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Don Scott

Are You Ready to Make Higher Connections? Here's How - Part 1

February 7, 2018

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I help clients make more money. For example, a client’s CPA and I just showed a business owner how to save a cool $17 million. That is easy enough with businesses, family offices, and high-net-worth clients. However, what about investment advisors, relationship managers, accountants, lawyers, sales people and pretty much everybody else?
We are all interested in making more.

Success is a direct reflection of the quality of our human connections. It is not about our expertise or what we say, although those matter. Far more powerful is a deeper inner sense of Higher Connection. In this two-parter, I will share what I’ve learned. This is powerful stuff.
The outcome depends on you. Young professionals and seasoned veterans have a chance to shift. A little or a lot. If your experience is like mine, you will feel it instantly. You will see yourself having more meaningful conversations. Moving towards closing sales and other objectives with clarity, speed, and frequency. You will see it in your bank account.
Yesterday, I had coffee with someone I hadn’t known very well before then. He was selling his business, and I had a particular trick up my sleeve. As it turns out, that idea should net him the tidy sum of just over $100,000. What a blessing to me to be able to help him and his family. In any event, we spent something over an hour together. We went through the money thing fairly quickly, and for a longer time talked about “life”. We had a Higher Connection. At one point, our eyes were moist. We got to know each other a good bit better, really fast. The text he sent me immediately afterwards was very rewarding and says it all.

"Thank you for one of the best one hour meetings I have had in a long time!"

I next jump back to around my age 30. Picture a Senior Tax Manager at Arthur Andersen in the olden days. I was desperate to make partner, prove myself worthy, all that stuff. More baggage than you could put in an 18-wheeler. Helped a lot people, and probably turned off three times that many. So, I just did more. I was a cold caller and general maniac in the quest of whatever it was I thought I was supposed to do.

Around that same time, Andersen acquired the practice of Dr. Leon Danco. Dr. Danco was recognized as the founding father of the field of family business consulting. To make the point, his consulting fee was $20,000 a day. He was the real deal. Dr. Danco dealt with succession planning, soft issues, for large family-owned businesses. He used to say things like “You guys give away the good stuff trying to sell a technical solution”. He was right.

The first time I heard Dr. D. speak was at our training center in St. Charles, IL, outside of Chicago. The hair literally stood up on the back of my neck. I had no idea what it really was, but I remember thinking - “This guy’s got something."

I became a disciple, albeit a clumsy one. I studied, I practiced, I was determined. I faked it ‘til I made it. I’d cold call some business owner, get a meeting, and then go sit across his desk and do my best Danco impression. That prospective client was often 30 or 40 years older than me. Here’s the punchline. More times than I can count, that crusty old business owner would do something after 15 or 20 minutes like get up and walk over and close the door. “Now, this is very confidential. I’ve never spoken with anyone about this”, he’d say. And then he’d just unload. The instant power of Higher Connection!

More to follow in Part 2, and I can’t wait to share! For now, consider the following.

Recommendation #1: Contemplate what I am beginning to describe as Higher Connection. Look for situations where you have had a conversation with someone that was just different/ better than the typical. Mull it around and be with it. Being able to differentiate between Higher Connection and ordinary or good is mission critical.

Recommendation #2: Assess where you are now. Get ego out of the way. If you have a picture of your own connection experiences, on a scale of 1 – 10 where are you? Is it easy or do you have to work at it? Are you a presenter or a connector?

Recommendation #3: Consider all of your efforts. All of your prospect and client meetings, interactions with co-workers, all the rest. Evaluate how those might be different if you naturally engaged at Higher Connection all the time? What would the impact be on the other person, in your satisfaction, success, joy, and to your pocketbook?

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