My background is not in sales. Nor marketing. I set up FWL in 2012 and, in all honesty – I’m a rubbish liar, so honesty is the only way with me – I did so because I didn’t like the way that other companies in the field did business.
Picture this scenario: I call to tell you that you are potentially entitled to a portion of the estate of your ‘Aunt Nellie’ who has died intestate (without writing a will). I tell you some of the information I know from my research and ask you to confirm some details so I know you are the right person. You like what you hear and agree to sign contracts and give me (well, my boss) the authority to act on your behalf. You send off some valuable documents to prove your identity (passport, driving licence …. you get the idea) to my boss. You call me to check that the mail has been delivered and what do I say? “I’m sorry, Mr/Mrs X, but I don’t know whether my boss has received the documents”. Why do I say this? Because my boss hasn’t told me!!!!!
Guess what? I couldn’t work like that. So, I decided to fly solo. Hunt heir by myself…. Was I bonkers? Maybe…. though that’s another story. Since 2012 though, I have learnt sales and marketing. How you might ask? By reading (on- and offline), listening to videos, webinars, podcasts, talking to people about what I do and picking their brains…. When people attend networking events (of which, I do many as a member of BNI and 4N), you introduce yourself. What’s the next question? “What do you do?” How do you make yourself stand out from the crowd, be memorable and connect with your audience? You might have anything from 40 to 60 seconds (depending on which meeting you go to) during the meeting for your ‘elevator pitch’. That’s it, unl
ess the person in charge of the clock is kind and doesn’t make some dinging noise, asking you to stop talking about your business.
So, what do we do? Quite simply, we find people. That’s a good headline. Then I can blather on (Cameron and Miliband-esque, but much shorter) about a few highlights of our business and just how we can find people. Moving on, I tell a bit of a story to frame the potential of our finding skills and then, finish by saying “at Family Wise Limited, we find people …. no matter how hard they try to hide.” More often than not, if delivered well, the last line causes amusement for some sort. Amusement = memorable. Happy with that. Might start some conversations or 1-to-1 meetings later….
This morning – after setting the alarm which told me I had 3 hours and X minutes until my alarm was going to go off – I exited the blue door at 5:45am to drive the 23 mile journey to BNI Bath Parade. Why? Because when you are a good, ethical, professional, business owner striving to expand your business, that’s what you do in order to network with other talented individuals in the area. They need to know who we are and what we do. And what do we do? We find people. Pretty easy to remember that, eh.