People are more likely to do what you want them to do when they understand what that is. That’s why in November’s introduction round we’re asking you to be specific about one thing we can do to help you in your business.
What do we mean by being specific?
The dictionary defines specific as ‘clearly defined or identified’, ‘precise detail’, ‘precise and exact’. It’s the difference between programming the satnav with Apollo Hotel, RG24 9NU rather than just Basingstoke. The former will get you on to the hotel car park ready for our Basingstoke meeting. The latter will have you driving round and round the roundabouts in central Basingstoke, nowhere near the hotel, becoming increasingly frustrated.
The dreaded introductions.
How often have you listened to introductions that are the equivalent of programming the satnav with Basingstoke? ‘I help small business owners to grow their businesses’. What does this mean?
Are you a marketer, an accountant, a salesperson, a virtual assistant, a bank manager or something else altogether? How can we hope to decide what kind of introduction you would find valuable?
Claire Johnson of Bluebell Bookkeeping and Admin, talks about being a bookkeeper for VAT registered limited companies helping them to understand their numbers so they can make sound business decisions. Kara Stanford, of the Marketing Spaces, speaks about helping small, growing businesses to identify what marketing will work for them.
In both these cases we can understand what might make a good introduction.
Ideally, we want to encapsulate this information into one sentence. The sentence we use in the elevator or in our LinkedIn profile… you know, the one that follows us everywhere on the platform. The sentence upon which we build our introduction at every networking event.
Gaining our attention.
We dropped the traditional one-minute introduction round months ago because regulars stopped listening to, or engaging with, the same old words trotted out every month. It’s not that we’re not interested in our fellow networkers, it’s just that we think ‘oh I already know this… what am I going to give the family for dinner tonight?’
Each month we give you a different instruction to encourage you to put a bit more thought into your introduction so that we will listen more actively.
Being specific in November.
In November we want you to make it easier for us to help you by making one specific request.
Do you want leads to potential customers, an introduction for a possible collaboration or someone to help you in your business? Do you want support on social media? Would you like feedback on ideas or even some suggestions for you to consider?
Introductions to people
You might choose to ask for an introduction to a named individual or business or you may describe a job function, e.g. I’d like to meet the person responsible for recruitment in a pub with a restaurant and rooms.
You could be looking for people with a shared interest… I want to meet people who love to drink wine. It might be that you are looking for people with a defined need… I’d like an introduction to someone who is finding their garden too hard to manage. Or you might define a problem your ideal introduction has… who do you know who is struggling to lose weight?
Perhaps you want an introduction to someone with a particular qualification or experience. ‘I’d like to meet a qualified accountant with experience training people starting a small business.’
Your aim should be to get people round the table to identify someone in their contact book instantly. If they don’t know anyone yet they should be able to recognise when they meet someone new who fits your criteria.
The help you want may not be an introduction
You might want people to support you on social media, to sign up to your mailing list or to suggest potential outlets for you to sell your merchandise. Do you want people to complete a survey or join a focus group? Are you looking for venues or speakers for an event? Perhaps you need people to test a new product or service?
Whatever would be helpful to your business ask our networking community to help. Hopefully you’ll get the support you need but you’ll also build understanding and relationships with other networkers.
Take time to prepare
The clearer you are about your request the easier it will be for us to understand and action it. Take time to think what you want and then plan how to get that across clearly and succinctly.
I’m really looking forward to hearing your requests in November (and beyond… being specific isn’t just for one month 😉)
