In this episode of OUTBOUND, Mike Grinberg (CEO of Proofpoint Marketing) shares his perspective on building meaningful relationships with customers and prospects. He emphasizes the importance of being genuinely curious about how their business works in order to have insightful conversations and build trust.

Guest Bio:

Mike Grinberg is the CEO and Co-Founder of Proofpoint Marketing, a growth advisory firm. He has years of experience in sales, marketing, and business development.

Key Discussion Points:

- Being genuinely curious about how a prospect's business works allows you to ask good questions and show that you truly want to understand their needs (01:01)

- Understanding the business model of a prospect helps derisk the buying decision for them by building trust in you and your organization (02:04)

- Doing research beforehand on a company or individual allows you to craft informed questions and have an insightful business conversation vs. a typical sales pitch (12:39)

- Using AI tools can help quickly generate initial research on an industry or prospect to inform hypotheses to validate through conversations (15:14)

Key Quotes:

"It's being genuinely curious about business and the business of your prospective clients...It's understanding how business works for them." (01:37)

"When you are in the sales process...the person or the people on the other side are derisking the buying decision." (02:04)

"The purpose is to have a business conversation, not a sales conversation." (18:01)