One of the secrets to getting people to remember you and connect with you during any form of networking is the ability to tell your story in a brief, intelligent, yet authentic manner that also gets someone’s attention and sparks their interest.  

Many newcomers to networking think they need to tell as many people as possible about themselves and their business. If you like to hear yourself talk, you will soon find your audience losing interest. No one likes to hear someone going on and on about themselves.

The secret to sounding intelligent and being authentic is to prepare what you’re going to say so that you are not paralyzed by the discomfort of the social situation nor find yourself just blabbing incoherently both resulting in no leads generated from this beautiful marketing opportunity.

Some call this an “elevator speech”, I simply call it an “intelligent and interesting introduction.”   Craft this in writing first. 

  • Write about a 10-15 second brief sentence introducing yourself in a way that’s interesting.  It needs to cause the listener to say  “tell me more”. Or to ask a leading question that prompts you to continue explaining in more details about what you do, who you serve and results you produce. 
  • Speak this introduction out loud to yourself and analyze whether you’d actually talk the way you wrote. 
  • Edit and craft your statements so that they actually sound good when you speak them.
  • Write the next 15-20 second statement that you can follow up with if your first statement generates that invitation from your listener to say more.
  • Do the same “sound” check with this statement as well.

Next week, watch for Part 3 of this Marketing Minute where I give you the main ingredients with which to craft your Intelligent and Interesting Introduction.