One of my favorite gurus in the sales, marketing and publishing world is Jerry Bellune, who I met ‘networking’ and sharing information on line years ago. He is wonderful and he wrote to me after my Nugget #215 on ‘Small Talk Topics” He is my guest contributor this week. His contact information is below.
In Jerry’s words:
“All of us have gone to events, met a few people and went home feeling like we wasted our time.
It wasn’t the fault of the event, the hosts or the guests. It was ours.
When we make a meeting “all about me” we miss an opportunity.
I learned long ago not to give 50-word elevator speeches.
No one wants to hear them.
They would rather talk about – guess what? – themselves.
My wife often gets after me for “interviewing” complete strangers.
Yet she understands why I do it. I’m genuinely interested in people.
All of them have had fascinating events in their lives.
But they’re frustrated. No one listens to them at home or at work.
Along comes a guy with big ears who wants to hear their story and voila!.
At business and social events, my introduction is short but intriguing.
I simply extend my hand to a stranger and say, “Hi, Andrea (or whatever is on their name tag), I’m Jerry. I make people famous. What do you do?”
They happily tell me and then, of course, they want to know if I can make them famous, too.
Think about it. How could you revise those 4 small words, “I make people famous,” into something that you do?
“I show people how to …: or “I can teach you how to …”
Then try it out with the next stranger you meet, anywhere at any time.
You’ll be surprised at how well it works.
Jerry Bellune
Lexington County Chronicle
& The Dispatch News
Lake Murray Fish Wrapper
LexingtonChronicle.com
The Marketing Ad-Visor
The #2 Small Business Authority
Yes, like Avis, we try harder
www.JerryBellune.net