Let’s be honest, would you want to be caught in an elevator listening to an Insurance Salesperson tell you that he protects your loved ones by providing your widowed wife and fatherless children security (i.e. money) after you die? Or a financial planner that can lower your tax rate, or the car salesperson that tells you he makes dreams come true?
This approach reminds me of car dealership commercials where the owner is yelling about his great offers while standing on top of his dealership building, or the furniture dealer that thinks using his kids and pets as props will make you want to run to the store to buy furniture.
These approaches are one-sided monologues full of sound and fury. They are all about pushing something on you that you may or may not need. There is the assumption that if you tell enough people the same thing, sales will flow. It also assumes that all people are equal. Everyone needs a new car, everyone needs to update their furniture, everyone needs to lower their tax rate. What if the person you are babbling to has just bought a new car, lives in a furnished apartment, and pays little or no taxes.
When someone asks me what I do, I usually tell them in one sentence, something like this: “I help companies grow their business.” Right after that statement, I ask “what about you, what do you do.?” There are a few things at work here:
- I didn’t tell them what I do, but how I help companies
- My answer was extremely short.
- I switched the conversation back to them instead of going on about me.
My main goal is to build rapport, and see if there may be a potential need. I am not trying to sell them anything and I am much more interested in asking and listening than I am in telling. If it sounds like there may be a potential alignment of my services and their needs then I may see if they would like to meet for coffee or lunch to chat further. Frankly, I may also see if they want to meet simply because what they do is fascinating, or that they may be an extremely interesting person and someone that I would like to better get to know. You never know where these discussions may lead. Obviously getting business is important, but also hearing about a great book, hearing a great story, hearing about a business approach, or developing a center of influence also has its rewards.
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