Selling = Sleazy?

Networking, BD and other delights

This week and last I’ve been working with lawyers on ‘selling’. Does the S word make you feel icky? A bit sleazy? A client at a global management consultancy got very excited last year when I suggested a course, called ‘Non-Sleazy Selling’. I failed to sell it to her.

Isn’t it just about making it easier for people to buy from you? Explaining what you do and why it’s effective? (It may be useful at some point to think who might need your services and, ahem, if they can afford them. But that can wait.)

The title I gave to this week’s workshop was Relationship-Building. A senior lawyer told me how his firm often organised ‘networking’ events only for his team to stand around all evening talking to themselves. He said, ‘I’m never sure what to do myself, but I just jump in anyway’. Good advice. Once you’re talking to someone, my LASER model , derived from improv theatre will stand you in good stead. Remember Rule One is Listen With Intent - the intent to use what you hear.

Have an idea before an event of who you would like to meet; one or two people would be enough. And when you’ve met them (and maybe one more) you are allowed to leave. You don’t have to monopolise them all evening. Even better if you can introduce them to someone they were hoping to meet.

Forget ‘Always Be Closing'. Just think ‘Always Be Connecting’. Just chatting, maybe not about work but maybe what you have in common (holidays, hobbies or even favourite cheeses). However when you do get on to work, have some simple stories about what you do. Make them relatable (the person listening could imagine themselves as a main character), succinct and free of jargon.

That’s it. Most of the time you are not ‘selling’ anything more than the chance to have another conversation in the future. So follow up. Find them on Linked In. Send them a brief article about cheese (or skiing or litigation or whatever you were discussing). Invite them to something - a webinar or for coffee on a certain date.

If they don’t bite, don’t worry. They may yet be in contact at a later date because their friend needs your services. You see, it’s not who you know that matters… It’s who you know that knows someone who might want what you know.