First BNI Meeting

[vernontheroar]

So, I was at my first BNI event a couple of minutes ago. It didn’t turn out as fantastic as I thought it would. Wanted to get all of your takes on this.

1. Whenever I tell them what I do they’re always like “bler bler bler and how do you do that?”. And that’s where I kinda fumble a little bit, I have a little 10 second elevator speech thing but I guess it sucks because it seems like they either don’t believe me or I haven’t made it clear enough or whatever. Does this happen to you after you tell them you’re a marketing consultant?

One guy especially seemed like he tried to challenge me or something about what I do as if its disgusting or something. Needless to say I promptly had to put him in his place about being a window cleaner (obviously I did that in a mega classy way, just let know not to **** with me)(no offence to window cleaners but he was an asshole).

2. Now, I don’t know if this is the norm for events like this, but it seemed like everybody would only try to talk to people for like 2 minutes MAX (if that). Especially in my conversations we don’t even make it past the initial pleasantries. (sept this one t.v. girl, she was hawt, she wants my babies)

Now, I don’t really consider myself a bad people person, in fact i actually get along really well with everyone i meet, I didn’t dress trashy or anything, and I pretty much had a smile on my face the whole time. I guess my main problem is when they try to get me to elaborate on what I do I kinda stumble on that part because I’ve already given them my elevator pitch and at the same time I think it would just be kinda weird if I were to start talking about yellow pages and people not answering their phone correctly at 25 seconds into the conversation.


I just want to know what you would do in this situation.

and my little quote I give when they ask me what I do is “I help small business owners cut the fat and waste from their marketing budget, while at the same time increasing their sales” –complements of Andrew Patrick. (learned everything i know from him and Dexx)

ive posted this question in the other forum too, and have asked dexx, just wanting to get multiple perspectives.

[Dexx]

(posting my response here as well so other forum members can benefit if they are in a similar position)

Hey Vernon, I got your email, but see you posted here too, so I'll respond here.

The purpose of an "elevator pitch" IS to get the other person interested enough to want to know more (i.e. "really? how do you do that!?"

With that said, YOU need to have an aswer to that to keep the flow going and eventually lead your prospect to take the desired action you want...do you have an answer for that follow-up question? Doesn't seem like it. Which might be why you are struggling.

Do you know what the end result you are looking to achieve from talking with people at BNI is? Are you looking to book a meeting, get their contact info for later follow up, or what?

You are being challenged because you are stating a big promise but not immediately backing it up with why they should believe you. Every statement/promise you make must be backed up with proof. (testimonials, case studies, research etc.)

As it stands they have no reason to believe you know what you are talking about...how can you fix this?

Regarding the fast pace of conversations, networking meetings like BNI are all about talking to as many targeted prospects as possible in the time given.

Spending 10-15 minutes talking to one person does not make sense. Talk for 1-2 minutes, then make arrangements to continue the conversation later.

If you are talking to someone who clearly won't do business with you, or won't be of use in growing your business, then you are also wasting time (and the same goes for someone who approaches you to pitch their business).

At the end of the day the secret to these types of meetings is to ask a lot of questions and LISTEN for problems / frustrations stated by the people you talk with.

When they ask you how you do what you do, find a way to spin it so you can ask them about their business and then base your answer off of their response, etc.

Hope that helps

Cheers,

~Dexx