Networking is a way of life for some people.
For most of us though it’s a necessary chore.
For others still it’s their worst nightmare. Whatever your level of “assurance” it’s a real test of your ability to present yourself. I’m often asked to help people who are very good at what they do, but can’t find the way of saying it when they’re networking. Somehow they feel pressured to be able to ‘present’ as it “should be easy because they know about their subject after all”.
The good news is that this isn’t anything to be ashamed of! In fact it’s normal. After all, I know nothing about being a computer programmer, so why should a programmer expect to know how to present? That said, of course, the programmer needs to get work just like the rest of us!
The worst – and most common – mistake people make when they’re telling people what they do is to be too vague. They try to cover all bases and end up covering none. People need to know exactly what you do – you can’t expect them to take the general principle and ‘translate’ it into something they can use. (That’s why it’s always useful to listen first, because you can change what you say in response to what you hear.)
On the other hand there’s a serious risk of assuming the other person knows too much and taking about something like “high function backend DBs”. You know what you mean – because it’s what you do all day every day – but that’s just you! They might know about funding - and be looking to invest - but if they can’t understand what you do, they can’t invest in you!
We have a formula which balances both of these problems: use a colon. Before the colon you tell the other person what the problem is: after it you tell them how you solve that problem.
For me:“most people don’t like making business presentations and aren’t any good at it: our training means they give presentations with less stress and more impact”
For our hypothetical programmer: “Lots of websites would be a lot better if they were a bit more interactive and less like online versions of their brochure: we build the technical stuff that people don’t see but which makes websites work better”
See how it works? Even if you don’t like the specific one-sentence approach the idea is more widely useful. The key thing is to use the first part of the sentence to put yourself on the side of the person you’re talking to. Give them a problem that they recognise, a pain that they feel. Then offer to take it away.
Sometimes I even suggest cheating a little in the first half of the sentence by making it a question. “Everyone’s got to make presentations these days – are you one of the people who gets stressed out by it?” - here’s the colon – “Yeah? Me too, that’s why I train people.. blah, blah…”
The rest of your chat should just be filling in the details. Simple, eh?!
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