Having studied what makes people and their propositions more memorable than others, I’ve come up with 7 principles that you can apply when attending networking events… 1. Create an emotional connection Yes an obvious one. This is the art of rapport building. Aim to help people feel important, included and interesting. Then they’ll want to hear what [...]
Why this? Our lead generating ability is directly correlated to the way we describe our proposition. Given its importance, it is rarely given the attention it deserves by technical professionals. This can mean opportunities are missed as people don’t remember what we do or why we’re different. Who is this for? Professionals who struggle to convey [...]
Yesterday was disappointing. I, as a prospective buyer, had an initial meeting with a large accountancy firm in Bristol. The crucial part of the conversation went a bit like this, “So what would you say that you do better than anyone else?” I asked, hoping my accountancy-buying decision was just about to get a whole [...]
Picture this – you’re standing in front of an audience of about 150 people, just about to start a speech that you’ve been preparing for yonks. You haven’t even opened your mouth and suddenly there’s this awful high-pitched squawking from one of the speakers behind you. The soundman who fixed the lapel microphone to you [...]
The invitations to drinks parties have probably been arriving. The office party, perhaps somewhat scaled down, still requires attendance. You inwardly groan as you envisage awkward silences, pointless small talk and much enforced jollity. During the parties and family get togethers, you may of course want to avoid talking about work entirely, for fear of [...]
Do you struggle to succinctly answer the what-do-you-do question? Is your answer often met with that “glazed” look? Do you really want to generate more business through word of mouth? Think about the last networking event you went to… who do you remember meeting? My guess is that you might be struggling to remember more [...]
Do you struggle to succinctly answer the what-do-you-do question? Is your answer often met with that “glazed” look? Do you really want to generate more business through word of mouth? Think about the last networking event you went to…who do you remember meeting? My guess is that you might be struggling to remember more than [...]
In my early networking days, one of the ways I overcame my reluctance to turn out to events was to get a networking buddy. My networking buddy was called Suzy and she was an old marketing colleague of mine. So we would go to events together, get a drink and then each take an area [...]
When I decided that I was going to have to get a lot better at networking, I became really curious about what was it specifically that I didn’t like about going to networking events. And I realised that it’s no wonder so many of us don’t like it because I believe it plays on 2 [...]
Let’s face it with the explosion of networking clubs and events you could be networking morning, noon and night. But unless we’re strategic about where we spend our time, then we can waste lots of it. So how do we decide where to go? Well it’s a big question, and I’m only going to give [...]