You have numerous casual conversations with those in your network every week. Your network includes family, neighbors, friends, social groups, church, clubs, etc. Your sphere of influence is unique. How can you recognize opportunities for business and transition those casual chats into a business conversation?

Before you “freak out” and get some awful taste in your mouth about slimy salesy pitchmen, I am not talking about sales! I am not talking about selling like you are in the hottest new pyramid scheme. I am talking about discovering opportunity when it presents itself. The conversation should be organic, not contrived.

​Here are a few tips for helping you discover business opportunity in your network of relationships.

1. Engage in active listening. Be genuinely interested in what others have to say. Be curious, inquisitive asking questions. Be relentless in your focus on others.
2. Be informal. Be prepared to share what you do and who you work for. Saying what you do is not, “I am an electrical engineer.” That’s boring! What you do is design systems that deliver electrical power to homes, businesses, and industries. You help keep the lights on! Tell stories about your projects and clients, interesting stories.
3. Learn to be a good storyteller. The best stories to tell are those with a twist. Great stories are heroic and surprising. For more on good storytelling refer to Monday Marketing Tips from September 14, 2020 “Storytelling.” You can also tell the stories of your colleagues, not just your personal stories.
4. Be a resource. You may not be the solution to someone’s problem, but you should know someone who is. Look for opportunities to refer your colleagues and their expertise. This is where knowing and understanding what others in the company do comes in. Be the kind of person others come to because they know you will help.
5. Do not expect perfection. Focus on becoming better at networking, not perfect. Don’t look at professional business developers and expect to become like them. Be yourself and learn how to utilize your network to turn chats into cha-ching!

I have sat in many trade show booths through the years. Inevitably, vendors of equipment and other service providers take advantage of the opportunity to come by the booth to try and sell something. Many are distributers of equipment used in our projects. Others are insurance providers or human resource consultants. Almost all are poor salesmen. Here are the most common traits of bad salesmen.

1. They jump right into their pitch without ever asking who I am or what I do. This is a terrible lead in because they assume I am an engineer and assume I give a rat’s @#! about what they’re selling.
2. They do not listen to me. Even after telling them, I am in marketing, I am not an engineer, I have nothing to do with specifying or purchasing their product or service, they continue with their pitch. They completely ignore the fact that I will have nothing to do with their success at selling something.
3. They feel pressure to keep talking and repeating themselves. They must think that I am as terrible a listener as they are so they must keep talking until they get my interest in something.

If you want to be good at selling, you do the exact opposite of these things.

1. You start by asking questions. What is your name and what do you do? This gives you enough information to decide if this is the right person who may be interested in what you are selling. If they are the right person, you ask more questions. Let them do the talking and you do most of the listening.
2. LISTEN! Shut your mouth and pay attention to what they are saying. They will tell you if they’re interested in what you are selling. If they are not, you thank them and ask if there is another person in their organization to whom you should contact.
3. No one is as interested in you and your company as you are. Why would they be? So, stop trying to convince people how great you and your company are. Talk about something else and have a conversation. Ask questions unrelated to business. Build a relationship.

Be good at selling your engineering services. Don’t have a sales pitch. Don’t assume you know who you’re talking to. Listen a lot more than you speak!

The best technical engineers are not always the engineers chosen for a project. This is because even project owners buy experience. And they do not all buy the same experience, similar to coffee drinkers who may buy convenience, vibe, or flavor.
 
So, the marketing goal is to learn what experiences our clients desire most and find ways to deliver that experience. To gather this information, we must ask. We must have regular conversations with our clients and learn to listen to their preferences. Some clients prefer regular interactions and quick responsiveness. Others prefer technical accuracy and detail. Still, others prefer delivery on time and within their budget.

We have several avenues of discovery for client experience data.

1. Client debriefs – having a sit-down chat with our clients asking them specific questions about their experience.
2. Client surveys – an occasional email that gives clients an opportunity for a brief response about their experience.
3. Client meetings – while working on the project, listen for clues in what the client says about their experience working with you. Take note of their preferences.
4. Client emails – how does a client interact with you? What are they consistently most concerned about?

Taken together, debriefs, surveys, meetings, and emails should tell us a story about what our clients experience and what they prefer. The next step is gathering that data in our CRM as a database full of client experience. ​