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In this episode of Prospecting on Purpose, Brad Englert, author of Spheres of Influence: How to Create and Nurture Authentic Business Relationships, dives deep into why mastering your Spheres of Influence is a critical skill for long-term success. With over 40 years of leadership and technology experience, Brad shares how intentionally building professional relationships within both internal and external Spheres of Influence can transform your career growth and business impact.
Brad reveals proven strategies to strengthen your Spheres of Influence, including understanding goals, setting clear expectations, and genuinely caring about others' success. Discover how to create authentic, lasting connections with key stakeholders and turn business relationships into valuable partnerships.
This episode is packed with insights for sales professionals, entrepreneurs, and leaders seeking to elevate their influence and business success.
🔑 Key Highlights:
Why building your Spheres of Influence both internal and external, is essential for professional growth.
The three principles for authentic business relationships: understanding goals, setting expectations, and showing genuine care.
How to build strategic partnerships with clients, peers, and leadership teams.
Actionable steps to manage professional relationships with long-term success in mind.
If you're looking to master the art of relationship-building and expand your Spheres of Influence, this episode offers the tools and strategies you need to thrive in today's business landscape.
#SpheresOfInfluence #BradEnglert #LeadershipDevelopment #RelationshipBuilding #SalesSuccess #ProspectingOnPurpose #BusinessGrowth
Connect with Brad:
🌐 Visit Brad's Website: bradenglert.com
🔗 Connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bradenglert
Connect with Sara
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@saramurraysales LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saramurraysales/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saramurraysales/
Prospecting on Purpose is *the* show to discuss all things prospecting, sales, business, and mindset. As businesses evolve and become more complex, there are HUGE opportunities to cross-pollinate different industries, sales channels, and business practices. This is a place where professionals come together to learn from one another as we prospect for new businesses with creativity, authenticity, and intentionality.
Prospecting on Purpose is a mix of Forbes meets Saturday Night Live with your host, Sara Murray. A heart-centric sales champion who will raise your vibes while increasing your confidence in every part of the sales journey; from marketing and prospecting to asking for the order and creating consistent repeat business.
Join Sara every Monday for a brand new episode as she unpacks contemporary business strategies with world-class thought-leaders and shares her own insights on how to connect with clients, communicate with confidence, and close the deal!
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and I said okay
give me some advice she goes
get out of the office and let them know you give a damn
and that was the best advice
it wasn't gonna be a question of
if something would go wrong
it's when it goes wrong and how do we work together
and she sent me an email said
my son is applying for a job at the university
could he talk to you
you know I'm officer of the university
sure I'll talk
but it was like
we had not stopped talking to each other in 10 years
get some time on their calendar
and the intentional about what you want to achieve
so when I met with my customers or my peers
I would have an agenda beforehand
I said
here's some things I'd like to talk with you about
do you have anything you wanna talk to me about
and so before you show up
you're already thinking through the topics
rather have them in the tent than outside the tent
throwing rocks at us and some people say
I'm too busy I don't have time for that
you don't have time not to do that
oh I think where we started
which is understand their goals and aspirations
set and manage expectations and genuinely care
and if you do that
in each of your business relationships
you'll be successful
you're listening to prospecting on purpose
where we discuss all things prospecting
sales business and mindset
I'm your host Sara Murray
a sales champion who's here to show you that
you can be a shark in business
and still lead with intentionality and authenticity
tune in each week
as we dive into methods to connect with clients
communicate with confidence and close the deal
Brad Englert is the founder of Brad Englert Advisory
and an author advisor
and technologist
with over 40 years of experience in the private
and public sectors
Brad brings great experience to us on the show today
his recent book which we are going to talk about
years of influence how to create and Nurture
Authentic Business Relationships
offers a practical guide to help emerging
and establish leaders learn and perfect the critical
hard skill of building effective
and lasting professional relationships
which is right on topic
for what we talk about on this show
so Brad I wanna give you a warm welcome to
prospecting on purpose thank you so much
thanks for inviting me
I'm so happy to have you on the show
you know I think that when I went through the book
and I see your content on LinkedIn
it's very aligned with what we talk about on this show
and this is you know
some of my favorite things to talk about
so I'm really excited to dive in
I wanna just jump out the gate with
you know
you position building relationships as a critical
hard skill I think
a lot of people bucket it into the soft skill category
so
talk a little bit about why you call this a hard skill
what makes it a hard skill
and let's just start there
well I did notice
you don't have to be born with the ability to develop
authentic business relationships
and and I believe that you'll be more effective
if you focus intentionally and strategically
on building a number of business relationships
and you'll be more successful if you do that well
I think that is a really nice segway into
the way that your book is structured
because I think that was my biggest take away
as I was reading it is
you talk about strategically creating relationships
with certain types of professional relationships
and your book is structured into internal
and external Spheres of Influence
can you break down those two for us please
sure the internal spirit of influence
are those business relationships
closest to you be your boss
your direct reports
executive leadership and all your staff
and the external spirit of influences
where you have less direct
immediate impact but very important
that would be customers
peers and influencers and strategic Bender partners
well I think
it's kind of interesting that you have the peers
as an external versus an internal
but I understand why it's broken out that way
once you start to think about the strategic webs
that peer may not have a direct influence on your role
but you still influence and work with them in some way
and I really like that
you talk about this concept of influencing to like
what can I ask you
what is the definition of influence in your opinion
well I think it's
being able to understand
what people's goals and aspirations are
because they that's where you start
and almost everyone wants to share that
when I was the boss if my drug report asked
what my goals and aspirations were
I would freely share that same thing with them
sharing with me what their goals and aspirations are
and then second if I can help
it's the ability to set manage expectations
easily said not always done well
and in fact I had to learn how to do that later
later in my career I got much better at it
and then third genuinely care about their success
so whether it's your boss who direct reports
or a customer or a peer
it's how can you help each other be successful
recap that it was
understand the other person's goals and aspirations
yeah setting and managing expectations
yes and genuinely care about their success
that's right let's talk about it
so Chapter 1
starts off with your relationship with your boss
and you had
a couple of different times where you mention that the
it is
your job to establish your relationship with your boss
and I think a lot of people flip that and think
it's the boss's job to establish their relationship
and communicate their expectations
so I really liked that you structured that way
let's walk through those three principles
specific to building a good relationship with your boss
okay well
the first thing is just to ask it seems simple
but some people are scared to ask nervous to ask
but it's welcome to welcome conversation
I had a boss who had sales targets every year
and they got bigger every year well
we would talk about
how can I help the boss meet those targets
and make them successful
and if I didn't ask that question
and know what those targets were
then I'd be flying blind
in sitting and managing expectations
I had this type a partner boss and she
everything was urgent urgent
urgent and she called me one day
it was about 5:00
and I was trying to get out of the office
to have dinner with my wife
and just Brad
I need a white paper only paper
and it's like I literally said whoa
I didn't say no
I didn't say no cause I set her up like a rocket
but I said whoa and I said well
when do you need this white paper
oh let me check my calendar
I meet with the client in two weeks
I thought it was due tomorrow
how many pages should this white paper be
oh three pages
I was thinking 10
do you have an example of a white paper
that I could look at you know
use oh yeah David X
y Z Corporation 10 years ago
well guess what
I went home before I Learned to say whoa
and get a little more time for some mental space and
and thinking I would have stayed up all
I would have called my wife canceled dinner
upsetting her and me I would have stayed up all night
and the next day
delivered a 10 page paper that would upset my boss
cause it didn't meet her expectations
so it's kind of a lose lose lose situation
but I was able to come in the next day give
give the assignment to one of my staff
they had plenty of time
we got it to the boss two days early
haha and it worked well
do you think that by you asking her when she needed it
by like it sounded like it was panic panic
panic and then she paused and looked at her calendar
yeah I think that's kind of a clever tool
to just ask for clarity right
instead of just trying to fill in assumptions
because you think that's what your boss wants right
and
running down the field
when maybe you're not running in the right direction
I think people do that a lot
they're spinning their wheels doing the actions
but not necessarily the right actions
to move the task forward
one of my direct reports at the university
read the manuscript
and she reminded me of the fact that I
would often ask them to slow down
and understand the problem
and of course she's brilliant
you know genius level
she'd zip to the answer right away
it's like don't zip you know
let's really understand what the problems are
and sometimes
problems work themselves out by not doing anything
you know
so let's really understand what the issues are then
what are some other tips that people are listening
that they can use
to really build stronger relationships with their boss
like obviously understanding the goals
setting and managing expectations and communicating
but give us a couple more examples on how we can
help make our bosses lives better
or easier well
the one I mentioned before is very positive
help them achieve their goals
there's also a need to not get them on any list
that would make them look bad
so you know in a big firm
I have staff and I have to do evaluations
and never be late on an evaluation
cause that gets on a report
and then it gets on the boss of this radar
in 22 years not once was I late with the time report
oh why is that
why it's a consulting business
it's driven by hours and expenses
if you don't file that report on time
you get paid and same thing with billing in collection
you have to be on top of all your billing in collection
cause at the firm if you missed a month
they would charge you interest
oh yeah so that doesn't look good
yeah so
and I'm thinking about it from like
a sales perspective
like updating your pipeline because if you know
boss goes in a present
his 10 person or her 10 person team
and pipelines out of whack
or it's you know
bunch of outstanding
opportunities that get you on a list
you don't wanna be on
I think that's a really great like way to frame it
avoid getting them on a list they don't wanna be yeah
that's right so
the other internal Spheres of Influence were
executive decision makers
and I wanna ask you for a tip on that too
because I think when you're in a large organization
or even small organizations
you want visibility to get promoted
so people know who you are
part of your personal brand
and I thought it
was really clever that you included that in
as an example of how to achieve influence
can you talk a little bit about some strategies
for people listening to
build relationships with the executive leadership team
sure great way to prepare
it is to understand the organization's mission
what is the purpose of the organization
understand the vision
where does executive leadership wanna be in 5 years
these are usually on the website
that it's not a mystery so just do your homework
understand what the values of the organization are
and then learn about the culture
you know what it what is valued so at the firm
a big cultural ethos was building the team
building more partners so we make more money
and so you were expected to be a mentee and a mentor
all the way through your career
and value on training so
not a year would go by without you
either teaching a class or taking a class
and three weeks before I was retiring
I was up at our training center in Chicago
200 people from around the globe
I was there with other partners who were teaching good
old fashioned project management
and it was such a joy
cause I had 40 years or 22 years of stories that
that I could share and you know
just but you could not not do that
you could not not be a mentor
you could not not teach and so
you know understand the culture and the values
so when you do interact with the executive leader
you know what where they wanna be in five years
and if you can articulate that
I'm that's just gonna help you get a leg up right
and I feel like it's very similar
when you're building relationships with customers too
absolutely yeah
so maybe the event talk about the external stakeholders
the externals yeah
so I've been on both sides of the desk as a customer
and you know
it struck me in my eight years at the university
how many vendors would show up and not know
anything about us I mean
it's a public university 54,000 students
4,000 faculty 21,000 staff
my organizations mission
vision and values were on the website
but they would show up just
and it didn't do their homework
and it just was underwhelming
and they would treat a trend like a transaction
I had one
vendor who's not a strategic vendor partner
they're just a vendor
and they would show up once a year for their check
their maintenance check
and it was always 10% more than last year
and didn't hear a peep throughout the year
well guess what
we replace that company
but the company that did care had a much better product
much more secure and they cared about us
when we went live and their product
the senior vice president for sales calls me and says
how's it going I mean
that is awesome because this was
you know were a big place and you know
the fact that he took the time to reach out
personally to me and ask
and we had a great relationship
they change our product to work in big
organizations like ours that help them
cause they were able to sell into
the big campuses as well
so it's a mutually beneficial relationship
there's a couple things you said that I wanna
double click on that's
that's my double click on
you know the concept that I love
that you have the experience from being both the seller
and the buyer
because I feel that I'm learning that in my business
too now
I and buying software as I'm
you know hiring different teams
yeah is eye opening to be the client
it's yeah
you really see how I don't want to be dramatic
but the bar is very low for yes
and now and if the boss is doing your homework
and knowing how to build relationships
that's not that difficult to crack
and I so you made the comment about not
about doing your homework
and I think that that's so powerful
I was at a trade show last week
and I'm at a dinner and there's a man next to me
and he's a pretty top level gentleman
at a very large company
like 13 billion dollar company publicly traded
same thing
you can see everything about his company on the website
and he tells me he had the worst meeting of his career
right before the dinner with
oh my gosh with a person
you know with a vendor who's been doing business
them for a while and not a low level person
an executive level person
and the guys asking him all these questions about
everything they could have found on the website
yeah no
that's very frustrating
you're shooting yourself in the foot
you're wasting your meeting time too
that's I it just
it's just unprofessional and are you sure you care
you know that you took the time to actually learn
as much as you could and then think to yourself
how can my company help you
and if not how could someone else help you
sometimes I get asked for help
I'm not the one who could help
but I know someone who can and that pays forward
and that's the relationship skills at 2
shining through right
that you're you're opening to them for my customers
success breed success and an eccenture
80 to 90% of our customers are repeat customers well
why is that because we built that trust
we delivered on what we promised
and people like being successful
and it costs so much more to get into a new customer
than to just grow an existing customer
and there's some metrics out in the industry
it's like 50% more to get a new customer than a
retained customer
and that's where you build these relationships
over decades
I had clients who I worked with years before
very successful well
I get called one day and she sent me an email said
my son is applying for a job at the university
could he talk to you
you know I'm officer of the university sure
I'll talk but it was like
we had not stopped talking to each other in 10 years
but there been 10 years and we just hit it right
hit it right off
and I knew her son when he was 5 years old
why would he want to ask if you know
the worst you could say is I don't have time yeah
there's not a lot of risk there but yeah
from 5 years old to be an attorney
applying for a job and he got the job
that's the wonderful thing
because I knew
attorneys in higher red have associations
that they share all the policies
and the you know
our contract with Google came from
University California Berkeley
we trade we always share all that stuff
I wanna talk about the strategic vendor partners
because that was a really compelling area that I
I think is a wealth of opportunity
if people make it a part of their
you know go to market strategy yeah
before we jump over to that with customers
you talked about doing your homework
you kind of lay out like
a step by step on
how to build relationships with customers
and I liked this because at the top of our interview
you said that you
don't need to be a natural at building relationships
it's a learning skill
so take us through the step by step step
building a relationship with the customer
step one was do your homework
what is step two
step 2 is get some time on their calendar
and the intentional about what you wanna achieve
so when I met with my customers or my peers
I would have an agenda beforehand
and so
here's some things I'd like to talk with you about
do you have anything you wanna talk to me about
and so before you show up
you're already thinking through the topics
and then the discussion would be
what are you trying to achieve
how can I help you get there
and if you don't reach out and ask that
you'll never know so
I had a vice provost who wanted to change
teaching and learning on a very
very large campus and
she wanted to record all the lectures
and have class time be discussion time
well the tools we had to do that were bad actually
the tools was that company that showed up once a year
and you cannot securely connect email to this tool
which is ridiculous and so next for you
chief information officer
so we had a group of faculty and students
evaluate all the products
they picked the product and over two years
my team and her team work together
to roll this transition across the siege campus
and after the product was so good
that there was a natural pole
cause the students hated the clunky old product
they wanted the new one
but if I hadn't got out of my office
and gotten to meet with her
I wouldn't have known that yeah
and she would probably have been frustrated and yeah
try to do it on her own and so
you know that's where it's much more rewarding frankly
to know you're helping yeah
I think that came through in the book too
is this idea of I don't wanna say
I don't wanna say service
but like genuinely caring about their success I mean
that every section
you have to genuinely care about their success
no matter who the other person is
and can you talk a little bit about that
well I had a
a meeting my first week or two at the university
with the professor I'd worked with 15 years earlier
on a statewide network
so been with the university 40 years kind of crusty
and I said okay
give me some advice she goes
get out of the office
and let them know you give a damn
and that was the best advice
because you can get so wrapped up in your work
that you're not getting out there
and so
I made a conscious decision to meet with my peers
across the university about 10
10 people every four to six weeks
like clockwork just put it on the calendar
you know it's nothing magical
just get the agendas out beforehand
and it was very intentional and so public safety
it wasn't gonna be a question of
if something would go wrong
it's when it goes wrong and how do we work together
so I met every four weeks with the public safety
vice president and we talked about what would we do
in certain situations
our teams would get together once a year in practice
a night storm power going out
cyber security attack and believe it
or not one year
the power did go out
we generate our own power
the backup to the utility failed
we're without power well
you we plan for that
during the bomb scare I was out on the mall
didn't have my computer I just had my phone
or standard procedure was when there's a crisis
there's a common conference bridge
everyone gets on it it's hooked to executive leadership
we work that bombscare from the mall wow
so and then things you wanted to state and it's
if you have a working relationship
it's much better well nice
that really speaks to the hard skill of it Brad
you know I have been in technology for a big
majority of my career and I'm not an engineer
I wouldn't say that's my zone of genius
but I always knew who to get on the phone call
like there would be times right
my only contribution to the meeting
was holding up my cell phone
cause I got the 6
people that needed to talk to each other on the phone
cause I need to call
and I had enough relationships to say hey
we're stuck it's urgent
can you give me a ring so
but it's hard to quantify that
and so I think from like a sales environment
it's hard for leaders to really put dollars on
you know the
this connection point
yours is such a great because it's
it's literal public safety
so
it's a
much greater stakes than if you close a deal or not
but I think that it's really helpful to reframe this as
why relationship building is so crucial
and why we have to be intentional about it
and some people say I'm too busy
I don't have time for that
you don't have time not to do that right
issues will rise and
you don't wanna be showing up when they're
all these issues
cause then you're the one bringing issues start
oh my gosh it's true
and there was a
you're asking about strategic vendor partners
those notice I didn't say vendors
you have a lot of vendors
you know spend millions of dollars a year
but there are only a few who are strategic
that I wanna build a relationship with
because if I can
influence their company to help my organization
it's a win win so it's pretty simple
who am I spending the most money with
okay network
you know certain
vendors
and then I would meet quarterly with their sales team
the account manager her boss
purchasing director in his direct report
so all three
cause all three of us have to make this work
and we would just say okay
what are the initiatives for the year
what are some of the new products you have coming
any issues you know
we're big bureaucracy
sometimes we didn't pay our bills quickly
you know so anything I can do to
to make the relationship better
and so
we were building a 32 million dollar data center
and we have budgeted for a line of network gear
well sure enough
as we provision that center
the next generation of network here came out
that's what happens and and yeah
we just been working with this company for many
many years and you know what they did
they discounted it to our budget
because they wanted us
to be a great reference going forward oh
that's cool happy to do so
and that extended the life of that equipment by three
four five years wow
and you know
what I think is so great about that example Brad
is you're demonstrating
from the client perspective to that
it's a true partnership
I think that if we can all kind of as a
just a professional workforce
have this mindset of partnership versus buyer seller
yeah you know
the pitches
the guy showing up once a year to collect their check
the people who don't do their homework
that's gonna dissolve and be more of the exception
not the norm sorry
that someone told me that software sales manager
he had his team
their turnover was like 50% their customer base
so they had a lot of transactions
but it was costing them a lot of money
and so he brought in someone like you and said okay
do you know who your customers are
you need to learn about your customers
you need to understand what your customers are doing
you know be prospecting on purpose
and his retention rate went up to 80%
he had to replace some of the team
because some of the superficial
transaction oriented people didn't want to do that
but he got the right team on board and
and they really turned it around
I love that story
and I think the other thing that I got in every
section was this concept
and kind of like through line of humility
and
gave examples
specifically around the art of apologizing
and I would love for you to give us
some background on why it's important and valuable
and then some tips on how and when
we apologize to others well
central it at the university is 330 people serving
54,000 students 21,000 staff 4,000
you know things are gonna go wrong all the time
and a quarter million
devices hooked to the network every day
you know so it's
it's what I would say to my team is
it's not if things will go wrong
it's when they go wrong
and how we deal with those situations
so we became much more transparent
if there was an issue
and we would blast out a message saying
you know here's the issue or working on it
and then we would follow up with the apology saying
sorry there was a disruption the root cause of this
so first acknowledging you made an error
then saying what you're gonna do to rectify it
ask for forgiveness there's an art to the apology
I had this email from the faculty member
whose daughter was buying a computer in the
campus computer store which I was responsible for
and he sent me this message saying
I can't believe you're offering $1 discount at a
computer in your campus store
well I didn't know that
and so you know
I dug into it and it was actually
we outsourced the store to this vendor who
four years prior
had authorized this letter on my letterhead
so I didn't even know it had happened
but I didn't blame the outsourcer
I didn't blame it
I just said thank you for bringing it to my attention
I got to the bottom of it
you are correct
I'm sorry that shouldn't have happened
and it will never happen again
oh my gosh $1 coupon code
what a funny it was embarrassing too
you know that happens
and I think that there's like
the ability to apologize is really important
I think the art of accepting an apology and moving on
is also a skill I
I remember on the peer to peer influence
we had a project I was working on in Los Angeles
and it was a monster project
and someone from our corporate office made a mistake
and they sent out the wrong pricing
and it was a total accident
it's complex like it
it sucked you know
it was the wrong pricing so it was unfortunate
but then
certain team members just wouldn't trust that guy
for years afterwards it's like
can we just cut the man a break
it wasn't yeah exactly
you know and I think that
but out of everything it spoke more to their character
and the person who made the mistake
and so I think that
I really appreciated it in your book
because I think there's a lot of power and strength to
admitting when something went wrong
because it's just part of life and part of business
and and if
if you have a vulnerability
be vulnerable I can only hear in one ear
so I would when I first meet with a customer or staff
I say I'm sitting this way cause this is my good ear
I don't wanna turn a deaf ear up ear on you
and then you know
over the years I say
am I on your good side
it's like no
it's my job to make sure you're on the good side
but you know
the fact that I was comfortable sharing that
cause they could talk into this year
and I wouldn't hear it fine
my doctor said yeah
watch for that
cause they'll think you're not listening to him
oh that's tricky for you yeah
cause if I don't see and I'm definitely not hearing
so I appreciate you sharing that and
and I really appreciate the way that you're
establishing these leadership rules
like it was a
such a nice blend of strategic and tactical
throughout the book so before we wrap up our interview
I wanna ask you is there anything that I didn't ask
that you wanna make sure
we brought up in our discussion
on just kind of leaving with
understanding the Spheres of Influence
well I think where we started
which is understand their goals and aspirations
set and manage expectations and genuinely care
and if you do that
in each of your business relationships
you'll be successful I think we need to like
write that on a post it note and just stick it on our
on our computer because I like that so much
cause it's so simple it's so clear
and it applies to every business relationship
and I'd ask my direct reports
like I had 10 people across campus
they all had 10 people across campus they met with
so we had this network of
like a web of nervous system that we can get
you know hear rumors
understand what's well working well
what's not working well but
you know at first they
they weren't sure why but they would do that
and this one direct report said
why are you asked me to meet with this it manager
she hates us and I said well
I'd rather have them in the tent than outside the tent
throwing rocks at us
and she started meeting once a month
as we got better and more predictable
and higher quality service
well that it manager came around and became
after about nine months an advocate
and her boss became an advocate
now if we didn't get out there and meet with them
they still would be
and there were some bad behavior in the past
so they had a reason to not be happy
I think that's such a great takeaway too
for people who are
trying to rebuild poor relationships
because something we find ourselves in sometimes
and I like that idea of like the web or the ecosystem
right this ripple
effect that you're creating with your spears
I think it's so cool
I'm so grateful to have met you Brad
and I have you on the show
I love the books
everyone go get your copy of Spheres of Influence
where can people find you
if they wanna connect and learn more
I'm gonna send you a link that people get
connect to a free samples on my website at all
connect to where to buy the book
and 3rd had a scheduled time on my calendar
so I'll send that link to you awesome
I appreciate that Brad
thank you so much for coming on the show
and have a great pleasure
thank you so much
for listening to the prospecting on purpose podcast
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for more info on me or if you'd like to work together
feel free to go to my website
Sara Murray.com on social media
I'm usually hanging out at Sara Murray Sales
thanks again for joining me and I'll see you next time