Doing an Effective Presentation to Your Networking Partners

Over the years I have seen hundreds of business presentations mostly done in leads groups environments. Almost all of them fail to generate any extra business for the presenter. Here’s what you can do differently:

1. Ask yourself: What outcome do I really want?
Is your main goal to educate, build trust, get more business or a bit of each? This sounds simple enough but the problem is that most people want more business but make this mistake:

2. Almost all group presentations are either exclusively on the product/service or consist of free advice. This rarely generates business in a group setting!!

It may build credibility and trust but not business. It may be the financial advisor discussing retirement options, the mortgage lender presenting different loan types, the Realtor explaining the services she provides, the chiropractor showing us how the spine works or the accountant giving us some tax-saving ideas.  It may or may not be interesting; it certainly doesn’t help others find business for that person.

Why do we do presentations like this? Because it’s comfortable and requires much less thought. We already know what we’re talking about. What we do not do well is train others how to find us business.

3. Suggestions if you are presenting to a group that barely knows you:

a) Some brief background on yourself (perhaps a little bit of personal info might warm up your audience to you being a real human being) including why we should do business with you (your experience). If you have an interesting story about how you got into your line of work, feel free to share it.

Your goal: people have to Know, Like and Trust you first.

b) Some business overview.
Emphasis on the word ‘some’. Do you need to explain why people use your product or service because most of the group does not really know what you do?

c) Some horn tooting.
It may help your group to know why your clients choose to do business with you and not your competitors. Stories make a big difference! Telling people your customer service is superior is very generic because most people think (subjectively) that their customer service is better even though usually that’s not the case – real life stories make this come alive.

If you’ve won awards, let us know. As they say in Texas: ‘it ain’t braggin if you done it!’

If you don’t want to tell us, put it in a bio and have someone else read it as an introduction or request testimonials from others in the group beforehand. Clearly we’ll always be more impressed by a third party endorsement.

Note that all three of these areas can be covered better (with the exception of a verbal endorsement) in a 1:1!

4. If you want business from your presentation, teach us these 3 keys:

The real point here is to make it as easy as possible for others to find you business. Everybody is crazy busy so keep it simple for them.

a) Write out your ideal client (list) for your audience

A laundry list here is okay because you can use it over and over. Include: *Companies ex. ABC Company
*Industries ex. construction
*Names of people you want to meet
*Professions that you want to work with ex. physicians, architects
*Job titles of people you want to meet ex. HR directors
*Life situations that are appropriate for you ex. just got downsized

I recommend making this a long list. If you are in a leads group, then pick one each week for your business request.

b) Write out the wording on how to start a conversation about you

Here’s mine: ‘A friend of mine/a trainer I know specializes in working with financial advisors/organizations helping them get more referral business. He works all over the country (even overseas) and would be well worth a brief conversation. Is it okay if I have him give you a call some time?’

Here’s a modified version for you:
‘A friend of mine/(insert profession) I know does a lot of work with (insert profession or industry) helping them (explain briefly how). S/he (insert something that is impressive and sets you apart) and would be well worth a brief conversation. Is it okay if I have him/her give you a call some time?’

Seriously consider having the group write down the people they know in certain categories during your presentation. They may not make the time to do it afterwards.

Some people are going to need more information from you or need a question or two to get a conversation started with their clients.

c) Make sure you also give people the wording to use so that they get permission for you to call.

Passing out your business card is not enough.

5. Teach them other talking points about you that can be used to bring you up in conversation

Anything unusual about your background/hobbies/life experiences that connect you to others in conversation: ex. place of birth (more exotic helps ex. grew up in the Ukraine), same college, same unusual interest (high end cars, Toastmasters, sky diving, has investment property in Arizona), lived in that location at one time in their life.

The point here is that there are times when a seemingly random topic can transition into talking about someone else’s business. For example yesterday I was talking to someone about Germany and that reminded me of a lunch I had last week with an intellectual property rights attorney who does a lot of business there.

The more you can master these five points, the clearer your networking partners will be and the easier it will be for them to send you business – provided they know, like and trust you.

Who is valuable in your network that might well get value from these ideas? Please forward it on and share the wealth.