…and What You Can Do About It
One of the worst things that I’ve seen people do is to try to sell to everyone with a human head.
You see it often.
You are at an event and, just to be polite, you make small talk by asking people what they do for a living (by the way, this is sooo inauthentic)—then you regret that you’ve asked!
You regret asking because the person takes this as an “interest” cue and goes right into offence mode and begin to bombard you with a lonngggggg sales pitch that you start to feel like running away.
So you retreat (and curse yourself) for asking the question.
Sounds familiar?
This is one of the primary reasons networking events stress people out; it’s the uncertainty of what to do.
The Best Approach
When someone asks you what you do, resist the urge to sell and load the person with the information you “think” they need to know.
- Instead, simply pause, smile, and take a deep breath.
- Then tell them in general what you do (your hot selling proposition or USP) without giving them all the information. Such as: “I help women in their 40s look fabulous with skin to die for.” You see here, who doesn’t get curious about what you REALLY DO?
- Offer enough info to pique their interest, but don’t go into details. If they show some interest and ask you more questions, resist it by saying: “I’d love to share it with you if you are really interested. We can connect on Facebook or I can email you if you’d like.” You can friend them on Facebook right then and there. This allows for follow up after the event.
- Your next step is to ask the person questions to really get to know them, find out what they want, their needs and aspirations. What you are doing here is really “prospecting” — finding out if this person is the ideal client for you. This action alone will give you three things that you can use to make them buy from you:
- show the prospect that you are most interested in THEM.
- learn enough information about the prospect so you can correctly position yourself, your product, or your services.
- learn the language that attracts them so that you can frame your sales pitch along those lines.
- You also want to find out if this person is worth pitching for.
There are many ways to pitch, and I’ve compiled some of my best sales pitches over the years into a mighty ebook–Sales Scripts. Whether you are selling financial products, beauty products, or your services, I’ve got you covered with the exact steps to attract, connect, and persuade.
