soon as we start with our strategic selling option, whenever we contact our client.

 

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Get to Know Your Clients: Working With a Strategy in Place

 

And that’s a little bit of what Scott was mentioning is that strategic call that we start with, to start, you know, the process of asking those questions of like, what is the pain point? What is the problem you’re trying to solve? And usually we’re talking with a coach or a decision maker at that time. Then once they actually become our client, what we’ll do is we actually start everything with strategy.

 

We literally will not work on something unless there is a strategy involved, because it doesn’t do our client any justice. And it definitely doesn’t do us any justice, because at that point, we’re just kind of throwing a dart on the wall and seeing if it sticks. But we start with multiple things like you mentioned. We do focus groups.

 

We’ll do a huge intake session, with the key stakeholders that we identify from the beginning, that are important to the project. But then we also have the opportunity that we can dive a little deeper. We have some partners that we work with for really heavy research if we feel like that is needed. Usually that would be more around our brand strategies, to uncover just some really, like, quantitative work.

 

But usually we’ll do a lot of the qualitative items, such as the focus groups and the interviews. And again, it all depends on the project of who our actual audience is at that point. But we really try to dig as deep as we can, whether it’s getting in front of prospective students and their parents, current students, alumni, faculty and staff, and all of the above.

 

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Get to Know Your Clients: Being Committed to The Entire Process

 

Just to really uncover, you know, what’s really going on here. Love that a lot. Okay. So thanks for peeling that layer back. Let’s go back to the strategy piece. I love how you, like, really pounded the stake in the dirt and said it starts off strategy or doesn’t start at all. Paraphrasing a little bit, but that’s why I love how firm you were with that.

 

Why does Up and Up believe so much that it’s got to start from strategy or does what or we don’t do it so why is Up and Up so committed to that. Yeah. We’re so committed because we believe in the work that we do. And the only way that we’re going to be able to get the results that we do is by really doing the upfront work.

 

I mean, I think that we have learned, in the past or we’ve seen other people do it where they’re like, oh, yeah, we’ll just dive in and like, here’s your thing. But then, you know, two months, three years, however long it is, you’re having to circle back and you’re like, you know, I don’t think we actually got it the first time around.

 

So if we need to start with strategy and we need to maybe hang out there a little longer just to say, like, hey, we’ve got one shot at this, let’s get it right the first time. Then that is our approach and we will do everything we can to uncover it and make sure that our clients are fully on board before we even move through our process.

 

Yeah, I was just going to say it’s one thing to add, too. Allison hit the nail on the head. The reason it’s so important is because if we just put everyone into a mold and they all come out with the exact same answer, we’re not doing justice to our client’s needs. So by starting with strategy, truly peeling back those layers, as Allison mentioned, uncovering what’s the problem?

 

Where do we need to start? It doesn’t just solve the problem for the now, but it gives them a foundation to continue to iterate on for the future. So again, we’re very focused on student success. And the only way students are going to be successful is if we give our institutional partners the tools that they need to continue the work when we’re gone.

 

If they don’t have a strong strategy, that work ends when we leave and we’ve done a disservice to everyone. So it’s very important for us to make sure we truly understand how we start a project with a long period of time in mind, even if it’s only a two month project on our part. Those two months can translate to two, three, ten years for our clients.

 

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Get to Know Your Clients: Learning This Lesson from Scott & Allison

 

So here again Onward Nation, big, big lesson that Scott and Allison are driving home here. And the value of strategy and actually see this in what they’re sharing here in two different pieces. And here’s what I mean by that. There’s strategy that they, whether that’s research, whether that’s thought, whether that’s putting their smarts into preparing for that kind of first call, if you will, and then once they’re engaged in doing strategy to make sure that the the project is on the right course and so forth, what I think is really, really great.

 

And here this transcends industry. This is industry agnostic. If we’re going to be presenting ourselves and putting our best foot forward, we can be taking lessons from Scott, Allison and doing this in a smart way. Because my guess is guys, is that when you have those first calls or those first meetings that the stakeholders that you’re presenting to, they probably walk out of those sessions and they think, and Scottand  Allison like they get us.

 

Do you hear those questions they asked? No one’s ever asked this, those questions before because they really push us to think they understand this space. They understand this business. They understand the challenges we’re facing at this institution. Right. That’s definitely a goal, Steve. And so we do. You hit the nail on the head just there. When we do a project, we want our clients to leave with that.

 

That exact statement that you said, wow, you get us and you solve this problem that is unique to us. That’s exactly what we want to happen. 

 

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Get to Know Your Clients: Specific Skills That Business Owners Need to Have

 

Okay. So let’s think about this from a skills perspective. Again, this business development that I know that the two of you, obviously you live it, you breathe it every single day. And sometimes when that happens there’s this unconscious genius at work.

 

Like sometimes it’s easy to kind of lose sight of the things that you do every single day just because it becomes second nature to you. But let’s think about it from a skills perspective. If you were to break it down for business owners who need this strategic process in their business, for business, what are a couple of the skills like, what do you think that a business owner really needs to get good at in order to sort of replicate this process for themselves?

 

Yeah, I think the first one is tenacity, to be honest. And I think that that’s kind of inherent because the number one thing with business development, whether it’s, you know, outside sales, inside sales, like whatever that looks like, you have to have this tenacity about you because it just becomes monotonous. I mean, there’s not necessarily something fun every day about trying to reach out to leads and being told, no, we’re not getting contacted at all.

 

And so I think that the number one skill is that tenacity, because you have to show up every day and say, today is going to be the day. Like today, someone is going to say, yes. And that’s very hard to do. I mean, even for Scott and myself. Like we try to be very positive when we are naturally positive people.

 

But every day is a grind and you have to recognize that and show up as your new self each and every time, and also recognize that, like, this may be the fifth time or sixth time or whatever time it is of that day that you’ve done this same thing and tried to have the same conversation. Whoever it is that’s in front of you or whoever it is that you’re trying to reach out to, this is their first time.

 

And so you need to treat every single interaction as if this is the first time that you’ve done it. So really, I think number one is tenacity. Love that. Scott would love to have your perspective too. Yeah, I would definitely agree with everything Allison said there too. And I think a second piece there is around the process, understanding what are those inputs that it’s going to take to provide those outputs.

 

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Get to Know Your Clients: Always Give Clients the Best Options Upfront

 

So like I said earlier, Allison and I ask a lot of questions, but we’ve developed these questions over time. We’ve worked with our teammates to uncover, hey, what do you really need to know to do the best work possible? Because we have a guarantee of excellence, and the only way we can deliver excellent work is by making sure we have the information upfront to properly scope an opportunity, give our clients the best options upfront, and give them options.

 

The only way we can do that is to truly follow a process that we know is going to uncover what that true pain is. So have to have a process, have a foundation, and then second, that encourage your team to be passionate about what they’re doing. Help them find a way to truly believe in the work that they’re positioning in the market.

 

Because if you believe it, it’s not a sell. It’s you’re not selling it. Allison is truly out there talking about what we’re passionate about. So we’re not selling. We’re we’re we’re just telling a story. And we’re trying to help others tell theirs. Well, if it’s really like a transference of your enthusiasm to the stakeholders at the institution. If they can hear and see and feel your passion for actually helping them solve their challenges, you know, that becomes contagious after a while, doesn’t it?

 

Yeah. You really have to understand why. And I think that that’s something that we talk about on a daily basis not only like why we’re here and why we show up every day, but we also try to transfer that to our clients. And most of the time when we’re doing a face to face meeting with them, we start that off with like, hey, why are you here?

 

And once they understand their why, it’s almost like the ship can totally move forward and everyone’s on board and we’re just moving in this one direction because we’re all like, hey, we get it, and we’re all here for the right reasons. Yeah. It’s great. 

 

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Get to Know Your Clients: Most Influential Lesson from a Mentor

 

So I know that we’re, you know, quickly running out of time, but before we go, I want to chat a little bit about mentorship and specifically influential lessons, from your own mentors.

 

Right. So a mentor for Scott and a mentor for Allison and so, think about the most influential lesson that both of you have received. And because I want to get perspectives from both of you on this point. So Scott, let’s start with you first. So tell us about the most influential lesson that you ever learned from one of your mentors, and then how that lesson helped you become the person that you are today.

 

It’s a great question, and it actually is a lesson that I learned, from a man named Jack Reddy. So, Jack, if you’re out there listening, shout out to you. But what he told me was that the most important thing about being in a position of business development or sales or strategy is that you have got to own your mistakes.

 

And if you make a mistake, stand up on a chair, shout to the world. Hey guys, I messed up, I need help. Don’t try to hide from that. Because if you hide from it, no one’s going to help you. No one’s going to support you. But if you are transparent, if you’re honest, if you’re upfront and you’re proactive with that, you’ll have the whole world at your back to support you.

 

So that has been a huge lesson for me. And so, Jack, if you’re listening, thank you. That was about ten years ago and I use it every day. That was a great lesson. Thank you Jack, because now you just passed that on through Scott to Onward Nation. That is awesome. And great for helping other business owners.

 

That is fantastic. So thank you for that. Allison. How about your lesson? Yeah. So I think my lesson, it’s funny when you mentioned that I had to think quickly, and I don’t think mine necessarily comes from a mentor, but it’s the number one lesson. I think that kind of drives me a lot is, like, it’s okay to hear no more.

 

So hearing about your career, I think has helped build me to who I am, because it makes you want to work that much harder for where you are. And I think that that’s personally what has given me my drive to succeed is having that moment in time where I had someone look me in the eye and say, no, like, this is not going to be the move for you.

 

This is not where you need to be. And then it lets you kind of internalize it and really find what your passions are, and really figure out, like, why did I hear this now and then? Be grateful for it, to understand that there’s something else that’s out there for you. So I think that that’s my biggest lesson is when I hear and know I’m like, okay, that’s a no, but what is a yes?

 

That’s going to come from that because something else is out there, guys. Such a great, great conversation. And you were exactly helpful to Onward Nation business owners as I knew that you would be. I mean talking about challenges and whys and strategy first, and really being committed to uncovering the pain and solving the problems. Just awesome.

 

And so I know that we’ve quickly run out of time. But before we go, before we close out and say goodbye, what is the best way for Onward Nation business owners to connect with you? 

 

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Get to Know Your Clients: How to Connect with Scott & Allison

 

You can reach out to us at contact at upandup.agency. And that goes to our entire team. So depending on the Right person, we’ll get back to you as soon as possible okay.

 

Onward Nation, no matter how many notes you took or how often you go back and relisten to Scott and Allison’s words of wisdom, which I sure hope that you do. The key is you have to take what they so generously shared with you, take it, and apply it into your business right away. In Accelerate Your Results. And Scott and Allison, we all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day.

 

And I’m grateful again that you said yes and came on to the show where our mentors and guides help us move our businesses onward to that next level. Thank you so much, my friends. Thank you for having us. We appreciate it, Stephen. It’s been fun. 

 

This episode is complete. So head over to OnwardNation.com for show notes and more food to fuel your ambition. Continue to find your recipe for success here at Onward Nation.

 

Learn more secrets on how you can get to know your clients by clicking here