July 31, 2021 • 18 mins
Tyler Sweatt said that “one of the main differences you'll see in the government sector is a lot of that is pretty well documented down from Congress, each year, they're passing budgets, so you're getting an idea of where new programs coming in, and where are they. And then it gets down to the more traditional aspects of capture of meeting customers and understand their problems.”
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Guest - Tyler Sweatt
Host - Carl Grant
Producer - Seth Grant
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carl Grant (00:06):
Welcome to Rainmakers. I'm here with Tyler
Sweatt, Vice President of secondfront systems. But before we
talk started talking to Tyler, Iwant to remind everybody that
you're listening to rainmakers.
And this is a podcast aboutbusiness development. When I got
into business development 22years ago, nobody told me how to
do it, I had no clue what I wasdoing, I had to figure it out on
(00:26):
my own. And I realized there'sreally no good information on
that out there about how to dothis stuff. And so I'm talking
to the best of the best abouthow to do what they do. And now
this is an interestinginterview, Tyler sweat and I are
just talking for the first timewe were introduced by Pat cast
out, scowl, sorry, a mutualfriend, who had wonderful things
(00:46):
to say about Tyler and said heis the guy in the government
space. And I don't even know howyou do business at all in the
government space. So this isgonna be interesting for me.
Welcome, Tyler. Thanks forjoining us. Thanks so much,
Carl. I'm really excited to behere. All right, well, I know
how to do this this stuff in alaw firm and in an accounting
firm, but how in the world doyou do business development in a
(01:09):
government sector?
Tyler Sweatt (01:12):
It's a great question. It's, it's a little
bit different in the fact that,you know, there's there's a
little bit of differentcomplexity in terms of
compliance and their securityrequirements and things like
that. But at its core, I find itto be pretty similar, where you
sort of understand customer'sbuying patterns, you understand
(01:34):
where the funding comes from,and what budgets look like. And
one of the main differencesyou'll see in the government
sector is a lot of that ispretty well documented down from
Congress, each year, they'repassing budgets, so you're
getting an idea of where newprograms coming in, and where
are they. And then it gets downto the more traditional aspects
of capture of meeting customersand understand their problems,
Carl Grant (01:58):
I think of the government as is having, you
know, very detailed proposalsthat you need to fill out, and
you got to put it in the rightformat on the right size of
sheet of paper and the righttext font. And, and I feel like
the government does everythingto take the human interaction
(02:19):
out of a transaction. Whereas inwhat I do, it's all about
relationships. Tell me howrelationships human
relationships play a part ingetting business done in the
government space.
Tyler Sweatt (02:30):
That's a it's it's funny to hear you bring that up,
you know, when I when I'veworked in the commercial sector,
we've we've closed deals overtext message and writing good
where it's no point in thegovernment, it's 50 pages, and
it's a bunch of highly compliantwording that at its surface
probably doesn't mean much.
Carl Grant (02:49):
It doesn't mean much. But really?
Tyler Sweatt (02:52):
think about if you think about a lot of it is form,
hey, I'm compliant with thispolicy and compliant with that.
So what you'll see in a lot ofthose larger proposals is
they'll be at least a few pagesof somewhat cut and paste across
the spectrum just because, hey,we understand this policy, we
understand that. So it's all acompliance drill.
Carl Grant (03:12):
So that so the paper doesn't drive the process.
Tyler Sweatt (03:15):
The paper does to a degree, but I think it's I
think it's what happens beforethe paper, that that sets
everybody up for success. Andthat's where the relationships
come in.
Carl Grant (03:26):
And I want to walk us through that dynamic, because
I have no clue how that works.
Tyler Sweatt (03:30):
Yeah. So traditionally there and this
will depend on the size of, youknow, the opportunity or the
deal you're going after. Sosmaller dollar size, you know,
less complex proposal, much morehuman interaction, maybe a
shorter time cycle, largerproposal. So where you see some
(03:51):
of these large, you know, whenthe big companies when, you
know, a $500 million, a billiondollar proposal, that's probably
two to three years of workbefore you write that proposal.
Wow. So that's interacting withthe contracting officers with
the different executives inside,you know, the program office or
(04:15):
the service, understanding howdoes it fit in to the broader
strategy? So what role is thisspecific piece going to play in
a broader effort? You know, ifit was a, an army opportunity to
build a new tank, hey, how doesthis fit in to how the army is
trying to modernize its entireforce? And what are the actual
(04:39):
problems that they're asking forin the proposal, but more often
than not, there are a number ofproblems underneath the surface.
Because if you think about howthat big program requirement is
made, there are a number ofdifferent users who will bring
up their needs, and they kind ofget consolidated together into a
single requirement. Thenindustry can propose against.
(05:02):
Now most of those, or at leastsome of those won't make it into
the requirement. So you're goingout to figure out what are those
pain points down at the userlevel? You know, what types of
solutions do your competitorshave? How can you bring other
companies on your team, tobetter position yourself to
cover the requirements asthey're seated, but where you
(05:24):
think they're going to expandto, and all that work is done,
before you even get to theproposal. And then everyone's
sort of got their proposalprocess. But that drives a whole
bunch of it to how you'rewriting a proposal, how you're
using limited space, to get awhole bunch of thought through,
and how you're doing it in a waythat that is compliant, because
(05:47):
that's the easiest way to loseis to have a non compliant
proposal.
Carl Grant (05:50):
Do you ever get so far out ahead of this process
that you help you help draftsome of the requirements.
Tyler Sweatt (05:57):
So there's a fine line on on where you're writing
a specific requirement, but Ithink helping them to inform and
helping the government thinkabout different ways to talk
about the problem. And differentways to think about how to solve
it is one of the big roles thatprivate sector and commercial
industry can play. Because ifyou've been, you've been in a
(06:22):
role, and you know, like I said,the tank example, you've been
working with a tank, and you'vebeen trained on how to work with
the tank, and how to modernizethe tank, how to think about the
next evolution of the tank,you're probably not spending a
whole bunch of time, you know,let's say talking to Silicon
Valley companies about how theylook at software and form
(06:42):
factors of hardware and thingslike that, and how maybe
software development methodologycould help accelerate that
modernization. So I spend a lotof time trying to not just build
relationships of my own, butactually share those
relationships, and helpful tobuild their own networks of
relationships, where theirthought, and their sort of
(07:04):
perspectives on the art of thepossible or how to move forward
can be challenged.
Carl Grant (07:08):
Yeah, imagine the drafting of those requirements
if the requirement was drafted,so that it described the tank
that you know how to build thatwould really solidify your
ability to win that contract.
Tyler Sweatt (07:21):
So you will see, you will see a whole bunch of
effort like that. And especiallyas you go larger, into the the
scope and the size of programs,you will see a lot of a lot of
folks trying to get it maybemaybe a specific requirement,
and that gives them acompetitive advantage. And so
software or hardware,
Carl Grant (07:42):
I'm looking through your your bio, because because
these are the set ofrelationships that you need to
develop over a lifetime, to evenbe able to be in the room to
even talk about requirements orany of these things. I mean,
that takes that takes time andeffort. And so I'm looking back,
you went to West Point, you yougraduated from West Point, and
(08:04):
then you were an Army ReserveOfficer, and you were a senior
consultant at Deloitte. Take usthrough how you started to put
together the building blocks ofof this, these relationships
that enable you to have thistype of career?
Tyler Sweatt (08:17):
Yeah, that's a great question. So I started
West Point, came out of there asan engineer officer, spent a
little over five years activeduty, transitioned into the
private sector, and didn't knowwhat I wanted to do, but knew
that I had a security clearanceand an economics degree and
(08:37):
wanted to work on defensetechnology problems.
Carl Grant (08:40):
So were any of the relationships that you developed
on active duty or as aconsultant or in the reserve or
any of these relevant to whatyou're doing now?
Tyler Sweatt (08:48):
Yeah, I would argue the vast majority of them
are,
Carl Grant (08:51):
okay.
Tyler Sweatt (08:52):
Because it's, it's, they're not all relevant
at the same time. And I thinkthat's part of thinking about
relationships as almost like adeck of cards, or, you know,
something like a garden, that'sgoing to require constant care
and feeding. That's going torequire attention and love, for
(09:13):
lack of a better word, butyou're not always going to be,
you know, grabbing vegetables orfruit out of it.
Carl Grant (09:19):
Yeah, no, it was the same way with me. I so I got a
job back in the mid 90s, where Iwas doing economic development,
kind of like, you know, you doin your consulting or your army
stuff. And I started my job wasto attract venture capitalists
into a county, and I didn'trealize it, you know, I wasn't
getting paid much in thisgovernment job. But for two
years, I was developingrelationships that I was gonna
(09:39):
milk over 20 years. And and Ididn't know I didn't realize it
at the time. Is that kind ofwhat happened with you with
these government's position? Allright.
Tyler Sweatt (09:47):
Absolutely. I've like I've cycled back into
meetings in the last 12 monthsand seen my boss from 2007 when
I was in the army. Wow. and beenlike, hey, alright, this is
great. You know, we've alreadybroken the ice. We already trust
each other. Let's catch up andhave a conversation.
Carl Grant (10:02):
That's cool. It's a lot easier to start from that
right? Even. Anyway,
Tyler Sweatt (10:07):
it's definitely easier to start from a place of
trust. And it's a relative foras big as the government market
is. I think it it ends up beingvery small in terms of
relationships. Most people areone or two calls away, you know,
it's the joke and everybody'sone click away two clicks away.
Carl Grant (10:25):
Hmm.
Tyler Sweatt (10:27):
But you usually can get connected to somebody if
you need to, but it goes back tothat care and feeding. So if
you're going to call somebodyfor a favor, you have to build
that relationship and not let itsort of just wither on the vine.
You've had to make sure you keepit current.
Carl Grant (10:43):
Yeah, no, I was thinking about this, that this
morning, I tried to touch I'vegot I've got almost 15,000
LinkedIn contacts. I try totouch every one of them at least
once a year, if not twice. It'shard. But but you got it. You
got to be perfectly purposefulabout doing that.
Tyler Sweatt (10:59):
It's, it's really our purpose was exactly the
right word. It's something youfocus on, because I get asked
all the time, hey, how do Ibuild a great network? I want to
go meet people, you know, Iconnect to people on LinkedIn.
And I always sort of flip itaround. Why would folks want to
be connected with you? Or whywould they want to have a
relationship with you, you know,how are you sharing knowledge or
sharing new relationships, orcontributing to sort of their
(11:22):
daily life? And that's where,you know, I've gotten to some
really valuable training overthe years that has helped helped
me sort of think through how tostructure some
Carl Grant (11:32):
talk about what the training is, because I have
found that listeners to thispodcast, have, they've sent me
messages, and they've actuallygone out and bought books that I
and my guests have talked abouton here. So if you've got
something that's helped you tellher tell our listeners,
Tyler Sweatt (11:46):
absolutely. So there, there's a training
program called grow big, andit's by Brunel idea group, down
in Atlanta. And it was a threeday course on how to break out
all these different segments ofselling, and how you think about
relationships and where they sitfrom weakest to strongest, and
(12:08):
how you can move relationshipstronger, and how you can more
rapidly develop trust. And it'sessentially tradecraft for
building stronger relationshipsunder the guise of business
development. And I found it tobe the most practical, most
practical training I'd probablygone through since I got out of
uniform. It was unbelievable.
Carl Grant (12:27):
Well, that's cool.
And so the takeaways, so howmany? How many relationships?
Can one person like yourself ormyself realistically maintain?
Because 15,000 is kind of hard?
Tyler Sweatt (12:37):
Yeah. So it's, it's interesting. So there's a
lot of a lot of discussion rightnow on how trying to stay
connected to sort of superconnectors, invest your
relationships there. So you canscale because you can't do if
you're to your point, Carl, ifyou're focused on 15,000, well,
Carl Grant (12:53):
there's a handful that are really
Tyler Sweatt (12:56):
it becomes that becomes your year. So I usually
have 10 to 20, that I'm really,really focused on building deep
down and then I look at themalmost as lily pads, they'll
sort of branch out. And then Ican use them to help me
reinforce maybe a slightlyweaker relationship, that's the
next level out and then the nextlevel out. But always thinking
(13:19):
about it to where there's somestrategy behind where you're
investing in relationships. Yep.
And then there's an ability foryou to pivot. So you've built in
some agility as well.
Carl Grant (13:31):
Yeah. So I remember when I was at PwC, late 90s, I,
I was burning myself out just,you know, morning, morning
events, evening events, doing myemails in the middle of the
night. And I I'm like, there'sgot to be a better way to do
this. And so I realized when Iboiled it all down to where the
(13:51):
best leads came from there, likefive people, five people, if I
if I spent time on the phonewith five people each week, I
knew about everything that wasgoing on in the marketplace, and
I didn't even have to leave myoffice. Do you? Do you find the
same type of thing? Or is itmore complex in that?
Tyler Sweatt (14:08):
I do, I think, I think as you look at different
segments of government likedefense, and maybe the Fed Civ
and Homeland Security,intelligence, you probably have
a handful in each of those. ButI would agree it comes down to
you know, four or five. And Ithink as you mature and better
understand what relationshipsare or aren't and sort of your
(14:31):
own approach. I think you'reable to separate some of the
noise because I've gone throughthe same thing where you feel
like you have to be at every,you know, corporate happy hour
or conference, right? Yourealize that it's noise and it's
just distracting you and nothelping you move forward.
Exactly. But you
Carl Grant (14:47):
have to put some of that legwork in upfront.
Absolutely. 100% agree. So Iwant to drill down on a couple
of things here. So So you talkedabout leveraging yourself
through the super connectors andthat intrigues me because I kind
of pride myself on being a superconnector in my world, not
yours, but you know, talk abouthow you would. Alright, so you
(15:08):
and I connect today we'reconnecting today, you're a super
connector, I presume you were,you're introduced as one to me
in your world, and I'm one in inmy world. And so if we want to
connect our two worlds, how dowe leverage each other? And how
do we build a relationship to beable to do that?
Tyler Sweatt (15:24):
Yeah, I think some of the big fan of you know, you
start small and kind of findearly victories. So what I do,
and what I recommend is, youknow, you find some interesting
different articles and newsstories and offer a little
perspective and share that withyou. So you can share it with
your community. Okay, identifyfaults that might be one step
(15:45):
removed from you that you mightnot have known in maybe adjacent
sectors are very interestingpoints of view. Yep. And connect
them that way. So helping youbuild sort of your knowledge
base and your relationship base,adding value. Yeah, that's
exactly right. adding valuealong the way, so that when that
opportunity pops up that maybeHey, there's an opportunity for
us to work together. Go afterand then I'd always keep an eye
(16:08):
out for opportunities for you tocreate value.
Carl Grant (16:11):
Yeah, always focus on the other person. That's
exactly right. Exactly. It Thisis a common theme I'm getting
from all people who are good atdoing this. Alright, so we're
coming up on 15 minutes. And Idon't like to go too far. But I
want to know, so for got a lotof students that listen. And,
you know, students sometimesdon't even know how to begin,
even, you know, getting readyfor something like this. If
(16:32):
somebody is listening to youtoday. And they say, Man, I like
what that Tyler sweat does, Iwant to be just like him. Where
do they start?
Tyler Sweatt (16:39):
Yeah, so it's a it's a really good question. And
I get asked this all the time.
So I have a huge bias towardsexperience and not experience of
Hey, go get 10 years experienceand then come back and see me
experience of go find anopportunity to intern over the
summer at a company that's maybein the defense sector, or paid
(16:59):
right or paid or unpaid, eitherone, go either one, right, get
the hands on experience, becausethat's going to help us a
student, understand wherespecifically in the process, you
want to start to focus, andmaybe help you identify some
opportunities to go get some newskills, or to refine some
skills, and it's going to helpyou start building
(17:21):
relationships. My first job inthe sector, I literally made
binders for senior principalsand partners to look to go into
meetings and and it got me intothe room. I could sit in the
back of the room if I made thebinder. So I made every binder.
Carl Grant (17:38):
I was getting coffee for people when I started out.
Yep.
Tyler Sweatt (17:43):
That's the best way that I do. And then I would
also advise the students to gostart to build their own
mentorship network. One or twopeople who you can ask them
questions to over a cup ofcoffee, because people want to
help.
Carl Grant (17:55):
Tyler this went by very fast. This is very
interesting. I want to thankTyler sweat for joining me
today. He is has been anexcellent guest. He is vice
president of I'm scrolling backup on here, second front
systems, and he is hardwired inthe government CES CES network.
(18:15):
And I want to thank you so muchfor joining us Tyler. Joining us
on rainmakers today. Take care.
Tyler Sweatt (18:20):
Thanks so much Carl cheers.
Welcome to Rainmakers. I'm here with Tyler
Sweatt, Vice President of secondfront systems. But before we
talk started talking to Tyler, Iwant to remind everybody that
you're listening to rainmakers.
And this is a podcast aboutbusiness development. When I got
into business development 22years ago, nobody told me how to
do it, I had no clue what I wasdoing, I had to figure it out on
(00:26):
my own. And I realized there'sreally no good information on
that out there about how to dothis stuff. And so I'm talking
to the best of the best abouthow to do what they do. And now
this is an interestinginterview, Tyler sweat and I are
just talking for the first timewe were introduced by Pat cast
out, scowl, sorry, a mutualfriend, who had wonderful things
(00:46):
to say about Tyler and said heis the guy in the government
space. And I don't even know howyou do business at all in the
government space. So this isgonna be interesting for me.
Welcome, Tyler. Thanks forjoining us. Thanks so much,
Carl. I'm really excited to behere. All right, well, I know
how to do this this stuff in alaw firm and in an accounting
firm, but how in the world doyou do business development in a
(01:09):
government sector?
Tyler Sweatt (01:12):
It's a great question. It's, it's a little
bit different in the fact that,you know, there's there's a
little bit of differentcomplexity in terms of
compliance and their securityrequirements and things like
that. But at its core, I find itto be pretty similar, where you
sort of understand customer'sbuying patterns, you understand
(01:34):
where the funding comes from,and what budgets look like. And
one of the main differencesyou'll see in the government
sector is a lot of that ispretty well documented down from
Congress, each year, they'repassing budgets, so you're
getting an idea of where newprograms coming in, and where
are they. And then it gets downto the more traditional aspects
of capture of meeting customersand understand their problems,
Carl Grant (01:58):
I think of the government as is having, you
know, very detailed proposalsthat you need to fill out, and
you got to put it in the rightformat on the right size of
sheet of paper and the righttext font. And, and I feel like
the government does everythingto take the human interaction
(02:19):
out of a transaction. Whereas inwhat I do, it's all about
relationships. Tell me howrelationships human
relationships play a part ingetting business done in the
government space.
Tyler Sweatt (02:30):
That's a it's it's funny to hear you bring that up,
you know, when I when I'veworked in the commercial sector,
we've we've closed deals overtext message and writing good
where it's no point in thegovernment, it's 50 pages, and
it's a bunch of highly compliantwording that at its surface
probably doesn't mean much.
Carl Grant (02:49):
It doesn't mean much. But really?
Tyler Sweatt (02:52):
think about if you think about a lot of it is form,
hey, I'm compliant with thispolicy and compliant with that.
So what you'll see in a lot ofthose larger proposals is
they'll be at least a few pagesof somewhat cut and paste across
the spectrum just because, hey,we understand this policy, we
understand that. So it's all acompliance drill.
Carl Grant (03:12):
So that so the paper doesn't drive the process.
Tyler Sweatt (03:15):
The paper does to a degree, but I think it's I
think it's what happens beforethe paper, that that sets
everybody up for success. Andthat's where the relationships
come in.
Carl Grant (03:26):
And I want to walk us through that dynamic, because
I have no clue how that works.
Tyler Sweatt (03:30):
Yeah. So traditionally there and this
will depend on the size of, youknow, the opportunity or the
deal you're going after. Sosmaller dollar size, you know,
less complex proposal, much morehuman interaction, maybe a
shorter time cycle, largerproposal. So where you see some
(03:51):
of these large, you know, whenthe big companies when, you
know, a $500 million, a billiondollar proposal, that's probably
two to three years of workbefore you write that proposal.
Wow. So that's interacting withthe contracting officers with
the different executives inside,you know, the program office or
(04:15):
the service, understanding howdoes it fit in to the broader
strategy? So what role is thisspecific piece going to play in
a broader effort? You know, ifit was a, an army opportunity to
build a new tank, hey, how doesthis fit in to how the army is
trying to modernize its entireforce? And what are the actual
(04:39):
problems that they're asking forin the proposal, but more often
than not, there are a number ofproblems underneath the surface.
Because if you think about howthat big program requirement is
made, there are a number ofdifferent users who will bring
up their needs, and they kind ofget consolidated together into a
single requirement. Thenindustry can propose against.
(05:02):
Now most of those, or at leastsome of those won't make it into
the requirement. So you're goingout to figure out what are those
pain points down at the userlevel? You know, what types of
solutions do your competitorshave? How can you bring other
companies on your team, tobetter position yourself to
cover the requirements asthey're seated, but where you
(05:24):
think they're going to expandto, and all that work is done,
before you even get to theproposal. And then everyone's
sort of got their proposalprocess. But that drives a whole
bunch of it to how you'rewriting a proposal, how you're
using limited space, to get awhole bunch of thought through,
and how you're doing it in a waythat that is compliant, because
(05:47):
that's the easiest way to loseis to have a non compliant
proposal.
Carl Grant (05:50):
Do you ever get so far out ahead of this process
that you help you help draftsome of the requirements.
Tyler Sweatt (05:57):
So there's a fine line on on where you're writing
a specific requirement, but Ithink helping them to inform and
helping the government thinkabout different ways to talk
about the problem. And differentways to think about how to solve
it is one of the big roles thatprivate sector and commercial
industry can play. Because ifyou've been, you've been in a
(06:22):
role, and you know, like I said,the tank example, you've been
working with a tank, and you'vebeen trained on how to work with
the tank, and how to modernizethe tank, how to think about the
next evolution of the tank,you're probably not spending a
whole bunch of time, you know,let's say talking to Silicon
Valley companies about how theylook at software and form
(06:42):
factors of hardware and thingslike that, and how maybe
software development methodologycould help accelerate that
modernization. So I spend a lotof time trying to not just build
relationships of my own, butactually share those
relationships, and helpful tobuild their own networks of
relationships, where theirthought, and their sort of
(07:04):
perspectives on the art of thepossible or how to move forward
can be challenged.
Carl Grant (07:08):
Yeah, imagine the drafting of those requirements
if the requirement was drafted,so that it described the tank
that you know how to build thatwould really solidify your
ability to win that contract.
Tyler Sweatt (07:21):
So you will see, you will see a whole bunch of
effort like that. And especiallyas you go larger, into the the
scope and the size of programs,you will see a lot of a lot of
folks trying to get it maybemaybe a specific requirement,
and that gives them acompetitive advantage. And so
software or hardware,
Carl Grant (07:42):
I'm looking through your your bio, because because
these are the set ofrelationships that you need to
develop over a lifetime, to evenbe able to be in the room to
even talk about requirements orany of these things. I mean,
that takes that takes time andeffort. And so I'm looking back,
you went to West Point, you yougraduated from West Point, and
(08:04):
then you were an Army ReserveOfficer, and you were a senior
consultant at Deloitte. Take usthrough how you started to put
together the building blocks ofof this, these relationships
that enable you to have thistype of career?
Tyler Sweatt (08:17):
Yeah, that's a great question. So I started
West Point, came out of there asan engineer officer, spent a
little over five years activeduty, transitioned into the
private sector, and didn't knowwhat I wanted to do, but knew
that I had a security clearanceand an economics degree and
(08:37):
wanted to work on defensetechnology problems.
Carl Grant (08:40):
So were any of the relationships that you developed
on active duty or as aconsultant or in the reserve or
any of these relevant to whatyou're doing now?
Tyler Sweatt (08:48):
Yeah, I would argue the vast majority of them
are,
Carl Grant (08:51):
okay.
Tyler Sweatt (08:52):
Because it's, it's, they're not all relevant
at the same time. And I thinkthat's part of thinking about
relationships as almost like adeck of cards, or, you know,
something like a garden, that'sgoing to require constant care
and feeding. That's going torequire attention and love, for
(09:13):
lack of a better word, butyou're not always going to be,
you know, grabbing vegetables orfruit out of it.
Carl Grant (09:19):
Yeah, no, it was the same way with me. I so I got a
job back in the mid 90s, where Iwas doing economic development,
kind of like, you know, you doin your consulting or your army
stuff. And I started my job wasto attract venture capitalists
into a county, and I didn'trealize it, you know, I wasn't
getting paid much in thisgovernment job. But for two
years, I was developingrelationships that I was gonna
(09:39):
milk over 20 years. And and Ididn't know I didn't realize it
at the time. Is that kind ofwhat happened with you with
these government's position? Allright.
Tyler Sweatt (09:47):
Absolutely. I've like I've cycled back into
meetings in the last 12 monthsand seen my boss from 2007 when
I was in the army. Wow. and beenlike, hey, alright, this is
great. You know, we've alreadybroken the ice. We already trust
each other. Let's catch up andhave a conversation.
Carl Grant (10:02):
That's cool. It's a lot easier to start from that
right? Even. Anyway,
Tyler Sweatt (10:07):
it's definitely easier to start from a place of
trust. And it's a relative foras big as the government market
is. I think it it ends up beingvery small in terms of
relationships. Most people areone or two calls away, you know,
it's the joke and everybody'sone click away two clicks away.
Carl Grant (10:25):
Hmm.
Tyler Sweatt (10:27):
But you usually can get connected to somebody if
you need to, but it goes back tothat care and feeding. So if
you're going to call somebodyfor a favor, you have to build
that relationship and not let itsort of just wither on the vine.
You've had to make sure you keepit current.
Carl Grant (10:43):
Yeah, no, I was thinking about this, that this
morning, I tried to touch I'vegot I've got almost 15,000
LinkedIn contacts. I try totouch every one of them at least
once a year, if not twice. It'shard. But but you got it. You
got to be perfectly purposefulabout doing that.
Tyler Sweatt (10:59):
It's, it's really our purpose was exactly the
right word. It's something youfocus on, because I get asked
all the time, hey, how do Ibuild a great network? I want to
go meet people, you know, Iconnect to people on LinkedIn.
And I always sort of flip itaround. Why would folks want to
be connected with you? Or whywould they want to have a
relationship with you, you know,how are you sharing knowledge or
sharing new relationships, orcontributing to sort of their
(11:22):
daily life? And that's where,you know, I've gotten to some
really valuable training overthe years that has helped helped
me sort of think through how tostructure some
Carl Grant (11:32):
talk about what the training is, because I have
found that listeners to thispodcast, have, they've sent me
messages, and they've actuallygone out and bought books that I
and my guests have talked abouton here. So if you've got
something that's helped you tellher tell our listeners,
Tyler Sweatt (11:46):
absolutely. So there, there's a training
program called grow big, andit's by Brunel idea group, down
in Atlanta. And it was a threeday course on how to break out
all these different segments ofselling, and how you think about
relationships and where they sitfrom weakest to strongest, and
(12:08):
how you can move relationshipstronger, and how you can more
rapidly develop trust. And it'sessentially tradecraft for
building stronger relationshipsunder the guise of business
development. And I found it tobe the most practical, most
practical training I'd probablygone through since I got out of
uniform. It was unbelievable.
Carl Grant (12:27):
Well, that's cool.
And so the takeaways, so howmany? How many relationships?
Can one person like yourself ormyself realistically maintain?
Because 15,000 is kind of hard?
Tyler Sweatt (12:37):
Yeah. So it's, it's interesting. So there's a
lot of a lot of discussion rightnow on how trying to stay
connected to sort of superconnectors, invest your
relationships there. So you canscale because you can't do if
you're to your point, Carl, ifyou're focused on 15,000, well,
Carl Grant (12:53):
there's a handful that are really
Tyler Sweatt (12:56):
it becomes that becomes your year. So I usually
have 10 to 20, that I'm really,really focused on building deep
down and then I look at themalmost as lily pads, they'll
sort of branch out. And then Ican use them to help me
reinforce maybe a slightlyweaker relationship, that's the
next level out and then the nextlevel out. But always thinking
(13:19):
about it to where there's somestrategy behind where you're
investing in relationships. Yep.
And then there's an ability foryou to pivot. So you've built in
some agility as well.
Carl Grant (13:31):
Yeah. So I remember when I was at PwC, late 90s, I,
I was burning myself out just,you know, morning, morning
events, evening events, doing myemails in the middle of the
night. And I I'm like, there'sgot to be a better way to do
this. And so I realized when Iboiled it all down to where the
(13:51):
best leads came from there, likefive people, five people, if I
if I spent time on the phonewith five people each week, I
knew about everything that wasgoing on in the marketplace, and
I didn't even have to leave myoffice. Do you? Do you find the
same type of thing? Or is itmore complex in that?
Tyler Sweatt (14:08):
I do, I think, I think as you look at different
segments of government likedefense, and maybe the Fed Civ
and Homeland Security,intelligence, you probably have
a handful in each of those. ButI would agree it comes down to
you know, four or five. And Ithink as you mature and better
understand what relationshipsare or aren't and sort of your
(14:31):
own approach. I think you'reable to separate some of the
noise because I've gone throughthe same thing where you feel
like you have to be at every,you know, corporate happy hour
or conference, right? Yourealize that it's noise and it's
just distracting you and nothelping you move forward.
Exactly. But you
Carl Grant (14:47):
have to put some of that legwork in upfront.
Absolutely. 100% agree. So Iwant to drill down on a couple
of things here. So So you talkedabout leveraging yourself
through the super connectors andthat intrigues me because I kind
of pride myself on being a superconnector in my world, not
yours, but you know, talk abouthow you would. Alright, so you
(15:08):
and I connect today we'reconnecting today, you're a super
connector, I presume you were,you're introduced as one to me
in your world, and I'm one in inmy world. And so if we want to
connect our two worlds, how dowe leverage each other? And how
do we build a relationship to beable to do that?
Tyler Sweatt (15:24):
Yeah, I think some of the big fan of you know, you
start small and kind of findearly victories. So what I do,
and what I recommend is, youknow, you find some interesting
different articles and newsstories and offer a little
perspective and share that withyou. So you can share it with
your community. Okay, identifyfaults that might be one step
(15:45):
removed from you that you mightnot have known in maybe adjacent
sectors are very interestingpoints of view. Yep. And connect
them that way. So helping youbuild sort of your knowledge
base and your relationship base,adding value. Yeah, that's
exactly right. adding valuealong the way, so that when that
opportunity pops up that maybeHey, there's an opportunity for
us to work together. Go afterand then I'd always keep an eye
(16:08):
out for opportunities for you tocreate value.
Carl Grant (16:11):
Yeah, always focus on the other person. That's
exactly right. Exactly. It Thisis a common theme I'm getting
from all people who are good atdoing this. Alright, so we're
coming up on 15 minutes. And Idon't like to go too far. But I
want to know, so for got a lotof students that listen. And,
you know, students sometimesdon't even know how to begin,
even, you know, getting readyfor something like this. If
(16:32):
somebody is listening to youtoday. And they say, Man, I like
what that Tyler sweat does, Iwant to be just like him. Where
do they start?
Tyler Sweatt (16:39):
Yeah, so it's a it's a really good question. And
I get asked this all the time.
So I have a huge bias towardsexperience and not experience of
Hey, go get 10 years experienceand then come back and see me
experience of go find anopportunity to intern over the
summer at a company that's maybein the defense sector, or paid
(16:59):
right or paid or unpaid, eitherone, go either one, right, get
the hands on experience, becausethat's going to help us a
student, understand wherespecifically in the process, you
want to start to focus, andmaybe help you identify some
opportunities to go get some newskills, or to refine some
skills, and it's going to helpyou start building
(17:21):
relationships. My first job inthe sector, I literally made
binders for senior principalsand partners to look to go into
meetings and and it got me intothe room. I could sit in the
back of the room if I made thebinder. So I made every binder.
Carl Grant (17:38):
I was getting coffee for people when I started out.
Yep.
Tyler Sweatt (17:43):
That's the best way that I do. And then I would
also advise the students to gostart to build their own
mentorship network. One or twopeople who you can ask them
questions to over a cup ofcoffee, because people want to
help.
Carl Grant (17:55):
Tyler this went by very fast. This is very
interesting. I want to thankTyler sweat for joining me
today. He is has been anexcellent guest. He is vice
president of I'm scrolling backup on here, second front
systems, and he is hardwired inthe government CES CES network.
(18:15):
And I want to thank you so muchfor joining us Tyler. Joining us
on rainmakers today. Take care.
Tyler Sweatt (18:20):
Thanks so much Carl cheers.
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