– Welcome, everybody, to today’s Building My Legacy Podcast. I have with me today Mandi Graziano. She is a author, a speaker, and she’s done a lot of interesting things. She’s been in sales, she’s been in hospitality and events, and she’s really looked at, how do you build those relationships, even in quick sales, quick negotiations, so that you have something long term. So Mandi, let’s start with how you got into that and then I wanna talk about some of the things that you’re doing right now, and I don’t want to leave out what you’re doing with your book. She’s also just written a book called “Sales Tales”. Came out in October. Her ebook will be coming out April 22nd. She has a very interesting way in which she’s going about marketing it. So I wanna come back to that, but let’s start with, how did you get into all of this?

– That was a like a trick question. Well, everything I’ve ever done I feel like I have just fallen into and I’ve been really, really lucky. There’s a ton of hard work, but I’ve been really lucky. So I think going back to the hospitality piece, I started working at my first hotel in the year 2000 and that was in San Diego. So by way of getting to San Diego was in Cleveland, Ohio, which is where I’m originally from. And I was at a bar with my friends in my early twenties. And somebody came around, one of the beer girls came around and told us to enter this competition. So we filled out a form for a radio station and the next day my roommate won and it was an all expenses paid trip to Dublin, Ireland. And it was put on by Miller Genuine Draft. And I had never really flown anywhere before. I think I flew to Charlotte or something like that. And now I’m traveling across the pond and this is Y2K. So the world’s supposed to explode and I’m getting on an airplane going to Dublin, Ireland. So we went over there and they marketed it as big band, small venue, big mystery. So it was called the blind date concert. They put blindfolds on all of us, put us in a bunch of shuttles, took us to a small venue, dropped the curtains and it was Smashing Pumpkins. And when I was there, that was the first CD I ever bought too a year prior, so I was really keen on this band. And when I was there, I said, I have to make a new year’s resolution that matters. It’s new year’s eve and I’m super lucky being here. So I made the new year’s resolution that by the time I was 25, I am going to move out of Ohio, I’m gonna apply for a whole bunch of jobs in hotels and move out of Ohio. So my birthday’s in August. I had eight months to figure that out. And at that time, I was a marketing manager for a banquet and conference center. So we were all events-based. We had eight banquet rooms, but we didn’t have any sleeping rooms. So I would partner with the local hotels and I had the space, they had the room, so we were a natural match for each other. We solved a lot of customers’ problems, but I became unusually obsessed with hotels, ’cause I thought, oh my gosh, once they open, they never close. This is a 24-hour operation. How does this thing run? If it’s 3:00 AM and somebody checks in, that person at the front desk has to be super happy and welcoming to welcome you into your home. So I got obsessed with hotels and I just applied to a whole bunch of hotels all over the country. I was terribly underqualified. And then the only hotel that would accept me was the Sheraton San Diego. So I came out in June, I interviewed there and a whole bunch of other places. I went back to Ohio and said, I’m moving. My 25th birthday is in August, so my parents, everybody thought I was crazy. I loaded up a 25-foot moving truck, moved to San Diego. And the next day had my final interview at the Sheraton San Diego and a hotel hospitality career was born. And then I elevated and escalated throughout the different hotel companies, hotel leadership roles, all of that for the next 15 years or so. But it started really with a lucky new year’s resolution, Dublin, Ireland in ’99.

– Okay, so when you were in the hospitality business, because you were dealing with events, you honed in on the sales aspect. So talk a little bit about that and how you developed this quick sales. And was that also when you began to develop this business bedside manner?

– Yes to all three questions.

– Okay, let’s talk about that.

– So in the hotel world, the business model is there’s group events and within those group events, there’s social events like a wedding and a . Then there’s corporate events like a training session or something you might go to that’s a daytime thing. Then there’s conferences like a certification, the national association for XYZ, and that’s a multiple day, right? So those sales take a little bit longer, that sales cycle for that long conference takes a little bit longer. But my first job in hotel sales was catering sales. And that was just a really quick hit of you were built for volume. And it was, you had really basically one phone call to identify what the customer needs and to give them all your sales features that you have and convince them either to hold the date, an event date at your hotel, or to come in for a site inspection. That’s what we call a tour of the hotel is a site inspection. And I was really bad at it at first because I was chatty Kathy. I was talking and I wasn’t listening. And then once I learned that, especially for brides, for example, and grooms, this is the most important day of their life. And I’m just talking over them. That didn’t make sense. So the same with seminars, a lot of these people putting on seminars are people like you and I, we are small business owners, we’re entrepreneurs, and we’re doing this to grow a brand. They don’t wanna hear me talk, they wanna talk to me. So once I learned that listening sped up the sale and I learned that I could actually close the sale on that one call, then I was off to the races, but it took a while, and listening was the key to victory with that piece. And then I think… I lost the other questions after the quick sale.

– Oh, so your business bedside manner, was that part of the sales process that you used?

– Well, yes and no. So I developed business bedside manner during COVID. It was a rant. I was on my bike. It was April, 2020. I had just canceled about 120 event contracts, conference contracts, and I’m commission only. So I’m paid when contracts happen. So me canceling over a hundred contracts meant I wasn’t being paid and I was stressed, just riding my bike, sweating it out. And I was having a conversation with myself. So I thought I should probably voice to text this. So as I was riding, I talked to myself about how people were being in that moment. And I was dealing with hotel developers, hotel operators, hotel owners, general counsel for my clients, legal people for the hotel side. And everyone, they were being jerks. Everyone was being a jerk. And I remember sitting back thinking, listen, we are all going through this. This isn’t just you on the hotel side, this isn’t just me. We’re all going through this and we are all going to come out of this, but this damage that’s happening right now, a lot of us aren’t gonna be able to get over that, right? This relationship is gonna take some time to repair. So let’s tweak and fine-tune our business bedside manner now. So when we come out of this, which we will have the greatest buying opportunity of our entire lives, let’s like each other at the end of this so we could be better partners after. And so, business bedside manner for me was just born out of a bike rant and me noticing people not being kind to each other. And then I also noticed we kept asking each other, how are you? It’s like, listen, I know how you are. You’re tired, you’re exhausted, you’re fearful, all of these things, right? So let’s just take how are you off the table and let’s change that to what made you laugh this week or what has changed for you or how have you changed or what keeps you up at night? Like, let’s just change those questions. So business bedside manner was born out of a bike rant, but I hearken back to 20 years prior when I had a really bad business bedside manner when I was actually working at the hotel right after September 11th. And I talk a lot about that in the book about some of the things I did in the past that were really bad. Great examples of bad business bedside manner. And all of those sort of led me to creating this business bedside manner concept to which I chat about and I actually trademarked it, I love it. So I love that saying so much, but I really try and live by that as well.

– So tell me what were your mistakes and what do you do differently now? Because I don’t think that that ranker is finished. I think we’re in just a new level of it.

– I totally agree with you. I totally agree. I mean, I think my mistakes were really just, one, being greedy, only looking at it from my point of view. Like, the point of view is so important in every sale, in every business situation, or even in your own. You’re buying a piece of furniture, the person selling you that piece of furniture, they have their own perspective, needs, wants, desires, and you’re the buyer, right? So I can’t go into every situation just knowing my own piece. I have to understand all the avenues here. And I think that was my mistake. I was greedy, I was only looking at it from my perspective. And I really wasn’t understanding the intentions and motivations of other people. And I think once we drop the reins on that, I think we’re so much more successful. And I think right now, I think we’re all making some mistakes right now, but I think a lot of us are doing business the same way we did in 2019. And if we’re doing business the same way in 2022 that we were in 2019, we’ve gotta stop, ’cause our customers have changed, their businesses have changed, and not everybody has changed in the same way. And so I think the mistakes, and I’m still making ’em and I think a lot of people are, is like, we’re not meeting people where they’re at. We’ve gotta really find out where people are, meet them right there, and then rebuild from that position.

– So, people are different, businesses are different. I agree with you there. What are you seeing are the major differences and how are you approaching people differently? I understand the hearing and listening part because you’re absolutely right, I think people are desperate to be heard, but what are you noticing?

– Well, I mean, there’s common things, right? There’s supply chain issues, there’s pricing issues, there’s understaffing issues. Those are three common things across all industries, but I think how different businesses deal with that is a thing, right? So if you’re in the manufacturing industry, now your conversations with your customers are, I can get this for you. It’s going to take two to six months longer than it did prior. Also, it’s going to cost two times more than it did before. And how are you having that conversation? Nobody wants to hear that, but those are things beyond your control. So let’s get in front of that and let’s have those conversations with customers honestly. Let’s not be meek about it and tiptoe about it. Like, let’s really have those conversations. So I’m noticing that people either aren’t having those conversations and they’re just sending an invoice to customers, which nobody likes that, or they are having the conversations, but the conversations are really weird, ’cause people are uncomfortable with confrontation. Or if they are having the conversations, the conversations aren’t telling the big story. And I think your customers can handle it. I think we can handle a lot more now. And I don’t think this is by design, I think this is just from being awkward or uncertain. I think customers really want transparency. I think that they can buy better if they really understand the big picture. I just had a circumstance happen like this with a service provider, a personal situation happened where we had somebody do some service in our home. And it was something where we called and said, hey, it was every couple months, would you like to come do this? And she said, okay, well, I have to charge you this. She increased her prices three times in the last year and a half. And finally I said, hey, this is the third time. I’m not comfortable with this. And I said, can you just explain to me what’s going on in your business? And before me saying I’m uncomfortable with this, I’m gonna get a new provider, I said, can you explain what’s going on in your business? And what was happening in her business was, because our schedule was erratic, we weren’t having her here as much, so it was taking her longer while she was here and it was difficult for her to schedule. So I understand that, right? Then that’s a dollars to grief ratio, right? You have to increase that. So now I said, okay, well, if we can agree to do this on this week once a month, can we keep the price? Can we freeze the price? And she said, no problem. So I think we’re missing that step right now, right? Asking what’s going on in your business as a buyer, what’s going on in your business that’s causing you to price this this way or causing this delay this way. But I think low staffing, supply chain, and price increases everybody’s experiencing right now, but everyone’s not handling it the same way right now.

– Right, not everybody’s finding solutions. And if you don’t find a solution, then tensions rise, stress rises, and companies go under if you can’t figure that one out. It’s a huge one. I wanna spend a moment talking about quick sales. How do you complete a sales quickly? Because you really emphasized relationships, right? That’s what bedside manner is all about. And when I think about people who do quick sales, it’s that slick salesperson who talks you into something with really a very well put together, canned, oiled speech that you regret afterwards. So how do you do this with a quick sales tactic and maintain relationships?

– Yeah, well that’s my whole thing. Sales is not a dirty word. Some bad salespeople give a lot of bad street cred to those of us who are really good. But I think it’s all about asking the questions on the front end. So I think closing, and I talk about this in the book, my chapter on closing is the shortest chapter, because if you’re doing everything right on the front end, closing is the fastest thing. And so I really think it is asking those questions on the front end, getting to know your customer on the front end, and then being able to solve that problem and not solving a canned problem, because everybody’s problem is different and you’re not going to solve every single problem in every single sale, but you might be able to solve that one little problem that is the most painful for the customer. So I think not trying to solve everything in the first deal is important. And focusing on those small wins is really important, but I really think it’s the work you do on the front end that makes the quick close faster and easier. So asking those questions, really listening, solving that exact problem, not all the problems, but just one problem, and then celebrating that mini win, and then you have a customer for life, and then you can continue to quickly close all the other problems.

– Got it. So what you’re talking about is that front end is what leads to the close. And if you do the front end correctly, the close is a natural.

– The close is so easy. Yeah, exactly.

– And I think it’s so good for people to hear that right now, because I think with the inflation, with things that are going on, business is tougher. And people are looking at, how do I turn, how do I turn, how do I get that business? And there’s almost a sense of not quite desperation, but a real sense of stress in terms of meeting numbers. And so people tend to short end that front end. I just gotta get to what I’m about, which is getting that deal and forgetting it’s that front end that leads you to that final step.

– Yeah, and I totally agree. Don’t short the front end. But the other thing is, don’t resist what’s happening in the marketplace right now. The decisions that are being made are more robust than ever before. There’s more eyes on the decision. So in the past, maybe your end user that you’re working with is a director level, right? Well, now the director level is involving the VP level and the C-suite and there’s way more spreadsheets and there’s way more conversations about maybe even the smallest sale. So instead of resisting that and complaining about it, embrace it, right? What are you doing to build yourself for speed? So if you know decision-making involves a lot more spreadsheets now, then create a pre-estimate invoice that you can just quickly plug in and send that to somebody. Maybe you’re already doing that, right? So how can you make that better, faster? How do you make the buying faster for your client? And you have to really lean into what is happening in the marketplace right now. And I think understanding that there’s a lot more people involved. The decision-making is a lot more robust and it may take a little bit longer, but then you also have to explain that to your customers. Hey, customer, I get it. You’re gonna take a little bit longer. And if I were you, I would do the same thing. Here’s what’s happening in the marketplace. Everything’s flying off the shelves. So the longer you take, you may not get exactly what you want, so let’s find five things you really like. So by the time you’re ready, we’ve got a good solution for you. So it’s also how are you having those conversations, preparing them for their decision-making process too.

– Got it. You know what, Mandi, you also have a very interesting approach that you have created for selling your book. You’re right now on a book tour, you’ve created and designed it yourself. So tell our audience a little bit about that ’cause we have a lot of people who are writing books or have written them.

– I mean, before I wrote a book, I didn’t know anything about marketing a book. This has all been trial by fire and the internet is a beautiful thing, but I also talked to a lot of authors, what worked and what didn’t. And the book tour right now, so I’m heading to Ohio, which is where I’m from. Six events in four cities. And I didn’t just wanna be that author sitting at a table signing books that you’re not sure as the author, you think that person might work at the bookstore handing out candy. I didn’t wanna be that person. So each event I intentionally designed to serve that community. So I partnered with the chamber of commerce in Maumee, which is a suburb of Toledo. And I’m delivering a business bedside manner conversation to their business leaders. And we got a sponsor for that. Visit Toledo, the destination marketing arm of Toledo, is going to be a sponsor for that. Now that was a natural pair because I’ve been in the hospitality community, right? So I encourage you to think about what’s within your repertoire and who might be your friends in those marketplaces, ’cause that’s all I did was just reach out to my friends. So that’s a business event and then I’m all about sweat working. I love a good walk. I love a good Spin class. I think that helps you get to a better relationship with your clients. It’s the same as the old school golf game, but now we don’t have to just golf, we can do way more than golf. And so I’m doing a sweat working event also in Toledo and that’s gonna be really fun. It’s the sweat working trifecta. So it’s three different workouts. And then after, we’ve marketed it as leave the boardroom and come into the studio. And so it’s a whole bunch of entrepreneurs getting together, sweat working together. And then after, we have a little reception where we just talk about being an entrepreneur and the goods and the bads and how do we move forward. And then two of the events that are at bookstores for my book signings, I always felt like I had to be a grownup to write a book and I sort of couldn’t wait to be a grownup so I could write a book. It’s the only thing I ever really wanted to do. And then I realized now like you don’t have to be a grownup. There’s great books out there written by kids. So my book signings are really kid-focused. I have some kid activities. We’re gonna have a little TikTok wall. We’re going to have some workbooks. If you were a superhero, how would you change the world? Kids could draw pictures at it and then we’re going to assemble books for them. So essentially that will be their first book they ever write. And of course I’ll be there signing books and I’ll be there talking about the book, but I wanted each experience to have an activation that was meaningful for the person that took the time out of their day to drive however far they drove to come see me or come learn about a new book. And so those are at the book events and then I’m doing a break the internet audiobook launch party at a local dive bar in my hometown in Cleveland and all at one time. I have different friends and family that are gonna help people download the Audible app. And then at a certain time, I think it’s 7:30 or something like that, we’re all gonna press buy at the same time, try and break the internet. I hope it doesn’t, but we’re all gonna buy the book all at the same time. It’s on April 22nd, the whole day, everybody can buy my audiobook. But at that particular event, we’re gonna hit buy and we’re gonna build up to it and hit buy. And then I’ve got prizes. So all of these events, I have prizes and I have a QR code that people can scan. If you scan it, you instantly sign up for my newsletter, Sales Tales Nuggets. And with that, then you’ll enter to win these prizes. And the prizes are awesome. They’re stuff in market, hotel gift certificates, baseball game things. Some of them are journals, some of them are gourmets tees, but I want everybody to leave with a little something from each event.

– How wonderful. I love that idea. And I think for many of the people who are listening, it’ll be really a great thing for them to take away. Mandi, our time is almost up. What have we missed? What would you like to leave with our audience as their closing thoughts?

– Closing thoughts, well, a couple thoughts. Give yourself a break right now. We are all running at breakneck speeds and not everything’s gonna be perfect. So just do your best and just give some grace to those around you and know that they’re all doing their best too. And I think everybody has good intentions right now. We’re all just doing our best. At least that’s my little mantra I give to myself every day. And schedule breaks for yourself. We’re all working a lot and I’ve found my personal success in how to keep my brain intact and keep myself focused, is every 90 minutes, I’ve got a break scheduled on my calendar. I literally take a five-minute break. I either go outside, take some fresh air, take a glass of water, something like that. But I’m all about this is an endurance situation. This is a marathon, this is not a race. We’ve been waiting for this, now it’s here. Let’s make it last and let’s make something good of this.

– I love that. Let’s make it last and let’s make something good of it. And think through what your bedside manner is, it matters. It matters, doesn’t it?

– Totally.

– Mandi, thank you so much for being with us today. And for those of you that are listening, we will have information about Mandi in our show notes. Remember, her ebook “Sales Tales” will be coming out April 22nd. And it’s available through your website, through Amazon, is it?

– Yeah, so the ebook is already out. So the ebook and the physical book is already out through my website, mandigraziano.com. Amazon, Target, really anywhere you buy books, that’s already available. And then the audio book that comes out on the 22nd, that’ll be available on iTunes and on Amazon and on Audible. So really, if you just Google “Sales Tales Mandi Graziano” any way you wanna buy a book is out there in some way.

– You got it. Okay. So if any of you need help, let us know. We’ll be glad to connect you with Mandi. Mandi, thank you very much for your time today.

– Thanks so much for having me. It was nice chatting with you.

– You are so welcome. And for those of you who are listening to Building My Legacy Podcast, thank you for being with us today and remember to visit our website at www.build2morrow.com with the number two and also with our new website, startwithcollaboration.com. So thank you very much.