60 Seconds Mini Presentations… In A Networking Event

Presentations are not always about slides, in a room or in front of a large audience. If you’re ever in a business networking event, every conversation you have with anyone is a mini presentation. The moment someone ask:

“So [Insert Your Name Here], what do you do?"

That’s an opportunity for you to promote yourself, your services or your company. If you pull up Eventbrite or Meetup or any event app that you have, you'll probably find tons of events you can go to. Heck, you may already been invited to a few - component events, exhibitions, networking luncheon, and the business-themed events can go on and on.

Being in the event business for the past decade (gosh that's long…) I thought of compiling a few tips here so help you maximise your exposure and opportunities at business networking events.

NOTE BEFORE WE START

Before we start, let’s be clear. As nice as it is to be able to sell something on the spot upon meeting someone new, let’s set the bar lower and aim for a follow-up meeting, for a few reasons. One, most people at these events are not in the mood to buy, and if you’re pushing a service or product, you may strike off as pushy. Two, setting the bar too high will yield poorer results, and it may demotivate you from trying again. Three, hustling is good, but you don't want people to avoid you like a plague. Be smart; the key here is to give a lasting impression, exchange contacts, and secure a follow-up email, call or meeting.

TIP ONE | The Question Introduction

Taught to me personally by New York Times' Best Selling Author of the Law of Attraction, Michael Losier, this technic is probably one I most often use. When someone ask what I do or what my company does, I’ll reply with the problem my product solves, in the form of an question.

For example, in a HR event for business leaders, and I want to talk about Plaseed.com, my Talent Development firm, when someone ask me what I do, I'd say,

“You know how sometimes companies struggle to motivate, train and keep Gen-Y employees? Well, my company solves that problem.”

I like this method coz in less than 10 seconds, the other party knows what I do within a good context. Of course, if I know what the other person does for a living, I may even tweak the question to be more targeted and relevant.

TIP TWO | The SET Method

My friend and training partner, Richard La Faber, usually taught this in his workshops, and I thought it's so powerful that I want to share it with you here.

You know how sometimes you get into a conversation and don’t know how to exit it? That’s one thing SET can help you with. (This is also an example of tip #1). It stands for Statement, Evidence and Transition, and here’s an example:

“The recent presentation by the CEO is effective (statement), and it’s obvious from the support that he got for the tough policies he’s implementing (evidence). What are your thoughts on it (transition)?”

A well-executed SET is an opportunity to promote something, to show that you have good opinions and to politely invite another person into a conversation.

TIP THREE | The Permission Close

So you’ve explained about your products/services, and name cards has been exchanged. Here’s where you go in with the deal-sealer, and remember, the objective here is to secure a meeting, not close the sale.

Using the Permission Close, you can simply just ask the prospect if it is okay to call him the following day to arrange a meeting, or even if you feel that he’s already very keen, ask if he wants to meet within the next 48 hours. An alternative close is also good, like:

“So, if it’s okay with you, let’s meet up next week to discuss more in detail. Is Tuesday or Wednesday better for you?"

BONUS TIP | Go Naked

No, of course not in your bathing suit!

When I say naked, what I mean is for you to go without any of your usual marketing materials, or even name cards. So here's what usually happens at a name card exchange,

"Sorry, I ran out of cards. We just did a CEO power talk earlier and I just gave out all my cards. Since I have your card, can I drop you my details over email later?"

Ok, so this is strategic for a few reasons.

1. My prospect may ask me about the CEO power talk, which give me opportunity to talk more about what my company do, or perhaps, invite him to the next session.
2. By asking him if I can drop him an email, I have pre-empted that I will be following-up with him after the meet up. In the email, I can also mention things like, "Oh yeah, remember that service you were interested in? Here's a copy of the brochure for you. Let me know if you want to schedule a demo with our consultant."

So, what do you think? Think you got what it takes to rock your next networking event? Let me know your thoughts, or perhaps any tips that you've personally used and found to be useful.

---

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by. I mostly blog about Steemit Success Strategies, business, marketing, entrepreneurship, psychology, community and random thoughts.

Talking about Steemit Success Strategies, if you want to 10x your results on this platform, perhaps some of these guides will be able to help you.

1. How to generate at least 365 post ideas for your Steemit Life (and possibly never run out of ideas again!)
2. The 4 Big Cs of Steemit Success
3. 8 Content Strategies to Excite & Engage your Steemit Followers
4. 29 Steemit Post Types to Attract More Followers & Boost Your Popularity (Part 1)
5. 29 Steemit Post Types to Attract More Followers & Boost Your Popularity (Part 2)
6. Copywriting Magic for Steemit: "How To" Post Titles
7. Copywriting Magic for Steemit: "List Type" Post Titles
8. Steemit Success Strategies #1 - The Law of Requisite Variety
9. Steemit Success Strategies #2 - Batching + Parkinson's Law
10. Four + Four Free Tools to get more exposure for your Steemit Projects
11. How to apply the 80/20 rule to your Steemit Life
12. Steemit Experiment Report: 21 days, 21 minutes, 21 posts later, PLUS an 8-Step Guide on How to Write a Steemit Post every day under 30 minutes
13. Case Study on Bid Botting - A Steemit Bootcamp follow-up module, a cheatsheet and why I probably won't use it

At least once a month, I run Steemit community events and training workshops with my buddies at #teammalaysia too. Some examples are:

1. Steemit Bootcamp March 2018 - KICKSTART Your Steemit Success
2. BoilerRoom 03.03.2018 | Let's Huddle, Hustle & Hack Out Awesome Steemit Contents!

I'm also grateful to be part of #steemitbloggers , SmartSteem and the sndbox.

_{Animated Banner Created By @zord189}

---

Wait, why's Mav posting on Steemit nowadays?

Well, unlike other blogging and social media platform, Steemit is the only platform that allows me to earn cryptocurrency when I engage with it. Yup, one Steem is about USD5, and you, too, can earn Steem Dollars every time you:

• Create content (articles, blog posts, podcasts, videos, photos)
• Upvote (like) other people contents
• Comment on other people's posts
• Have discussions, share opinions etc!

Yup, basically it's the very same thing you're doing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc all along!

The only difference? For once you can earn a nice income on the side!

Sign up for a free Steemit account, and you can thank me by coming back and upvoting this article. And guess what, you will earn Steem too for doing that! #awesome