In our sound-bite world, know how to make yourself quickly memorable.
People these days aren’t prepared to listen for long.For instance, if you work with pre-retirees, you may want to communicate, “I work with pre-retirees who want to carefully and successfully look at this next stage of life.” By saying “carefully and successfully look at this next stage of life,” the one word that people are hearing there is “carefully.” That means there is a “not careful” way to do this; that means there are some things to be aware of and concerned about in approaching this stage of life.Then you can simply say, “It’s exciting seeing what they have planned and helping them work toward achieving those objectives. Tell me what brings you to this building today.” (Or “…what brings you to this part of town today.”) Just deflect the conversation to them.Last week I was talking with a friend at a cafe which was just buzzing with people – super busy. I really wanted to speak to the owner and learn more about her. So I waited until the numbers died down. Then I went and introduced myself. I said, “I’ve just moved into the area. I’m working with what the IRS calls ‘small businesses,’ but I’ve been a small business owner myself and I know they’re anything but small; they’re your life.”It was interesting seeing the change in her demeanor. When I introduced myself and handed her my card, you could see she was a little tense, not knowing exactly where I was going next. As soon as I said, “I work with people who the IRS defines as ‘small business’ owners, but I get it, there’s nothing small about it – it’s your life,” you could see her whole demeanor change. She understood I understood her.So then I deflected to something of interest to her: “I would love to look at using this space after hours for small group gatherings. Do you rent it out?” Of course, she was delighted to send me information about exactly how she does that.I didn’t make a pest of myself. I wasn’t going to go and talk with her when they were slammed with people. It took me another 15 minutes to wait and be considerate, to just get in front of her and politely introduce myself.So, to do this most effectively: Choose that language – those words – that you’re really going to focus on. Practice delivering [the words], but get ready to deliver them slowly. When you’ve delivered them, just move on in the conversation. Don’t try to highlight the fact that you’re expectantly waiting for some answer in response from that person. Just move on in casual convesation.This is an effective way to get to know people in a very short space of time, when their concentration is on something totally different than just listening to you. I look forward to bringing you another Distraction-Proof Advisor Idea next week.
