What Business Development Really means, According to Monty Hamilton

Mo asks Monty Hamilton: What is your personal definition of business development?

• Growth is simply about relationships. Being valuable to someone is intrinsically rewarding.
• Over the course of Monty’s career, the Give To Get mentality became a core part of how he built the business. Fundamentally, it’s about whether or not you can create a truly authentic and transparent relationship with someone while helping them.
• Don’t focus on what you’re going to get out of a relationship. Instead, focus on being around interesting people that you can also learn from.
• When you’re networking, throw away the title and industry and try to get to know a person’s story. In addition to being more effective at developing business, getting to know someone on a personal level is what makes life more enjoyable.
• Once you land the first meeting, do your research and invest some of your personal time and energy into making their business better, regardless of the end result.
• If you’ve got something valuable and you deliver that in a highly personalized and warm way, you’ve got a chance to meet anyone.
• Come in with some interesting, customized, tailored questions that show your ability to help and bring perspectives that the client could benefit from. The goal of the first meeting should be to secure the second meeting.