If you are selling more complex B2B services, some adages ring true that underly the actions I take.
- the prospect reveals everything they need to become a client in the first five minutes
- sometimes we're more like a shrink than a vendor
So wherever I am, when I meet someone who owns or operates a business, my chit chat aims to suss out the following tidbits that people conveniently love to discuss:
- How's business?
- What is killing it / profiting / growing lately?
- What sucks / wastes time / works poorly / has logistical issues?
After keeping the focus on them, I hit them with:
- "Wouldn't it be great if X could connect to Y and then sync with your Z?" [storefront / fulfillment center / accountants / vendors / etc.]
- "You could just A, B, then C." [high altitude, no tech details, focus on end result]
- "By the way, I have a company. We basically do That and things like it for businesses like yours -- enough shop talk though -- [motion to the rest of the environs] -- let's meet next week!"
This gambit works at all social events where you never know who you may meet.
Easily works on employees too if they are or know the Decision Maker at their company. Just phrase it like "we should meet with your co-worker/boss" and remind them how great they'll look for connecting with you and fattening the bottom line, even (Especially!) if it's outside their normal duties.
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This is how my "b-game" has developed over the past decade. I've scored huge contracts and client relationships from this. The biggest most profitable score was from meeting a dev at a birthday party who worked for a very sexy data startup. Their pressing needs were less sexy, outside of their employees' core competencies, and we happily served them on retainer for a couple of years.
Edit: after executing this a lot, friends and acquaintances start to take note and will make intros and connections for you, even sometimes cutely "pre-pitching" in the same vein.
It helps to be around events and places with industrious people.
- the prospect reveals everything they need to become a client in the first five minutes
- sometimes we're more like a shrink than a vendor
So wherever I am, when I meet someone who owns or operates a business, my chit chat aims to suss out the following tidbits that people conveniently love to discuss:
- How's business?
- What is killing it / profiting / growing lately?
- What sucks / wastes time / works poorly / has logistical issues?
After keeping the focus on them, I hit them with:
- "Wouldn't it be great if X could connect to Y and then sync with your Z?" [storefront / fulfillment center / accountants / vendors / etc.]
- "You could just A, B, then C." [high altitude, no tech details, focus on end result]
- "By the way, I have a company. We basically do That and things like it for businesses like yours -- enough shop talk though -- [motion to the rest of the environs] -- let's meet next week!"
This gambit works at all social events where you never know who you may meet.
Easily works on employees too if they are or know the Decision Maker at their company. Just phrase it like "we should meet with your co-worker/boss" and remind them how great they'll look for connecting with you and fattening the bottom line, even (Especially!) if it's outside their normal duties.
---
This is how my "b-game" has developed over the past decade. I've scored huge contracts and client relationships from this. The biggest most profitable score was from meeting a dev at a birthday party who worked for a very sexy data startup. Their pressing needs were less sexy, outside of their employees' core competencies, and we happily served them on retainer for a couple of years.
Edit: after executing this a lot, friends and acquaintances start to take note and will make intros and connections for you, even sometimes cutely "pre-pitching" in the same vein.
It helps to be around events and places with industrious people.