Outside of the meet and greet time earlier, this is the best opportunity to recruit links. However, 99% of the time this opportunity is squandered with the unprepared business-as-usual sales pitch.

I often see the eyes of those around me roll back as the facilitator finishes the directions and passes the mic to the first speaker. They then move on to checking their Blackberrys, going for seconds, or reading the handouts on the table.

This is the norm in almost all networking groups, and often by design. Chambers, associations, chapters, alumni groups – they all tend to get directions from their facilitators that sound something like this:

“For your 30 second promos, please tell us your name, the company you work for, what you do,  and one thing people don’t know about you.”

For clarity, here is the information requested in sequence:

1. your name
2. the company you work for
3. what you do
4. one thing people don’t know about you

Here is a common example following the above directions:

“Hello, my name is Jack Smith and I work for Superior Heating & Air. I am the business development manager and one thing you don’t know about me is that I like to kite surf. It is so fun…I just got back from Hawaii where I kite surfed off the coast of Oahu for 3 days. It was beautiful and you all should try it. If you need A/C or heating repairs or maintenance, give me a call. We have great customer service and are offering a free filter with all tune ups.”

We did learn facts about Jack’s work and a personal note but

Since the focus of this post is on getting the group’s attention, we will focus on why following these directions will not bring you success in getting others to focus on what you have to say.

And if they aren’t listening, why waste your breath?

Let’s look at how these directions could be improved to get the first thing you need in your 30 second promo: attention.

1. Unless your name is Michael Jackson or Britney Spears, you wont get attention by telling people your name so that is a bad place to start since you have about 5 seconds to capture the group’s interest.
2. Your company is great but probably mostly unknown. If you missed the opportunity to grab attention with the first thing out of your mouth, following up with this is sure to increase others’ focus on the steam rising from their coffee.

I could go on but no more is needed. You will never, never get the attention and interest you want by using this type of 30 second promo or presentation.

Attention Grabbers

Like it or not, every member in the group is self centered and asking “what’s in it for me?” To make it memorable, they are all listening to WII FM. Knowing this gives you an opportunity to play their favorite song. It is a gift to know what station they’re on so use it wisely as changing the station to “I’m tuning out” is very easy.

What’s their favorite song?

Their favorite song is a Business-Bite, some relevant information, a resource, or an idea that is compelling and causes them to look up from their iPhone at you.

The first thing you say is the most important thing you say! Every news article you read uses this principle. The most important thing you need to know is first followed by order or priority. If you get nothing else, you get the first thing. If you don’t get their attention, you will never get anything else from them.

Using the above example of Jack at Superior, he should respectfully ignore the directions and instead go with something proven and effective like adding some research and a direct benefit first:

“The cost of electricity has gone up 47% over the last 2 years and another 21% increase was just approved for next year. Did you know that 2 annual tune ups on your heating and A/C system can reduce power consumption by up to 25%? For someone paying $200 a month, that’s an extra $50 a month or $600 a year….

What Jack says next is of great importance as he has just gathered the attention of his audience. Many are thinking of what they could do with the extra money while others are considering this benefit as their bills are $500 and higher.

To maximize this opportunity, The Personal Branding Workshop is an ideal next step to take this and other strategies and put them in to practice.

Grab attention and reward those who gave it – for their benefit and yours.

p.s.
The best way to transform your group with strategies like this is to request that your Executive Director or Membership Manager visit this blog. Booking a workshop at your next luncheon is also a great way.