How often have you been to a networking event where attendees are talking at other people — talking only about themselves and trying to cram into the conversation as much as they can about their own business, achievements, and successes, etc?
Not only is this unpleasant for the listener, but it is actually counter-productive.
Why are you at the networking event? To get business? Make a sale? Well, not really. Your goal at networking events should be to begin conversations that lead to relationships. If that does not happen, there will be no sales. Period! Because people buy from people they like.
The most important thing is to let the other person do the talking, and to listen carefully for ways to help that person achieve his or her goals. This may sound counter-intuitive, but it is the key to the entire process. Your goal in networking should be to give before you get. Giving before you get makes it much more likely that the other person will want to talk with you further (and that’s the best hope for business in the future). Giving may include
Introductions
Business or personal suggestions
Information
Invitations
Volunteering to help with a civic organization or charity the other party feels strongly about or
A piece of free counsel on a subject of interest to your conversation partner
So, as you network, focus on building relationships:
First: Ask questions to find out as much as possible about the other person.
Take time to listen to your conversation partners.
Offer something useful to each person you talk with.
Follow these steps, and you will be on your way to conversations that begin to build relationships that lead to sales.
What do you wish to accomplish as you speak during your networking activities?
Your immediate goal should be to learn about the other person, not to sell your products or services. During your networking conversations, ask questions, listen and do not interrupt others with stories, opinions, solutions, or personal experiences.
Here are some questions to ask your conversation partners (with a smiling and warm disposition) to start and maintain meaningful conversations:
What are the most important things you’re working on right now?
What do you want to accomplish this year?
What are the biggest barriers to meeting your goals?
What can I do to help you achieve these goals?
Asking questions and truly listening to the answers will help build a relationship and will let the other person know that you are interested in giving, not just getting.
And don’t forget the power of silence; don’t be in a rush to “fill in” the pauses in a conversation! Let your conversation partners’ rhythm guide you, and remember that giving time to people is like giving them a gift.
The most important thing is to let the other person do the talking and to listen carefully for ways to help that person achieve his or her goals. This may sound counter-intuitive, but it is the key to the entire process!
Presenting your value proposition in networking conversations and with any business prospect will enhance your credibility. This is your opportunity to point out the benefits of your products and services with more detail than your elevator speech can do.
Step 1: Do Some Research If you are going to be speaking with people at a networking event, seminar, or conference, do some research in advance. Find out who will be there, who might be interested in what you offer, and why. This will help you discern which benefits might be the best ones to mention first during your business conversations. And remember that people choose one provider over another for their reasons, not your reasons.
Step 2: Write a Success Story Describe how you or your company saved a client or customer time or money, or saved the day when they were in a tight spot. This is an indirect way of saying “I will do the same for you.” What you prepare to say should beflexible. The way the conversation unfolds will determine which parts of your script you will say and which you will edit or even omit, at the spur of the moment. So, build into your script some wiggle room. Then, internalize (not memorize) a few more success stories; have them ready for a great delivery; this will allow you to choose in the moment which story will be best for any given listener.
Step 3: Make it Multi-Purpose Create two more versions of this conversation preparation: one version that is expanded with flexibility for a conversation that might last five minutes and another that is expanded with even more flexibility for conversations that might last up to ten minutes.
Follow these steps, and you will be on your way to a value proposition that enhances your credibility and helps generate the next conversation.
In my last videoBlog, I shared strategies to help you enhance your credibility and engage your listeners during the conversation that happens after you have delivered your elevator speech.
Here is a strategy to position yourself and your company as experts.
Focus on the human element: talk about who you and your team are as human beings. Your initial, face-to-face conversation with a prospect is the ideal time to be personable — and project authenticity, approachability, and dedication to customer and client service.
Focusing on the human element is very wise, because it changes the focus of the conversation. You are no longer speaking about your products or services; now you’re speaking about the way you and your team care; the way you behave on a human level.
For example, you might say something like this: “We’re people who pay close attention whenever our clients speak.” Or this: “We’re people who are passionate about every assignment.”
This strategy positions you on the same side as your listener. On the other side are
all your competitors who don’t pay close attention to their clients: who put their own interests ahead of those of the client or customer
all your competitors who are not passionate — who view certain projects only as a cash cow.
When you are speaking with people who have had a negative experience purchasing a product or service in your category, they might appreciate your focus on the human element. When you say that you pay close attention to your clients, your listeners might find that refreshing; they might even chuckle. Then you’ll have them engaged, and that’s really the whole point. Because engagement is a very important element in relationship-building.
So, use this strategy. Focus on the human element, and you will be on your way to conversations that position you and your organization as experts and generate more conversation that can lead to sales.
Today, I’m going to share strategies to help you enhance your credibility and engage your listeners during the conversation that happens after you have delivered your elevator speech.
When you craft and deliver your elevator speech effectively, it should elicit questions and comments from your listeners about what you do. This will reveal what interests them, and that is valuable information for YOU.
As the conversation unfolds, you should dribble information about your products and services. I use the word “dribble” because you should maintain an element of suspense as long as possible during the conversation. The reason for this is simple: each time you express an idea, you should try to create within your listener a need for additional information.
Use the following three strategies:
1. At the beginning of the conversation, after you have spoken your elevator speech, include a sound-bite: a few concise sentences that described what you do, with a bit more detail than your elevator speech did.
2. Position yourself and your company as experts who stand out from the crowd of people who do something similar to what you do. Use phrases like
We specialize in
Our reputation is
We’re known for
3. Mention your experience in industries that are the same as (or similar to) those of your conversation partners. And namedrop! Mention your clients who have the most impressive name recognition. And, of course, name only the ones who have not asked you to protect their anonymity.
As you namedrop, be sure to sound as casual as possible. When you appear to be unimpressed by your own experience and track record, you enhance your image as an expert.
Follow these steps, and you will be on your way to conversations that enhance your credibility, engage your listeners, and help generate the next conversation!
Here is a strategy to help you rehearse the delivery of your elevator speech, to generate interest and begin conversations that lead to sales.
Rehearsal is very important for business speakers, just as it is for actors. Many people mistakenly believe that rehearsing makes you sound “canned” or phony. If that’s what happens when you rehearse, you need strategies for effective rehearsal.
When actors are speaking lines, their job is to make it sound as if they’re making it all up – right there on the spot. So, rehearsal is the preparation to appear completely spontaneous, conversational, and authentic.
Here is a very useful strategy that actors use to rehearse. It’s called “endowment. The task is to “endow” your listeners with qualities that will help you speak with them the way you speak with a friend in conversation.
Rehearse with the following three steps:
Step 1: Think of a person from your own life (past, present; male, female; any age) in whose presence you feel cared for, trusted, and respected.
Step 2: Use the power of imagination before you begin. Choose a spot on the wall to place your focus. In your mind’s eye, “see” that person, right there in front of you.
Step 3: Use what actors call the “magic if”. As you say your elevator speech aloud, speak as if you were in conversation with that person. Take the time to connect with your positive feelings about him or her and allow this emotional connection to impact your tone and demeanor.
The more often you rehearse with the technique of endowment, the easier it will be for you to appear conversational – with spontaneity and authenticity.
Follow these steps, and you will be on your way to delivering your elevator speech in a way that generates interest and begin conversations that lead to sales.
Business listeners respond well to a speaker’s positive energy and lightness of being. As a speaker, you can project this kind of lightness by doing a quick emotional clearing in advance — the way actors do before going on stage.
At least an hour before you have that important business conversation, meeting, or presentation, do the following:
Take your “emotional temperature”. Identify your current emotional state: happy, sad, nervous, excited, disappointed, excited, angry, etc.
Find a private area to release these emotions in a big way, even if it feels exaggerated or “phony” to do so. For example, you can jump for joy, shout, laugh out loud, shed a few tears, if necessary; whatever you need to do to release your emotions, especially the ones that are less pleasant.
Do some deep breathing with long, slow exhalations to a count of ten; then stretch out your arms, legs, back, and shoulders to release your emotions more fully.
If you are having any emotions that will not serve to enhance your speaking delivery, releasing those emotions in advance will decrease the power they have over you and will decrease any negative impact they might have on the way you speak.
You will be more “present” with your listeners and more available to respond to them authentically “in the moment”.
You will be free to use you positive and upbeat energy to engage and inspire your listeners — with a lightness of being that will help put them (and you) at ease.
You can engage your business listeners fully by “taking stage”: capturing their attention and keeping it.
How do professional actors get the audience’s attention and keep them riveted to the action of a play? One answer is that they take stage: they inhabit the space with a “do or die” purpose and an attitude of complete belonging.
Business professionals need to do the same thing, in order to persuade and inspire your business listeners, whether you are speaking one on one, or to a group; whether you are speaking informally, or delivering a PowerPoint presentation.
Here are three techniques to help you take stage –to command your listeners’ attention and keep it:
1. Before you begin, situate yourself in a position of power whenever possible. When you are speaking to a group, that’s usually front and center. Whether you are seated or standing, begin with both feet planted firmly on the ground, and imagine that your legs are tree trunks and that your feet are roots extending deep into the ground. This initial grounding helps you claim the space as your own and gives weight to your movements. It helps you project confidence and authority.
2. If you’re standing, stand away from furniture and resist any temptation to lean for support. If someone offers you a podium when you speak to a group, politely decline it whenever possible, unless you truly need it. You want to eliminate as many physical barriers as possible that might come between you and your audience. If you must use a podium, stand tall and don’t lean on it!
3. If you have handouts for a talk, whenever possible, distribute them after your talk has ended — not before or during the talk. Giving people material to read during your talk encourages them to focus on the written word and encourages them to ignore you! Giving material in advance can send the message that your listeners might just as effectively have read your talk — that they did not need to hear you live and in person!
Take stage to engage your listeners. Better yet, take stage to captivate your business listeners!
You can increase the impact that you have on your business listeners by revealing who YOU are when you speak!
Consider the impact that actors have on their audiences. Many years ago, Marlon Brando said, “Acting is the ancient, instinctive art of representing ourselves to others in a way that reflects how we truly are.”
Successful business speaking also reflects how we truly are. It shows your business listeners what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and how they might do it better. It also shows them how you, the speaker, truly are. And that means WHO you are.
Convincing actors and persuasive business speakers make their greatest impact through self-revelation.
To play a character convincingly and make the audience believe, actors reveal truths that lie in the deepest places of their own hearts: truths that lie inside every heart. The ability to reveal what is both personal and at the same time universal creates for the audience a transformative experience: when audiences recognize themselves in a character – when they can identify — they can understand more about our human condition, our limitations, and, most importantly, our potential.
This ability to reveal what is personal and at the same time universal is important in business speaking, too. Whether you are giving a power point presentation or talking with a prospect on a sales call, revealing who YOU are is a key ingredient in making a deep connection with your listeners and building their trust.
When you prepare to speak for business, decide what you will reveal about yourself in the following areas:
1. Your personal perspective about your business message
2. Your appreciation of your listeners and your enjoyment in speaking with them
3. True stories from your own life that will help illustrate your message
Be sure that your communication is supported by your vocal delivery, your body language, and every aspect of your demeanor.
Reveal who YOU are when you speak, to build trust and make your greatest impact!
I recently read that Abraham Lincoln co-owned a general store for a short period of time and that his store failed because he “wasn’t a very good salesperson”; he was “frequently a little too honest about his products…”
I began thinking again about the qualities of a good salesperson, the relationship between honesty and successful selling, and why that story might be of interest to so many professionals.
Almost everyone in the world of work is a salesperson. Whether we are business owners, work for a corporation, or bring our talents to other professional areas, we are all involved (directly or indirectly) in selling ideas, products, or services.
Only the naïve believe that success in business is always accompanied by strict honesty at all times, but the old adage “honesty is the best policy” is usually a wise goal. We cannot be all things to all people and cannot be all things for all clients and prospects. We can certainly try our best, and if we cannot deliver, we can offer to clients and prospects alternative sources to find solutions.
Of course, some who are dedicated to enhancing/maintaining their professional image have been known to bend the truth quite a bit and often make a lot of money doing so. Many years ago, the adult grandson of a restaurant manager told me a true story that I have never forgotten. The restaurant was part of one of the biggest and most successful hotels located in the Catskill Mountains during the 1950’s. One night, when the restaurant was filled to capacity, a diner who was seated with a large group of people started screaming, because she found an enormous cockroach in her food. The manager rushed over to the table, saw the cockroach, and knew that the restaurant could now lose not only these customers, but the ones seated at the surrounding tables. With a grand gesture, he immediately grabbed a spoon, removed the cockroach from the woman’s plate, and popped the insect into his own mouth, chewing and swallowing with delight. Smiling broadly, he loudly proclaimed, “That was no cockroach, Madam. That was our most exotic mushroom, a true delicacy imported from Asia!”
How far would you go, to salvage your professional image and keep your sales moving forward?
