Small Business Today Magazine JUL 2014 PHENOMENAL PRODUCTS | Page 35
EDITORIALFEATURE
Converting Contacts
to Customers: Part 1
By Gail Stolzenburg
L
ike most entrepreneurs, I went to my first
networking event with the idea that I would
collect a lot of business cards of prospects
for my business. I approached the attendees with information on my products, my company, and myself, thinking that they would be
excited about an opportunity to purchase my
products or services. What a rude awakening
when I found that most people were just turned
off.
It was a paradigm shift learning to begin by
giving referrals or other gifts rather than asking
for them. I heard Zig Ziglar say, “You can get
anything you want in this life if you just help
enough other people get what they want”, but I
was unaware that it applied to me. One of the
top sales trainers in the world, Brian Tracy, used
to focus on the best closing techniques. Now,
he focuses on building trust and rapport.
There is a story about two radio stations. The
first is KIAAM and it stands for “Keep it all about
me”, one of the biggest mistakes made in networking. The other station is WIIFM which
stands for “What’s in it for me”, what the person
you’re talking with is thinking. A good practice
is to write out your anticipated conversation
before networking then count the number of
times you write “I” and “We” and change them
to “You”.
One of my mentors, Dr. Ivan Misner, founder of
BNI, says we should be listening 70% of the time
and only talking 30% of the time. And, the 30% of
the time should be spent asking questions. Some
of the questions I ask are: “What got you started in
that line of work? What do you enjoy best about
it? What is your greatest challenge? Where else
do you network? Is there someone here who
you would like to meet? What would be a good
referral for you? How do you market your business? Would you like to attend other networking events? I publish a list of networking events;
would you like for me to send you that list? I sub-
It was a paradigm shift learning
to begin by giving referrals or
other gifts rather than asking
for them.
scribe to an e-newsletter with valuable business
building tips at no cost; would you like for me to
send you the link?”
After learning something about each other, we can
decide if we want to continue the conversation by
setting up a meeting. The cardinal rule of networking
is to never try to sell someone, just share information
and see if there’s a reason to continue the conversation later.
After saying hello, the most asked question is,
“What do you do?” Most people say they are
a banker, realtor®, insurance agent, salesman, etc.
and the conversation stops. That is what they
are rather than what they do. To keep the conversation going, I use these magic words from
best-selling author and networking trainer Tom
“Big Al” Schreiter: “Do you know how…most
busy entrepreneurs have little time for optimum
health? Well what I do is…show them three
ways to get and stay healthy in 15 minutes a day.”
You can develop your own answer by just filling
in the blanks.
Would you join me in committing to never
“upchuck” on someone while networking? In
our next article, we will cover what you can do
and say at your first one-to-one meeting to begin
converting your contact to a customer.
Gail Stolzenburg, Chief People Connector, can be contacted by
email at [email protected], by phone at 281-4931955, or visit his website at
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