How To Negotiate Business Like A Billionaire

I am mini celebrity in my own rite, known in the media for being a multi-millionaire former model, author, and now a business woman, but the one time I actually dabbled as an employee, I chose telecommunications actually, and successfully negotiated a deal with a highly famous billionaire...

Once upon a time when a company called Worldcom existed, at 100 Wall Street, I smiled like the model I was, shook hands like a man, put on my best Giorgio Armani suits daily, but was just a newly trained cub that had the confidence of a lion...and decided to recruit more telecommunications business...so I chose my first company to call...Viacom.

Indeed I called Viacom, confidently, and decided to skip the appropriate department but instead asked to speak to Sumner Redstone. "Sumner Redstone please" I asked. And when they replied with "Who's calling?" I said "Stephanie Adams"', in such a manner like I was a fellow billionaire and business associate to him. To my surprise, I waited, then heard a quiet but powerful voice pick up and say "Hello, this is Sumner speaking".

So what did I do? I got right to it. I went into the facts my supervisor taught me the day before, producing a sales pitch like no other, and even though he surely had lower management that handled those sort of calls completely, he was so impressed with my vigor and assertiveness that he listened, accepted my business proposal, tiny as it was to him but reminded him of a time when he was first starting out. Sumner accepted my business proposal then transferred me to the appropriate staff member to complete the deal. And I ended up receiving a large bonus after closing. Well, it was fun more than anything, but there was something else waiting for me...

My supervisor surely missed me when I left the company to start my own business. My reason for leaving was "Sorry Chris, but other than deals, my weekly salary does not pay for even half of one of my Giorgio Armani suits" and his response was "I knew hiring you was too good to be true. We're going to miss you. You're the only sales rep I ever met in my entire professional history who managed to confidently do a deal with a billionaire owner of a billionaire business empire."

Lesson To Be Learned:

1.) Know what you're talking about, even if you had to quickly learn it.
2.) Talk with confidence.
3.) Be fearless.
4.) Don't stop until you get the job done.

When it comes to business, there's no such thing as a struggle. Turn your obstacles into opportunities. Don't fear the fight...Fight the fear. Never stop. This applies to anything...

So here I am back on Wall Street now, with the same lion confidence I had back then, but as the owner of several companies, including a successful medical practice, Wall Street Chiropractic. Perhaps I should give Sumner a call one day to see if he'd like to do business again...