I ran into a good friend and former Deloitte colleague, Samantha (Sam), at the Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival, this past weekend. A fantastic time for Pinot lovers. We caught up on family and work, where Sam blew me away when she told me how well she was doing in bringing in business.
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I worked with Sam when she was a Sr. Manager in the forensic group. I always knew she was an amazing forensic accountant but did not realize the hidden talent she had with business development. At the time, I was tasked with working with Sam to teach her how to generate business in her own authentic way. She needed to learn these important skills to become Partner. This was 10 years ago.

I received an email from Tony, a former client, expressing his appreciation for my help during our time working together. That is always great to hear, yet what made this note unique was the fact that he and I worked together 3 and ½ years prior to his “thank you” email.
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My first response was “thank you for what?” It had been a while since I heard from him.
He said, ”for helping me find my own clients.” I wanted to learn more about what clicked for him over the past few years, so we set up a call to properly catch up.

I was on a coaching call with a client of mine, Amos, who is a corporate Partner for a mid-sized law firm. Amos was beaming about a new client he recently acquired. The opportunity was well into six figures in fees and the deal was an interesting one. I asked him how he met this client. He scratched his chin and had to think back on when he first met him.

“It was a year and a half ago at a conference. We exchanged contact information, and I stayed in touch. It wasn’t until today that he needed my help.” Replied Amos.

“Let me ask you a question.” I inserted. “When you returned from that conference, what did you think? Was it worth your time and energy?” I asked.

“At the time, no! I thought it was a waste of my time because I didn’t land any new opportunities.” He said.
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“What is your opinion of that conference now?” I asked.
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“Yeah, yeah. I get it.” He sheepishly replied.