MBA1337 Do Business Lunches & Dinners Still Work? + Free Ride Friday!

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Hey, today is Free Ride Friday so make sure you hang on to the end of the episode to hear who won this week's free ride. Every Friday we give away a lifetime membership to our course easy course, a 500 course on how to build your own online course in 30 days. But somebody's going to win it for free this Friday. And every Friday all you gotta do is leave us an itunes rating interview to enter our weekly random draw. Listen in on Friday to see if you won. It's that simple. It's our way to say thanks for leaving us love on itunes. All right, let's jump into today's episode. Hey O. Welcome to the $100 NBA show business made just a little bit simpler with our daily 10min business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the Hundred Dollar mba, a complete business training and community online. And in today's episode you will learn. Do business lunches and dinners still work or is that just a thing of the past that worked in the 60s like we're in Mad Men. That's what we get into. And if it does work, how can you make it work for your business so you actually see it as an investment and not just a cost? Relationships is the heart of business. People don't want to do business with people they don't know or trust. It's just easier to make a decision to do business with somebody that you genuinely like. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. I'm a big believer that a lunch or a dinner is one of the most cost effective investments you can do in business. We all should have a list of people or organizations or companies we want to do business with, we want to partner with, that we want to earn their business. This should be easy to access. A spreadsheet, a piece of paper, your wish list of clients. On that list might be a few people that you've already acquired as customers, as a business partner, as somebody that you work together with to help grow your business, whether it's a joint venture or an affiliate relationship. And those relationships will die if you don't nurture them. Now here's a little hack next to each person, each company, each whatever, you should put where they're located, where they have an office. It could be multiple locations. If it's an individual, where are they based? Why? Because if you ever travel to their area or even around that area where it's only going to cost a bit of money to, you know, hop on a flight to see them, if you get the pleasure and the privilege to have dinner with them, to have a lunch with them, you should jump on that opportunity. And I'll tell you why. Important people are busy and that's just the bottom line. Time is their biggest asset and they're actually going to give it away for free. So they're really only going to say yes if they value at some level. That means you have a foot in the door and you have a chance to really build that relationship. And again, if you've already built a relationship, to nurture that relationship, the cost of a dinner or a lunch, if it's one on one and you're covering the tab, could be a hundred or $200. And maybe not every dinner or lunch or relationship you try to build through a meal is going to work out or is going to pan out to business in the future. But it's a numbers game. You got to see it as an investor. You know, investors, they invest in several companies, not one company. In fact, they'll invest in several companies in the same niche that do the same thing. Why? Because they believe in the power of numbers. They believe in the fact that, hey, if I invest in 10 different companies, chances are a few of them are going to succeed. And even though some of those I invested that did not exceed, I'll cover my losses and then some with the wins of the successful companies. You got to see it the same way when it comes to building relationships. You can't feel like it's tit for tat. You can't feel like, hey, what am I getting out of this relationship? What am I getting out of this lunch? If I don't get anything out of it, it's a loss. No, it's an investment. And you got to see it that way. And you know that it's not always going to pan out. And you still go genuinely trying to build that relationship. Now, obviously, if you travel for conferences, if you travel for business, and you are actively trying to build relationships with different people, chances are there's going to be somebody you can have a lunch or dinner with in that city. So let's dive into two things here. Number one, how does this actually benefit you and your. And number two, how do you actually plan one of these dinners or lunches and make it happen? Let's start with, number one, how does this benefit your business? Well, if you want to stand out from the competition, you got to do something differently. You got to actually make an effort, an effort that others don't. And I find that when I make that effort, when I actually reach out and say to somebody, hey, I'm going to be in your city next month. I'd love to take you out for lunch. I'd love to take you out for dinner. Does this day work for you? Just love to catch up, see what you're up to. And it doesn't have to be super formal. It doesn't be like, hey, I'd like to give you a presentation about my product. It could just be like, hey, I just want to catch up with you, see what's going on, and generally be concerned and build that relationship. What you're doing here is you're laying down the foundation. This really is why it's so important. This is really why it works, is because when you have that meal together, when you have an hour or two together, you get to know each other, you learn about each other, you build some sort of foundation, some sort of bond, and you can build upon that when you part from each other, when you go home, when you go back to your office, you can follow up with an email, you can follow up with a call, and from there, it's a lot easier to get on a demo call to see if you can serve them or fulfill their Needs. The power reciprocation is very powerful. People want to feel that they're not selfish, so they're going to want to, hey, no problem, let's get on a call. They'll appreciate, you know, the fact that you took them out to dinner or lunch. The other reason why this is really good is because when you have that meal with this person, with that person from this company or whatever it is, you can learn quickly in real life, face to face, if they're gonna be a good fit for you and your offerings, for your business, or for whatever kind of partnership you want to do. In my experience, 25% of the time, I leave that meal feeling like, you know what? I don't think we're a good fit. I don't think we can serve them. And that's great because it saves you time, it saves you money, it saves you pursuing somebody that you can't really make happy. It also makes you learn about who you can make happy, who you should go after, what type of businesses you should really try to build relationships with. Now, another reason why this works is just psychology. When people are happy and they associate happy feelings with you, that's a good thing. You want to make sure that people remember you and have a positive feeling connected to you. And everybody loves food, everybody loves drink. And whether they realize it or not, you're associated with those good feelings. This gives you an tremendous advantage versus having a Skype call or just going over email. Lastly, breaking bread. Having a meal with somebody is probably one of the oldest traditions in human tradition, right? It's how we make a bond. It's how we actually communicate and work with one another as fellow human beings. It's something that's just in our DNA and you're just basically utilizing what is built into our system to help build a relationship. Now how do you do this? Well, you should take a look at your year in advance, your calendar, and see where you're going to be in different cities. If you are traveling a lot, this is going to be a bit of an exercise, but at least you know where you're going. Then you can cross reference where the people that are on your list, your wish list, are located, and start reaching out to them, letting them know, hey, next quarter I'm going to be in your city. Let's schedule something. If they're busy people, it's never too early to schedule and it's better to just grab some time on the calendar. Now, personally, if somebody reached out to me and said, let's have lunch, or dinner. And they said, you know, it's three months from now or six months from now. I'd actually be happy with that because I know for sure I can book it and put it in my calendar and work around it. So now you know where you're going and you know where you possibly could see people. Now we got to do the other way around. If there are people on your list that you're not going to be seeing in the next year or you're not going to be in their area or they're not close by where you're going to be visiting or traveling to reach out to these people and ask them, are they going to be in your city? Is there any chance they're going to be in your city, in your neck of the woods? And ask them, are you going to any conferences? Are you going to anything that maybe you'd be interested? Do you recommend any conferences that we should go to? You might find that, hey, maybe you should go to this conference and it's a good opportunity for you to again, have a lunch or dinner with this person. But they can come to your city as well, and then you can show them around. You can give them a nice little tour along with a nice meal. People will remember that. Personally, I like to make it clear that this is my treat, like I'm going to be treating you. Don't worry about the check. It's my pleasure to pay for this meal. That way people understand that these are your intentions. You really just want to treat them out. Sometimes I do it as early as the email where it says, hey, I'd love to treat you for dinner or lunch. Or I say, hey, let's have dinner, my treat, something like that. I also like to invite their significant other, maybe their partner in life, and I'll do the same. There's no reason why it has to be like some corporate serious meeting. In fact, I actually encourage you to pick up the tab for everybody, including the spouse, because that resonates more. You know, people really do enjoy having a good meal with their loved one. It's more of a shared memory than just by themselves. Now, if I don't do it as early as the email, when I sit down and have the meal, I actually do say this. I say it in an nice, friendly, joking way, but I make it clear, hey, this is my treat. I want to shout you. I want to make sure that I pay for this tab. So please order what you like. This is on me. And just on a personal side, if you're on A budget. If you want to make sure you have a budget for this, you choose the place where you want to have lunch or dinner. And in advance, you can go on their website, take a look at their menu and get an understanding of how much you're going to spend. So if you want to spend, you know, $100, then find a lunch spot that will kind of COVID $100 with food and drink and tip and everything. Your budget's a little bit more. You can find something a little bit fancy or maybe go for dinner. But my advice is when you choose a place, find a place where you can actually sit down and have a meaningful conversation, something comfortable. It doesn't have to be super quiet. But tacos from a food truck is not the ideal situation. The ideal place to have, you know, a meaningful, long conversation. Another little tip is if somebody's going to be visiting your local area and you know the restaurant, you can visit the restaurant maybe a week beforehand, speak to the manager, have a meal there, tip well, and they'll remember you and they'll say, hey, it was great to have you. And at the end be like, I'm coming back next week. I'm gonna bring some guests because I've enjoyed myself so much. You're gonna get some really good service and people are really gonna appreciate you, especially if you make a reservation and you let them know you're coming back. Lifelock, how can I help? The IRS said I filed my return, but I haven't.

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To wrap up today's lesson, if you want to build long term relationships and really Get a head start on new ones. Then really consider being strategic and planning out these lunches and dinners with the people you want to build relationships with. I've really made an effort to do this over the years with the people I want to build relationships with, and it's really helped me not only make new relationships, but to keep the ones I have. I can think of at least 10 people that I've done this with that if I gave them a call right now and asked for a favor, they would do it for me. A personal favor. Not even business. They've actually become my friends. And the reason why that happened is because I genuinely want to get to know them as friends. I am not going on this, you know, mission to just have lunches and dinners to try to get something out of them. I just want to have a meal with somebody. I might enjoy their company and if I can help them through my business, fantastic. And if I can't, totally cool as well. Maybe they can help me. Maybe they can introduce me to other people that I can help. The point here is that this investment never falls short. It pays dividends in the long run because you're putting relationships first. Thank you so much for listening to the $100 NBA show. Today's episode's not over, though, because it's free ride Friday. Let's see who won this week's free ride. And the winner is. Eric Eugene Smith. Eric says simple steps, five stars. Omo breaks down things easily to help us build our business and increase sales. I love how these short episodes are packed with information. Thank you, prayer hands. Thank you, Eric, for that review. You are a free Auto Friday winner. Your mission is to email me over at omar00nba net so I can hook you up with the free ride to EZ course. It's that simple. If you want to win a free ride like Eric just did, just leave us iTunes rating and review and you enter our weekly random draw for Freeride Friday. Listen in on Friday just like today, to see if you won. Before I go, I want to leave you with this one last tip. If you're going somewhere like a city for a conference and there's several people you want to meet up with, but you know, you can't be spending so much money on dinners left and right. Another option is take them out for a drink or even a morning coffee. It'll probably be one of the best 10 or $20 investments you ever made At a conference. People remember kind gestures, even if they're simple and small. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in Monday's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

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