Networking: What do you say when someone ask what do you do?

You’ve honed your networking elevator pitch to perfection. You’ve practiced delivering it in front of the mirror, with your colleagues, with your partner, and you’re word perfect. You’ve just arrived at your networking event. If you’re like most people I know, you simply cannot wait for a total stranger to walk up to you and ask you – ‘so what do you do?’, so you can deliver your elevator pitch. And you do – right? No – WRONG! That’s what everyone else does, that’s what they expect you to do, and it’s actually the last thing you should do! Here is what I say instead when people ask me what I do. I say: Oh, It’s rather boring. Please tell me what do YOU do. And they do! Why do I do this? It’s simple. Most people much love talking about themselves and what they do. This gives you the opportunity to listen and ask questions. Questions like: – So what type of customers or clients do you deal with? – What’s the biggest project you are working on at the moment? – Who else are you working with on this? – What are the biggest challenges you face with a project of this type? – What type of help and support might you need to get around that problem? Once you’ve listened to what THEY have to say, you know whether or not what you do might be of interest to them, and how best to introduce your product or service to them in a relevant way. You also know if they are working with the type of people that you might like them to introduce you to in the future. And also if you know other people who could help them that you could introduce them to. Networking is as much about giving as taking, and what goes around comes around. So you now have all the information you need to decide whether or not you wish to continue the conversation, either now or sometime in the future, or if you should extricate yourself gracefully and move on to network with others in the room.

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