Guest Post: If you don’t have it, steal it

To finish out the week, Jennifer Neal of K9 Design writes about a networking event she attended last week where she hit the “hot prospect” jackpot.

My latest marketing “homework” was to find a group where my target audience – magazine publishers – hangs out.

So last week, I went to my first event with this new-found group, Magazines Canada and sure enough, my target market was “in the house” as they say.

This event was a show of the best advertising from around the world. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this event had great music, was held in a very hip venue in the Design District of Toronto, offered great food and the all- important open bar. Kind of what you'd expect at a party, with a lot of very pretty, trendy, marketing newbies vying for the free drinks.

So how does one break the ice with these free drinking Newbies?

Before I could figure it out, a guy came up to me and said, "Do you have a favourite yet?" Brilliant!! So I stole his line and that became my ice breaker.

I walked the room in circles, talked to lots of people but only used "my new stolen material" on about 6 people with whom I ended up having really fun, non-salesy chats. In fact, they were so non-salesy that we did not exchange cards. I did, however, get their names (Ilise would have given me a really hard time if I hadn’t) and I made a point of scribing little notes after each conversation so as not to forget them. Then, I Googled each one as soon as I got home.

WOW!!! Three of them turned out to be some of the biggest names in my target audience. They were, in my opinion, people I would NEVER have gone after but have now serendipitously met. I know I must figure out a way to stay in touch with them.

Even though the other 3 were not prospects, I still managed to come away with some great ideas for my business. In fact, one was a design firm owner who has a marketing intern making her cold calls for her... Why didn’t I think of this?

Anyway...My next step is to follow up in a meaningful way - without looking too salesy - with the BIG 3. I’ve already got a few ideas but the main lesson I learned from this first event with my new group was, don’t always feel you have to come up with “material” – sometimes if you just smile they’ll approach you and then you can steal their line.

Comments

[MrAchievement.com (Stanley Bronstein)]

If you don't want to look too sale like on the followup, come up with a way to give them something of value (i.e., a way to help them).

If you come up with a way to be of service to them, AND LET THEM KNOW YOU EXPECT NOTHING IN RETURN, they will talk to you.

After you've helped them, they will then naturally be willing to help you.

That's worked for me over the years.

MrAchievement
Stanley F. Bronstein
Attorney, CPA, Author & Motivational Speaker