So, What Do YOU Do How to Nail Your Networking Intro
Elevator speeches. 60 Second Commercials. 30 Second Commercials. Personal Introductions. Networking Introductions. Defining Statements. Positioning Statements.
Ahhhhhhhhhh! Which one do you use? And when? And with whom?
Tough question. Especially because since the early 90’s, tens of thousands of articles, books, manuals and guides have been written on the topic of networking. And all of them address various techniques on how to answer the question: “So, what do you do?”
To put it in perspective, consider these results from a recent Google search:
*30 Second Commercial – 135,000 pages
*Elevator Speech – 128,000 pages
*Positioning Statement – 106,740 pages
*60 Second Commercial – 33,500 pages
*Defining Statement – 26,000
*Personal Introduction – 3,600 pages
Wow. Overwhelming, huh? Makes you wonder which one is right! Still, each of these techniques is some variety of your Networking Introduction. Unfortunately, it won’t come out the way all the books and articles say it will. It’s doubtful you’ll ever tell someone what you do in an elevator; you’ll probably never have exactly 30 or 60 seconds to do so; and the odds of you explaining it the same way each time are highly unlikely.
In REAL networking, you’ll be rushed, caught off guard and asked unexpected questions. You’ll meet people on busses and in bathrooms. You’ll address three strangers at a time, get interrupted mid-commercial, and sometimes, you won’t get a chance to say a single word until the last five seconds of a conversation. And all the while, you won’t have time to decide whether or not you should give your Elevator Speech, 30 Second Commercial or Defining Statement!
Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you there.
But it’s true. Networking is unpredictable. And yet, we depend on it for the growth of our careers. According to a 2004 report from the Federal Bureau of Labor, 70% of our new business comes from some sort of networking. So, rather than put additional pressure on yourself by worrying about how many seconds you have, here are some key points for an effective, concise and memorable Networking Introduction.
Start from the Top
Because you never know how much time you’ll have to introduce yourself, I suggest starting at the top with the following exercise. Take five pieces of paper. Assign one of the following sentences to the top of each sheet:
*Who you are
*What you do
*Whom you do it for
*How you do it
*What happens as a result
Write down all the words, characteristics, ideas, phrases and the like that pertain to each of these areas of your introduction. Have fun! Spend at least a few minutes on each sheet. The whole point of starting with this activity is to understand the full scope of you and your business.
Back to the Bottom
Now that your mind is swimming with dozens of key points about your work, it’s time to get down to the “Bare Bones Intros.” These are pithy one-liner type sentences that grab attention and intrigue the listener. Now, since thousands of networking resource claim to have their own magic formula, I’ll simply offer the technique I’ve found to be most effective in my own business:
I’m a/an (your job title)…
and I work with (your target customers)…
who want to (become, increase, etc.)…
so they can (some benefit or result).
You don’t have to use this exact formula. Just be sure your Bare Bones Intro includes what you do, whom you do it for and what happens when you do it. So, write out different versions. Say them out loud. Share them with friends and colleagues. And eventually be able to pick out the most effective ones.
Anytime, Anywhere
In my networking workshops I make it a point to tell my audiences members: “There is a time and place for networking: ANY time and ANY place.” With that in mind, let’s take the material you brainstormed from earlier and put it to use in possible scenarios. (You might want to practice these with a partner too.)
*You have five minutes at your local association meeting to introduce yourself via speech to 100 strangers in the audience. What would you say?
*At the sub shop you go to once a week, the teenage cashier says, “Hey there! It must be Tuesday again, huh? Good to see ya! And you know, you always come in here, but I don’t think I know what you do” (Remember, the line is long.) What would you tell her?
*You’re participating in a rapid-fire-speed-networking-blitz type activity in which you have less than 30 seconds to introduce yourself to 25 people in a row. GO!
*You’re dressing in a hurry in the locker room when the new guy introduces himself. He notices your briefcase and asks, “So, where do you work?”
*You email a complete stranger who was referred to you by someone in your network. She probably gets 100 emails a day, so you don’t want to make it too long. What do you write?
*As you fill out your new credit card application, you notice two boxes. One says, “Occupation,” and the other says, “Please explain in the space below.” It’s a small space. Better make it quick!
*Your spouse runs into her boss at Happy Hour. You shake his hand and he says, “Nice to meet you! So, what do YOU do?” (You think he’s had a few.)
Nailing Your Networking Intro
All specifics aside, the most important part of a Networking Intro is: always be memorable. In a July 2003 article from Entrepreneur Magazine, Ivan Misner, founder and CEO or Business Network International (BNI), explained “The ideal introduction is brief and memorable – one that provides enough impact to arouse the interest of those to whom you’re introducing yourself and get them to join your word-of-mouth team.”
So put away your stopwatch. Forget about the elevator. And stop thinking about networking as a commercial. Networking is the development and maintenance of mutually valuable relationships. And those relationships are initially sparked by your ability to effectively, concisely and memorably introduce yourself when someone says, “So, what do YOU do?”
© 2005 All Rights Reserved.Scott Ginsberg is a professional speaker, “The World’s Foremost Expert on Nametags” and the author of HELLO my name is Scott and The Power of Approachability. He helps people MAXIMIZE their approachability and become UNFORGETTABLE communicators – one conversation at a time. For more information contact Front Porch Productions at http://www.hellomynameisscott.com.
A Tale of Two Editorials
Sebastian Mallaby, the Washington Post columnist, is the go-to guy for subjects slightly off the mainstream and, while I don’t always agree with him, the man has a brilliant mind. Today he’s writing about company brands and how (in this multinational culture of global markets) they’ve become the most valuable corporate asset. Off the books, that is. They’re not found on the balance sheet.
When a company gets bought or sold for way more than its book-value, branding is what they used to call ‘good-will.’ The main point Mallaby makes is that the old template of supporting Coca Cola or Nike by vast advertising campaigns is now vulnerable, as never before, to blogs. Public opinion, actually, but blogs are how public opinion flashes across time and space. Make a misstep public-relations wise and the net will kill you.
The blistering speed with which Mel Gibson was strung-up for his drunken rant is evidence. Mel dares not lie low. Neither do companies that abuse customers. Not any more. The old days of painting LEMON across the side of your car are gone.
Which is very powerful and, in its best examples, a shortcut to progress. As Mallaby points out,
Wal-Mart has promised to double the efficiency of its vehicle fleet and achieve a 30 percent cut in its stores’ energy usage. Its motive is not complicated. Internet-enabled critics have assaulted Wal-Mart, and the firm’s polling has suggested that 8 percent of shoppers have quit visiting its outlets because of its stance on social issues. An environmental makeover was essential to the brand.
The second editorial on WaPo’s pages today outlines the massive destruction that’s being done by commercial fishermen outside territorial waters. Outside the waters usually defined by a 200 mile distance to the nearest land, is pretty much no-man’s land. It may be subject to international rules and regulations, but for the most part policing is nonexistent.
‘Fishermen’ is in itself a misnomer, as we think of the word. Fisherman conjures up visions of two or three hardy souls in a thirty or forty-foot boat, with families to feed and limited capital as well as opportunity.
Silvia Earle, marine biologist and the chair for Conservation International in Washington, in her article points out that
Mammoth trawl gear with names such as “canyon buster” indicate the colossal scale of the assault and the damage inflicted. In an action akin to bulldozing forests to catch songbirds and squirrels, nets mounted on massive rollers are dragged across the seabed, strip-mining everything in their paths. Sometimes a single trawl tears away as much as 10,000 pounds of sponges, corals, fish and other life from the sea floor, leaving a stark, sterile undersea desert.
The U.N. Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea has released a report, and that report yaks about the problems being faced and the need for action. Urgent needs and moratoriums are spelled out, as well as critical habitats and conservation.
Earle accurately points out that the United Nations is in a unique position to act before irreparable damage is done and that the moratorium is opposed chiefly by a handful of countries with fleets of very large fishing vessels.
That’s it, Sylvia, case closed. Nothing, absolutely nothing, short of the United States Navy firing a few shots over the bow, is going to stop fleets of very large fishing vessels. Very large fishing vessels are very large investments, with very large crews and very large profits. Today’s fishing fleets are the national equivalent of the seafaring nations that became world powers off the spice-trade of centuries ago.
Unless, of course, Sebastian Mallaby is right.
The way to go after the environmental chaos created by canyon buster ships is to trace down the brand names that benefit from their catch and get on the net. Not the fish-net, the Internet. In a slightly different incarnation of follow the money, what we need to do is follow the catch, to see what brands from that catch end up on Aisle 7 of the supermarket chains.
According to Mallaby, Wendy’s has stopped frying its food in trans fats, which have also been banished from Oreo cookies and Frito-Lay snacks; General Mills makes its Cheerios and Wheaties out of whole grain. In all these cases, companies have responded to public sentiment before regulators compelled them to do so.
Enter commercial fishermen in Google Blog Search and you’ll come up with 10,056 entries. Wal-Mart fetches 759,479 individual blogs that mention the merchandizing giant by name. You can pretty well bet that if a Wal-Mart brand of seafood traced back to canyon busters and that link was made public, whole fishery practices would change.
Something’s going on here. It seems to me that it may be more powerful than the United Nations.
As a political commentator, Jim Freeman’s op-ed pieces have appeared on the pages of The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, International Herald-Tribune, CNN, The Jon Stewart Daily Show, The New York Review and a number of magazines.
Selecting a Pest Control Company
If you have a problem with unwanted pests in your home, and you’ve exhausted all the self-help remedies you know, you may be considering hiring a commercial pest control company to deal with the problem. Hiring a professional might be exactly the right solution for you; but you need to do your homework.
First, how do you locate a company? Checking the yellow pages of your local phone book might be a good start; doing a keyword search on the Internet for your area could also work, and you have the added benefit of seeing what information the company provides, on itself and on pest control generally. Ask friends and coworkers for recommendations
After you’ve developed a list of pest control services, and before you call these companies, start asking more questions of your friends and coworkers. Have any of them used these companies? What was their experience? Did the company in question solve their pest infestation issues? Were there any problems dealing with the company? Any problems in the home after the company performed their services?
Once you’ve narrowed down your list to a few potential providers, call them on the phone, and ask some more questions: does the company offer a free home evaluation and estimate of costs? Does it give you advice on what you can do to deal with the problem yourself? Is the company willing to answer questions readily?
Specific questions to ask: what kinds of chemicals are used? (If possible, have them provide written information on the chemicals.) What sorts of side effects or potential dangers do these chemicals have on family members, adults and children, and on pets? Do your family and household pets need to vacate the premises during the pest control treatment?
Make sure you ask whether the company offers nontoxic, natural pest control. The company should be willing to at least discuss the options; if its representative just dismisses the notion of nontoxic pest control without intelligently discussing the pros and cons of the natural remedies available, but just wants to get into your house and spray, beware!
With written information (or your own notes) in hand, do your own research on any chemicals that will be used – their effectiveness, their possible side effects, their potential toxicity. (The Internet is a great place to start for this.) If you have family members with serious health issues, particularly asthma or other respiratory ailments, make sure you know what the potential effect of sprayed compounds could have on them.
Finally, if you have any questions about the company’s reliability, and you can’t find anyone you know and whose judgment you trust to vouch for them, contact your local or state Better Business Bureau or Consumer Fraud Division, to find out whether there have been any complaints lodged against them.
Once you’ve hired a company, make sure you know who is going to be showing up at your home and when. Make sure they have proper I.D., and ask if you can be there to supervise the process or if you have to leave, and for how long. And while you’ve got access to the professional treating your home, ask what you can do to avoid pest control problems in the future, particularly those involving destructive carpenter ants and termites. The guy (or gal) who actually does the work probably has insights into the subject that the office staff doesn’t have.
Aldene Fredenburg is a freelance writer living in southwestern New Hampshire and frequently contributes to Tips and Topics. She has published numerous articles in local and regional publications on a wide range of topics, including business, education, the arts, and local events. Her feature articles include an interview with independent documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and a feature on prisoners at the New Hampshire State Prison in Concord. She may be reached at amfredenburg@yahoo.com
Australian Breakthrough for Commercial Plumbers
Plumbing can be a cutthroat business at the best of times but when it comes to large commercial contracts, the business can be downright draining. That is, until now.
The big commercial developments going-up all over the world, tend to call for extremely innovative and price conscious business people as well as extremely good Plumbing professionals.
Project Managers can be inundated with applications when they call for expressions of interest for large Tender projects. Then they have to short-list them and sort out the preferred Businesses.
If a Plumbing Business has any chance of success in tendering for these projects they have to have an ‘edge’. This edge can be anything that will make their estimate standout from the rest. Be that in price, guarantee period, contract variations, fixed price or innovative new products that will do the job better for substantially lower costs.
Project Managers have to complete a project on budget and on time. They depend on their subcontractors to live up to their contract specifications. Any Plumbing Contracting business who earns a reputation for bringing in their section of a tender on time and on budget will always be asked to tender again on large commercial construction projects.
So when a product is developed that can save time and money on these projects it is only those Plumbers who have taken the initiative to find out the details that can get the ‘edge’ and win contract after contract.
Australian Southern Cross Fasteners have come up with just such an ‘edge’ to assist these savvy Plumbers with a new product called the ‘New” Long Tie Wire Spike. For more details, Bret Thompson from Southern Cross Fasteners can be contacted in Australia on 0419640305. It is the ’savvy’ Plumbing Business Contractors who gets the ‘edge’ because s/he has kept abreast of product developments that can do the job faster, stronger and cheaper.
This long Tie Wire Spike saves by not having to drill extra holes, which allows them to be installed in half the time, thereby saving time and money.
Saving on labour costs substantially reduces tender costs.
If you only have to drill one 7.0mm hole because it is a one-component fastener you decide to use instead of the 3 pieces you would otherwise use with a T-bracket and this new long tie wire spike has high load capacities in shear and tension; why wouldn’t you use this ‘edge’ to get the business? Any ’savvy’ business would.
Winning large contracts with a bit of ‘cream’ in there allows for those times when things go wrong that you have no control over.
Consistently winning small, medium and large contracts can be achieved by the simple fact of saving on labour costs.
http://www.constructingprofits.com
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