What do you do?
Editor’s column – September
I like to attend local networking events. And when I meet someone who asks, “So what do you do?” I respond with something like, “I love to mess around in my garage in the evenings and work on a wood project.” Or I might say, “I like to spend as much time as I can outside, on my bike in the summer and on skis in the winter.”
My new networking friend was waiting for an answer like, “I’m in sales” or maybe “I write software code” or “I write about lawn mowers and chain saws.” While that last response would probably surprise people, my personal and recreational answer to the “what do you do” question is the most successful for me.
Communication success
What I want from these networking events is to meet interesting people. Your work might be interesting to a point, but it’s not as interesting as the things you love to do, the things you do for no money. So I go to these events and hope to meet people with similar passions – or at least interesting ones – for the non-work hours.
Nobody really wants to talk about my work as an editor. And I don’t want to talk about their work in commercial real estate or search-engine optimization or medical billing. Sure, we’ll probably get there eventually, because I want more business. But I will get that business by building a relationship based on mutual interests, good conversation, likeability.
Does this transfer to sales?
I’ve never worked on a sales floor in a dealership or sold service packages to homeowners. But let’s think about it.
Someone is shopping for a chain saw. Do they really want a saw? Or are they shopping for a warm and friendly fire in the family room fireplace? So you ask them about the wood they like to burn, or the smores they’ll cook over the campfire. Ever try Reese’s on your smores? Or dark chocolate? It doesn’t melt as well, but I prefer the flavor, and it’s less messy.
How about for a landscape contractor, do you want to delve into cut height? Or do you want to talk about their expanded free time, or the kids throwing a stick to the labradoodle on the well-maintained lawn? I like to get my neighbor’s doodle all fired up by running the invisible fence line. Old Stanley cracks me up.
My sale would definitely take a bit longer. And the relationship would last longer too.
