What’s your 30-second commercial?
We’ve all been at a party when a new acquaintance asks, “What do you do?” What is your response? Is it engaging and interesting? Or does your heart drop, because you have to talk about work and you end up sharing a boring list of your duties or mumble your exact job title?
Every one of us can improve our 30-second commercial and make it captivating to the listener.
Here are a couple of tips of what not to do:
- No laundry list of duties
- Don’t just give your job title and company name
At Seattle’s Pike Place Market, a company that sold fish seven days a week decided to make it interesting. They were determined to have fun and engage the customers. So the motivated employees started throwing the fish that customers were purchasing. Now they are a huge tourist attraction and sell lots of fish.
If you work for a senior living company and simply state you work at an assisted living or skilled nursing community, it sounds boring. Saying, “We improve the quality of seniors lives everyday,” – makes your acquaintance ask a secondary questions of – how? Everyone typically knows an aging parent, grandparent or senior neighbor. In the remote possibility that you do not, you probably know a friend who is dealing with an aging senior who needs help. Ninety-nine percent of the time, people need advice for an aging relative and you can end up helping them or suggest they consider your senior living community (which is wonderful for them, your company and you).
Maybe you already use your 30-second commercial on a daily basis? Or you use it occasionally when you attend chamber of commerce or networking events. Each of us can improve our commercial and make it more appealing to the listener. Your fellow networkers and social acquaintances will appreciate you making an effort.
So what is your 30-second commercial? Is it interesting enough that someone asks you a follow up question?
If you share your 30-second commercial in the comment section on my blog page, you will automatically be entered to win a copy of my new book, “Your Senior Housing Options.” The best commercial will win and be announced in the comment section of my blog on Saturday, June 13th.
Everyone of us knows at least one senior that needs to move now. Here is a resource to help you or them make an informed decision. Diane Twohy Masson’s new guide book for seniors, “Your Senior Housing Options,” is available on Amazon.com with a 5-star rating. It reveals a proactive approach to navigating the complex maze of senior housing options. It will help you understand the costs and consequences of planning ahead or waiting too long. Learn firsthand tips from someone who is currently advocating for two aging parents.
Among the thousands of seniors she and her teams have assisted in finding the right senior living community, the most difficult case has been helping her own parent. Masson spent two years exploring senior housing options with her mother before finding the ideal Continuing Care Retirement Community for her. After eight years in this independent living setting, she helped her mother transition into an assisted living community. Seven years later, even as a senior housing expert, Masson struggled with the decision to move her mother into a skilled nursing community.
More related articles by Diane can be found at Tips2Seniors.com or like Tips 2 Seniors on Facebook.
Diane Twohy Masson has worked in senior housing since 1999. She is an award-winning certified aging services professional and the author of Senior Housing Marketing: How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full for senior living professionals.
When you are asked “What do you do?” answer it this way ” I am the xx at xxx, but before we go further, please tell me what you do”
Now, you have complete control over the conversation and can manage it so it yields what you went to the network even or expected conversations to yield for you.
This personal one to one chance meeting at networking events, industry shows or on purpose can be one of the best opportunities to gain prospects & key recommenders.
The success key is all in how you initiate & manage those conversations.
Yes do use a 30 second “conversation” (Its not an elevator pitch or 30 second commercial)
But, Its done very differently and with 3 objectives:
• to qualify re application value, need
• gain a strong interest
• gain an appointment to explore the concept in depth & how it could be beneficial, discover possibilities, value proposition, process for evaluation, adoption & get a sales process going that can indeed lead to a sale.
It’s absolutely not a “here’s what I do”- product pitch.
Why this approach? – Consider this:
Why sell when you have no idea if the need exists or if the person even cares.
You can’t possibly sell in that short conversation because you don’t know the “buyer’s” needs, authority, or direct involvement with the areas that you can fix or solve. In fact, it’s not an opportunity for a sales pitch at all.
How to Acquire Paying Customers Via the Web using Target Market Social MediaSo, What’s your 30 second conversation intended to do?
• Its purpose is to create a link between what the person you meet faces & must solve & what you have that can help.
Its objective is to qualify probable need & value for your solution that gets the issue solved or minimized & then get an appointment to discuss the issues & how you may be able to solve them, that’s all.
• It must get that precise connection made, get interest in what you have that can solve that issue & get the calendars out so you get an appointment to discuss it deeper with the person that you are talking with.
How to Acquire Paying Customers Via the Web using Target Market Social Media So how do I use a 30 second conversation at a network event that can qualify a genuine prospect quickly & create solid opportunity to acquire a paying customer and work in that way for me at networking events?
Here’s an approach that seems to work:
A) Your 30 second conversation used to open and manage the conversation has to:
• get a shared mutual connection going in a very casual, non-threatening conversational way
• It’s not a sales pitch at all in that sense.
Starting with asking “What do you do” is great because it’s always good to know what the person does before you spend time pitching.
B) Based on knowing that
• pick a known problem or challenges that the prospect, because of what they do, always has to grapple with that you offer solutions for.
• Say “You know how people in your position always seem to have to face xx and the issues it creates?” or say “you know how we always face xxxx”.
They say yes!
C) You say
• “my company helps deal with those problems”
• throw out a very quick example that shows how you have done that for folks like he or she & say “I’ve got time on Tues or Thurs of next week to discuss how we can do this for you. Which is best for you and I to spend about an hour-Tuesday or Thursday of next week?”
How to Acquire Paying Customers Via the Web using Target Market Social MediaYou will get an appointment doing this and then, in the first meeting, the real selling starts not in the 30 second conversation.
I have found that this kind of 30 second conversation approach is useful in connecting in person and one to one conversations & gaining “qualified” prospects who want to talk with you about solving or fixing the issues revealed
It also works well at:
* groups * casual conversation * reach out phone calls ( it gets calls back because of the message you leave) * reach out cold calls * lead follow-up, * the local chamber of commerce meetings, * social events
You can strike up a conversation because it can manage that conversation into an appointment to discuss your ideas ( ideas sounds a lot better than product or solution) .
Try it out at your next network event.
Remember, using what I described above carefully formulate what you say after the person answers “what do you do” so it sets them up to reveal that what you do could be something they need.
Neil Licht, CEO, Here We Are, Chief Adviser, Acquire Paying Customers Consultancy Group
Cell 508-341-9563 info@how2acquirecustomersonline.com
http://www.How2acquirecustomersonline.com
LinkedIn http://lnkd.in/pfgbrn