My friend and sales mentor John Paul Mendocha has a nearly foolproof method of screening out thieves, wackos and bad business partners.
You ready for it?
It is:
Share 3 meals with them.
If they’re trying to cover something up, the veneer will start to crack by meal #3.
You can observe all kinds of things about them:
- How they treat “little people” (like waiters and waitresses)
- Whether they show up on time
- What kind of language they use – especially after a drink or two
- What they talk about when the conversation wanders off of business stuff
Plus you see how they respond to stressful situations. Let’s you take them to a restaurant and find out the wait is 45 minutes. You head to somewhere else. How do they react?
If your work with them involves a significant amount of time or dinero, bring your spouse. I know a guy worth tens of millions – he’ll nix ANY deal where his wife doesn’t like the partner for ANY reason. She doesn’t even have to know “why” she doesn’t like the guy.
Maybe it’s not surprising that at 4 Man Intensive, we all have 3 meals together. Two of them at my dining room table.
At each Roundtable meeting, everyone has not 3 but 5 meals together. Six, if those who fly out the next day eat dinner together on day 2. (They’re a rowdy bunch!)
I’m not sure you can even build real relationships with real people without sharing meals. That’s why a dozen “virtual” people crave the connection and companionship of real flesh and blood.
Perry Marshall
Roundtable 2 is full and has a waiting list. Only 2 seats each open for Roundtable 1 (May 23-24) and 4 Man Intensive (June 1-2). Apply now at www.perrymarshall.com/roundtable/
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About the Author
Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.
He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.
5 Comments on “How to screen out evil business partners”
Dave Ramsey has said that his wife gets these “feeeeeeelings” (pronounce with Southern drawl), and every time he has ignored one of those “feeeeeeeelings” it has cost him at least ten thousand dollars. He doesn’t ignore them any more.
Perry
CS Lewis mentions another version of the wife test that you’ll like – in that amazing book “That Hideous Strength” – never doing anything in business that you don’t think that you could explain to your wife (e.g. thinking to yourself “women don’t understand these things”).
I’m sort of glad too that we all think that our wives would be moral benchmarks for this stuff – I don’t know but I’m not sure that everyone is that lucky.
Mark
I love the point about the wife. I’ve gone through this before. Wives & mommys have an overprotective intuition for their husband and kids.
My wife warned me about someone I was conferencing and meeting with several times about a partnership. Boy did she turn out to be right! A shark! Luckily, nothing ever panned out anyhow.
I’m a BIG believer in the “wife” test.
Interesting problem happened recently. She had a bad feeling about someone, but she wasn’t assertive about it. (She was trained to ignore it when growing up, sometimes she reverts back to mom and dad’s “be logical” admonition.)
Now, we got ourselves a bit of a mess.
The “wife” test is really worth cultivating.
Nice post.
I think you might be on to something Perry.
Jesus found out what kind of business partner Judas was and pretty much told him to have at it at “the last supper”.
I’m pretty sure there was a little sweat forming on Judas’ brow when Jesus said at that meal: “one of you here at this table will soon betray me”
Do me a favor. Don’t invite me to dine with you if you’re mad at me. Give me a chance to make it up to you.
Mad Guy