 Great photo by ThisIsEngineering Everyone’s heard of the 30-second elevator speech. But sometimes, it’s a much taller building.
We were recently asked—and this will happen to you, too, soon, if it hasn’t already, so brace yourself—to present our pitch before a business group, with a six-minute time allotment. Quick: How do you present your business, to a target-rich environment like that, in six minutes? Follow-on question: How do you carve up those six minutes? Do you spend all of them, well, presenting? Audience first If you’ve read any articles from us here at Copel Communications, you’ll know that we take a near-religious approach to taking a customer-back approach to everything we do. Start with the customer. What do they want and/or need? Then work back from there, i.e., “customer-back” approach. Same thing applies for your six-minute preso slot. Know who’s in that audience, in advance. Do your homework. Are they like-minded businesspeople in a similar or adjacent vertical? Or—as was the case for us—are they perhaps members of a networking group, looking to lubricate the two-way process of referrals? Get your best possible grasp on who they are. What they need. How many will be in the room. The type of room: real or virtual. How much time will there be for Q&A? Is that baked into the six-minutes? Or is it additional? And if so, how much? Rule of thumb: The more annoying you can be with preliminary questions like these, the more you’ll succeed. Working backward So. We were going to be facing a business networking group—a common venue. What kinds of businesses? All kinds, with the distinction that they, like us, all operated in the B2B space. How did they differ from us? Oooh. That’s a good question you should ask yourself. In other words, how can you differentiate yourself and your offerings? That’s how you’ll cut through the clutter, make your presentation interesting and engaging, and increase your odds of successful business development. For us, fortunately, the answer to the “how do they differ” question was easy. While we toil in marketing, and many of the others in the audience either do, too, or certainly have exposure to it, we were unique in that our background is 100-percent based in creative services. So that made for a neat way in. Outline, outline, outline Turns out, for us, the six-minute allotment included the time for the Q&A. That’s a huge detail. So our outline went something like this:
Close, close, close Odds are, your business doesn’t do anything like what we do here at Copel Communications. Yet we’ll bet that that outline above is easily 90-percent useful to you. Some things are just universal. A speaking opportunity like this, is just that: An opportunity. Seize it. Work the room. Book meetings and calls. Send follow-up emails. Need help prepping for a six-minute presentation, or other similar opportunity? Contact us. We help our clients with challenges like these all the time.
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 Great photo by Fauxels. Here at Copel Communications, we’re huge fans of remote work. We’ve been doing it, exclusively, for nearly three decades now, with clients all over the country (and sometimes, the world).
Remember the pandemic? People asked us how we adjusted. Our answer: The rest of the world merely caught up with us. That said, there are some glorious exceptions. We recently worked on a big project with a geographically-scattered client team with a deadline looming, and we ran the meeting on-site at our client’s headquarters office. Sure, there were disadvantages to this, but there were also some interesting advantages—that you can profit from in your next meeting or on-site. The cons Let’s get these out of the way. Scheduling this event for the numerous attendees was hard. It took lots of emails to send slots and check availabilities. Apps like Calendly might have helped… to an extent. But there were last-minute changes, in which one person’s suddenly-updated schedule impacted everyone’s, and we all had to start again. Then there were the logistics. They had to book the conference room. Order lunch. Set up the big screen for running preso’s in the room. And all of us had to dress up and drive. For a location which was, fortunately, only 30 minutes away, we had to allow a 15-minute cushion for traffic and parking. Not to mention the loading up the laptop and cables and all that junk. So, round trip, there’s, easily, two hours out of the day just gone, with zero work getting accomplished, while adding to the region’s traffic and carbon footprint from the commute. So… this better be one good meeting. Right? The pros After a zillion Zoom calls with this team, it was refreshing to see everyone in person. Everyone had… shoes. It was incredible. Granted, when we got there, after all the hellos and small talk, everyone still had to fire up their respective laptops and log into the local Wi-Fi network and all that. More zero-productive time. But then it was time for us to run this meeting. And of course we arrived prepared. So we shared the agenda, the input materials, the catch-up from the previous Zoom meeting, and started to get things underway. And up to this point, aside from seeing that people wore shoes and being able to physically see who was looking at whom at any given second, it wasn’t any more productive than a Zoom meeting. But there were differences. We’d mentioned that this was basically a fairly stressful gathering, since we were working on a difficult project on a deadline. So it was a little easier to feel the tension in the physical air… and to defuse it as well, with a stretch, a yawn, or a trot over to the snack table. And it was easier to handle the inevitable digressions, too, since we could “read” the room and still watch the clock, and keep the group reined in. But the best, and most un-Zoom-like part of the whole working session was the time spent not working. It was the lunch break. It wasn’t like, “Oh, let’s all log off and log back on in 30 minutes.” It was more like, “Who ordered the turkey club?” and “I thought you were a vegetarian,” and “No, Larry’s the vegetarian,” and then “That’s because my wife got me into it,” and, within short order, the room that had been filled with workers was replaced with a room filled with humans. It was great to simply not work. Hang out. Crack jokes. Our follow-up meeting, after this one, was back on Zoom again. It was infinitely easier, from a logistical standpoint. And it was better. The in-person bonding from the earlier on-site carried over and provided deeper connections going forward. Despite all the remote-lauding we’d done at the beginning of this article, the aforementioned on-site is hardly the only in-person meeting we’ve attended! Typically, we’ll do in-person at the beginning of an engagement, to meet all the players and make connections. That’s probably the best time to do it. But later ain’t too bad, either. Have a virtual-vs.-in-person story to share? Send it our way. We’d love to hear it.  Great photo by Cottonbro Studio. Boy is this ever a “modern problems” topic. As a former agency creative director, we’re used to, well, directing creative people.
But nowadays, very often, you can’t. You can’t speak to them. You can’t see them. And yet you need to direct, and coach, and motivate them, to do their best work. What gives? The gig economy cometh Back in the day, we’d walk around the bull pen and engage with our artists at their drawing boards (yikes!) and computers. We’d go to recording studios and direct voiceover talent and jingle artists. We’d direct photographers on photo shoots, videographers on video shoots, and so on. Very straightforward. Enter Upwork. And Fiverr. And their ilk. The vaunted “Gig Economy,” wherein people can work, and make money, from anywhere. We’ve weighed in on this topic before. It’s a double-edged blade, which democratizes the availability of talent purveyors to buyers, while also (often) encouraging a race-to-the-bottom mentality when it comes to pricing and (often) quality. We won’t get into that here. What we will get into is the way that these platforms, such as Upwork and Fiverr, force you to work. They expressly forbid the talent on their platforms from engaging with the people who hire them… outside of the limited messaging capabilities of the platform itself. Think about that. We’ve had some tricky video assignments, for example, which we needed to dole out to qualified editors. The requirements for success were nuanced. Know the best way to communicate this to the editor? How about a phone call? Or better yet, Zoom? Nope. Not allowed by Upwork. Or Fiverr. (To the point where they’ll banish these workers from their platforms if they’re caught engaging in such egregious violations of their terms and conditions. The platforms are effectively dangling their livelihoods on a string.) So what do we do? How do we surmount these challenges? Is it possible to make lemonade from such tainted fruit? The pen is mightier than the restraint There’s really only one tool at your disposal if you’re looking to get great work out of these gig-economy vendors. And that’s the written word. Imagine that rousing speech and directions you’d planned (or hoped) to give that vendor in person. Write it down. Verbatim. It’s your only/best choice. Sure, you can, and should, list all the mandatories in the project (“The logo must stay on screen for at least four seconds,” etc.). But you need to put the “carrots” in there, too. We’ve ended some lengthy directions with exhortations such as, “If this one comes out great, there will be others in this series. So impress us!” You’re not some HAL-like computer spitting out commands. You’re a person, doing your best to connect to that vendor on the other side of the gig-platform wall. Be nice. Make friends. And don’t be surprised if the street isn’t exactly two-way. You may spend, say, an hour writing up an incredible input package. And you may get in return something as succinct as “ok got it thx.” Don’t be offended. Just roll with it. You don’t need, say, that graphic artist to spend an hour or two on a beautifully written reply; rather, you want them to devote their time to making beautiful graphics, following your instructions in both letter and spirit. Need help getting the best out of a hybrid team like this? Contact us. We do this all the time, and would be delighted to help you, too!  What does your next crucial sales presentation have to do with Rich Little?
And who on earth is Rich Little? Stay tuned. This will help you make more money. It’s based on some work we recently did for one of our clients, to help them sell better. And of course, it borrows from Rich Little. Who? Grating expectations If you’re old enough, you already know who Rich Little is. (We actually had to Google to make sure didn’t need to say—yet—“who Rich Little was.”) He’s a comedian. Specifically, an impersonator: someone who humorously imitates celebrities such as actors and politicians. He was famous for doing impressions of Richard Nixon and Johnny Carson. Who? And who? Oh geez. Google them if you don’t know. So. Late in his career—and this would be back in the 1980s, so we’re totally dating ourselves here—we saw Rich Little perform, live, at a casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Mind you, at this time, he was still very well-known. He was the headliner. So you might think that the live show goes something like this: There’s a warm-up act: A lesser-known comedian who opens the show and “warms up” the audience, so they’re already laughing and in a good mood by the time Rich Little takes the stage. And then, just as the warm-up comedian bows off the stage, you hear the house announcer, over the P.A., say, “And now, ladies and gentlemen, let’s welcome our headliner! How about a big Atlantic City welcome for the one, the only, Rich Little!” And the audience cheers and cheers, and Rich Little takes the stage. Only it didn’t happen that way. In a word: Huh? The setup The first part of what we just described took place exactly as we described it. That is, all the stuff about the warm-up act. (Don’t worry—we are totally going to loop this back to your business, and crafting a superior sales presentation, in just a minute. We haven’t lost the thread at all.) But then, after the warm-up comedian left the stage, here’s what actually happened: The house lights dimmed. You could hear glitzy show-biz music playing through the house speakers. And then an enormous video screen descended from the ceiling, and there, up on the screen, was… Rich Little. Huh?? Think about that. Here’s an audience full of people who have paid good money to see Rich Little in person. And the very instant he’s supposed to take the stage—you know he’s standing in the wings, just out of sight—he doesn’t. And, instead, you see a video of him. Correction: You see lots of videos of him. And therein lies the crux of this entire conversation. You see, the videos were clips of him… on television. There he is, yukking it up with all the kings of late-night talk shows: Carson. Letterman. Leno. There he is up on a dais, at some roast. With all these other famous people laughing hysterically at his John Wayne (who?) or his Jimmy Stewart (who?) or whatever. With lots of brassy music under it all, tying it all together. Clip after clip. Of Rich Little, effectively being famous. After a few minutes of this, a recorded announcer says, “And now, ladies and gentlemen, here he is! Live! In person! Give it up for the one, the only, Rich Little!” And with that, he walks onto the stage. Setting the scene Guess what? When he took the stage, he took the stage to thunderous applause. The audience was already primed to see him. Why? They knew his work from TV. They thought he was funny. And they knew he was famous, so it was titillating to see him in person. And his little “sizzle reel” video had just reinforced that. Took it to a whole new level. Ta-dah. See where this is going? For your business? For your… PowerPoint? The Rich Little Video (that’s what we’d called it, initially, with the client we’d mentioned earlier) is effectively the same thing. It’s a quick highlight reel of “all the stuff we’ve done, the big-name clients we’ve served, a quick overview of our breakthrough methodology,” and so on. It’s something you can—and, arguably, should—show to prospects, very first thing, when you’ve got them in the room to make a sales presentation. It worked for Rich Little. It can work for you. Think about it:
Go big Unlike most corporate videos you might make, this one is infinitely slicker. And likely shorter. Keep it under a minute if you can. Thirty seconds would be awesome. Sweat every detail of the scripting, the graphics, the music, everything. “Hollywood” it up. It’s worth it. Rich Little’s retired. But your business is still going strong. Make it go even stronger, with your own “Rich Little Video.” Need help with a project like this? We’re your go-to source. Contact us today and let’s discuss your needs.  We’re fond of saying that “’creative professional’ is an oxymoron.” There’s a constant tension that exists in this field like nowhere else.
The mere idea of selling a creative idea feels almost wrong. But it’s part of the biz. In this article, we’re going to relate a recent story in which we had to do just that. But pay heed: This is more than just “pitching the idea and seeing if the client buys it.” It was more subtle than that—and the way we succeeded here can help you, too. There’s a little bit of mental head-gaming going on here; let us explain. What’s your take on video? For this assignment, our client (a professional-services consultancy) had the opportunity to be featured in upcoming videos by a big enterprise which sort of straddled the line between “partner” and “client.” The important thing to note, for this story, was that the enterprise was going to be footing the (substantial) bill for the video production. So it was our job to basically pitch our client’s story to this enterprise, so that the enterprise would hopefully feature them in their upcoming videos. Note that this enterprise had tons of companies to choose from. Thus it was, in our view, a competition. We had to make our client the most video-worthy choice for this “Hollywood” enterprise. So what do you do in a situation like this? You listen. Reading between the lines The head video person at this enterprise (we’re blurring some lines here to protect identities) was the one in charge of making the selection of which companies would feature in these new “shows” they were producing. We wanted to learn more. So we booked a big Zoom call, with us, our client, and a few people from the big enterprise, including that Head Video Guy. Here’s where it gets interesting. Remember what we’d said about listening? The more you pay attention, and take notes, the better armed you are to succeed in a challenge like this. Here’s what Head Video Guy told us: “We want to make videos about a great company we’re working with. We want to feature the principal people of that company. But we don’t want to simply shoot ‘a talking head in an office.’ We want to tell an interesting story, one that really works well on video and takes advantage of the medium.” Ta-dah. There it is. We’d left off with the enterprise that we’d think about some ideas, and pitch them to them in a follow-up Zoom call. Building the “un-story” In our next, offline, meeting with our client, we asked the different team members about the kinds of things they like to do when they’re not at the office—and the more extreme, the better. We were pleasantly surprised. These people play as hard as they work:
Do you see where this is going? Pitching without pitching In our initial Zoom call, we picked up the signals that the Head Video Guy loved coming up with creative story ideas. In other words, he didn’t want to be spoon-fed. Read another way: He didn’t want to buy other people’s creative ideas; he wanted to come up with his own. So our job was to essentially pitch him “fodder,” and let him (easily) come up with cool creative ideas that were “his own.” All of the extreme sports listed above made this ridiculously easy. In the follow-up Zoom call, the conversation went something like this: Us: “We chatted and talked about different things, and just thought we’d tell you about what we learned about the different people at this company—specifically, what they do in their off-hours, compared to what they do at the office.” Head Video Guy (intrigued): “Go on...” Us: “For example, one of the top technical people, when she’s not solving difficult software challenges, enjoys going mountain climbing in her spare time. Can you believe that?” Head Video Guy (huge epiphany): “Wait a minute! This means that she’s always striving to reach new heights! What an incredible visual metaphor!” Us: “Amazing!” Yeah. Of course we’d thought of this. But we didn’t want to pitch it that way. The rest of the conversation, as you’ll see, was pretty predictable, but enjoyable and productive nonetheless: Us: “Our top sales rep loves deep-sea fishing.” Head Video Guy: “He likes to reel in the catch!” Us: “The Director of Product Development is an avid surfer.” Head Video Guy: “He’s catching the next wave!” Us: “The CEO enjoys skiing.” Head Video Guy: “He’s carving out the right path for the company!” And so on. The takeaway As you can tell, Head Video Guy was absolutely delighted by this call, and all of the brilliant creative ideas he came up with during it; they were all great for the upcoming video series. Just as important, note what we didn’t do: We never pitched any of these visual metaphors. We didn’t need to. Indeed, if we had, they would’ve ruined the call. We let the other guy make the (relatively easy) creative leap, and enjoy the rush and the glory. And oh, our client came out ahead in this “video competition.” As we’ve said, “’creative professional’ is an oxymoron.” But the more you know about selling, the better you can be at selling your creative. Need help with that next challenge? Contact us. We do this kind of stuff all the time.  You may take conference calls for granted, but you shouldn’t. Each one, at best, is an opportunity to forge new relationships and build new business. At worst—if you do take them for granted—they have the opposite effect, making you look uninformed or ill-prepared, damaging your personal and business brands.
In this article, we’ll walk through the essential pre-call checklist. We’ll review proper call etiquette. And we’ll point out some flubs that we’ve witnessed, or committed ourselves, so you can laugh and learn from the missteps of others. It’s all in the prep A conference call is a lot like an oral report you had to do in high school. The bulk of the work takes place before the event... if you’re going to succeed. If you can think you can just show up and wing it, think again. Rock the roster. See who else has been invited to participate on the call. Are they the usual suspects, or is there a newcomer? Depending on the context, this could help you build new connections or find good vendor resources; at best, it’s an opportunity to make a connection for entirely new business. If that doesn’t motivate you to properly prep, then nothing will. And don’t just settle for names. If there are to be people on the call you’ve never met, do some digging in advance. Check out their LinkedIn pages. Read up on their companies. Jot some notes, and questions. Look for common connections: Where they grew up, where they went to school, military service, trade groups they belong to, and so on. Prep for content. There is a purpose for this call you’ll be joining. So understand it. What were the materials you were sent, in advance? Re-read them. Highlight key portions. Any websites you’ll be discussing on the call? Bring them up on screen. Give them a quick review, especially if they’ve been updated with news, blog entries, social-media feedback, etc. Set up your screen. We’re talking “phone conference” here, but with platforms like Zoom, Skype for Business, and GoToMeeting, there’s a good chance you’ll be sharing someone’s screen during the call. You might not plan on it, but there’s also a chance that, during the call, you’ll be asked to suddenly share your screen. So scrub it of anything you don’t want others to see, including desktop items, visible browser tabs, sensitive emails, etc. Be prepared for a quick change. Just as you may not expect to be sharing your screen, you may not expect to be firing up your camera during the call. But it happens! It can happen inadvertently, if, say, you click the wrong box or ignore a “Share my camera” default when you join. But it can also happen spontaneously, for the most mundane and unpredictable reasons (“What’s the weather like there? Is it sunny by you?”). Don’t get caught off-guard. This doesn’t mean you need to dress up for every call, but you should have, say, a blazer hanging right nearby, so you can quickly slip it on when you’re asked to share your camera. Heed the background. Speaking of cameras, be sure to fire yours up before the call starts. Look at what it reveals. Is there junk on that coffee table? Did your kids (or dog) leave a toy on the floor that you wouldn’t otherwise have noticed? Tidy everything up, bearing in mind the quick-and-dirty cheat: You can literally toss all the junk to the side of the room that’s behind the computer, since it will be off-camera. And look at yourself, too. Computer/webcam cameras are notoriously low quality, so play around with the lighting in your office to make it as flattering as possible. Does your face wash out to a bright blur when those blinds are open? Then close them. Do the fluorescents make you look green? Opt for a different light source. Here’s a tip: Your computer screen itself can provide a very flattering front-light. Simply 1) crank the brightness on the screen all the way up, even though it’s much more than you’d usually use or tolerate; 2) make sure your screen features lots of white items on it, such as a Word doc and a neutral desktop background, and no glaring colors that would reflect poorly on your complexion; and 3) move your chair so your face is much closer to the screen, closer than you’re accustomed to. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by how nice you look! Calling in Dial right. You’ve been issued a dial-in number and passcode; use them carefully! We were once invited to a big conference call with lots of people from a company that was new to us, so we sat and quietly listened when we first dialed in and waited for the meeting to officially start. What we heard was, well, quite surprising. People on the call were discussing things we can’t even mention in a family-friendly blog like this. Turns out we had mis-typed our passcode by just one digit—and thus logged into a conference call being hosted by the porn industry! Adding insult to injury, it took us a little while to figure this out, making us late to the actual call. Don’t trust the audio. Whenever we’re introduced on a call, say, for a subject-matter expert (SME) interview, the very first thing we say is, “Hi, can everyone hear me okay?” Never assume that they can. The connections vary, the mics and speakers vary, even the services (such as GoToMeeting) can get wonky. Asking the group if they can hear you gives them a nice polite opportunity to say “No” if that’s the case. Ever been on a call where one caller has tons of annoying background noise, such as traffic, or a Starbucks crowd? Have you ever learned, to your dismay, that that was you? Mute your mic if you plan to listen for a while. And don’t forget to un-mute it when you go to speak again! We can’t count how many times a caller interrupts someone else, saying, “I was talking and talking, and didn’t realize I was still on ‘Mute.’ Sorry!” Don’t be that person. Remember the flubs we said we’d mention? Dialing into the porn call was one. Here’s another: During one conference call, in the midst of someone’s important presentation, we distinctly heard someone else flush the toilet. Call quality varies, but this one came through like Dolby stereo. It silenced the “room,” followed by nervous giggles. No one admitted to it. All we know is, it wasn’t us, and probably not the presenter. (If it was the presenter, that conjures up some imagery we’d rather not picture.) Lesson learned/reinforced: Use that mute button! Take notes. This may seem like a no-brainer, but not everyone does it. Good notes—jotted in Word, for us—are invaluable after the call for reviewing what was discussed and agreed upon. They’re also especially useful during the call: When someone is making, say, several points, and you have a question about the first of ten, you can quickly type your question into your notes when they make that point. After their big spiel, you’ll look quite impressive for “recalling”" what they said, and having a ready and cogent question to pose. You’ll look extra smart, but all you’re doing is reading your notes. Since no one can see, they won’t know. Clear your screen. We mentioned the hazards of not clearing your screen (or office background) prior to sharing, visually, with the group. But here’s what can happen after the call has started. We were once on a call in which one participant shared his screen just long enough to show the others one thing of interest, after which the moderator (in this case, a respected thought-leader) took the “floor.” But that one participant forgot that, after he was done speaking, he was still sharing his screen! So everyone else on the call, moderator included, watched in embarrassed horror and fascination as that one participant blithely ignored what was being discussed, and started shopping on Amazon, filling his cart for everyone else to see. While this article should hopefully arm you for your next conference call, we, by necessity, couldn’t, and thus didn’t, discuss the business matters that will be covered in that next call of yours. What will be the deliverables? What’s the marketing strategy? If you need help with these concerns, call us. We’d be happy to help—and oh-so-prepared for that call.  The year is almost over. Did you get your fill of best-practice, business-building tips?
Don’t fret if you didn’t. Here—with quick and easy hyperlinked titles for your convenience—are our top tips for consultants from the year 2017. Enjoy!
Have feedback from any of these articles you’d like to share? Or do you have a topic you’d like us to cover next year? Contact us and let us know. We’d love to hear from you.  Not the real guy, but you get the idea. Little social tricks pay off tenfold
If it weren’t for reruns and venues like Netflix, the title of this post might go lost on many of our readers. But we’re talking about Gilligan’s Island, the sixties-era sitcom wherein seven stranded castaways had to make do with the perils of life on a desolate desert isle… and only one change of clothing. In every episode, for three seasons, Gilligan wore the exact same thing. A red shirt with a white collar, faded bell bottoms, and a little white Dixie cup hat. Must’ve been, well, fragrant. You see where this is going, don’t you? You instantly grasp the nexus between Gilligan’s sartorial monotony and your own business development, right? Okay, it’s a stretch, but here goes. How many times have you gotten ready for an in-person meeting, and picked out what you felt was the most appropriate outfit to wear, only to wonder, “Oh geez, was this the exact same thing I wore the last time?” Keeping tabs That’s where we got the Gilligan reference. You really don’t want to show up wearing the exact same thing you wore last time. You could argue that Steve Jobs, presumably taking a cue from the legend about Albert Einstein, always wore the same thing on stage, but we’d rather not worry that people think: “Sheesh… Is that their only outfit?” The easiest way to avoid this little dilemma is to jot it down. Don’t put it in your calendar for the day of the meeting. That would make it too much work to look up for your next meeting. Rather, put down a time-stamped note in the notes for that client’s contact, so you can quickly see, “Oh, last time I wore that blue blazer, etc., etc.” This, clearly, is a little trick for making a better appearance for yourself. But there are also others you can use to help you engage with others. Write it down Again, take advantage of whatever contact software you’re using; indeed, these tricks even apply to a Rolodex, if you know what one is (or are still using one). This is where you jot down the name of the assistant, the names of the spouse and kids, the birthdates, etc. Be sure to time-stamp them, for example: “April 14th, 2017: Jill had a baby boy, Jayden.” Then, all you’ll ever need is a quick glance at that contact card when you’re about to jump on the phone or meet, and you won’t waste time racking your brains for those little details or (worse) getting an important fact like that wrong. This also works “inbound.” When you receive a call from Contact A, simply bring up Contact A’s card on screen while you’re chatting. You’ll appear brilliant. These, clearly, are neither new nor high-tech tricks. But you’d be surprised how many people fail to employ them, despite all the advances in customer-relationship-management or CRM software, cloud-linked contacts, etc. Plan in advance Not long ago, we were booked to have lunch with a client out of town. They suggested the restaurant. We had a lot to discuss at the meeting and wanted to stay focused. Know what we did in advance? We Googled the restaurant, perused their menu online, and picked out exactly what we would order. When we got there in person, we politely skimmed the menu (also to make sure the online version was accurate!) and casually ordered what we’d chosen beforehand. It bought us just a little extra time and relaxation and allowed us to focus more on the real details of the meeting. And no one suspected. Do you have a little trick you’d care to share? Post it in the comments or contact us and let us know. We can’t get enough of little time- and effort-savers like these.  If you know the right kind
My 86-year-old father has been on a tear lately. He walks up to strangers in the supermarket and tells them, “I’m getting cremated next week!” When they drop their jaws in horror, he proudly serves up the punchline: “I’m thinking outside the box!” It’s often been suggested to open a talk, a meeting, or a conversation with a joke. But not that one, for god’s sakes. Still, it’s a convenient segue to the topic of this article: Small talk. At its worst, it’s an eye-glazing ritual rife with insincerity. At its best, it’s an astonishingly powerful barrier-breaker and business-builder, when you employ it properly with your clients. So what is it? This is interesting: Looking up “small talk” in my dictionary app just crashed it. So there’s clearly a negative bias at play here. Relaunching the app gives us helpful phrases such as “polite conversation” and “unimportant.” So it sure seems that it’s useless, perhaps an archaic holdover from more formal and less time-constrained times. But appearances can be deceiving. The wrong stuff You probably don’t need to read a lot here about small talk that doesn’t work; you’ve surely endured enough of it yourself. But let’s examine that. Why did the small talk put you off? If someone was spouting about their grandkids or the weather or traffic, it was probably boring. If they were taking a political slant, there’s a good chance they became offensive. Boring. Offensive. Gee. What not to be to your client. See where this is going? A counterintuitive approach Well, you could certainly flip the above negatives on their head and draw the conclusion that your small talk—if any—should be interesting yet inoffensive. But that will only get you less-boring, less-offensive small talk. If the point here is to break down barriers and build up business, you’ll have to do more than that. Think about it. What would you like your client to do, at the very outset of the conversation? What kind of mindframe do you want them to be in? Regarded in that light, the challenge is different, and far more intriguing. Not to mention fun, if you’re the puzzle-solving type. “I want them lubed up to hand me more business!” you might say. Fine. But would you ever open a conversation with a client with words to that effect? Of course not. Enter your small talk. The magician David Blaine once threw a deck of cards at a store window from the sidewalk. And the card he’d predicted to appear did just that… stuck to the inside of the store window! It’s a great trick and makes you wonder “How did he do that?” But if you give it more than 30 seconds’ worth of thought, you realize: “He’d prepped that outcome in advance.” Ta-da! The point here is that ideal small talk is much bigger than it appears. If you’re walking into that meeting or onto that call, you already know what’s on the agenda. And you also know where you’d like to steer that conversation, opportunity-wise, before it ends. But we’ll bet you’d never considered taking a David Blaine-like approach to something as seemingly banal as small talk. Stuff the rabbit into the hat Now that you surely see the strategy for this endeavor, all that’s left is the tactical execution. This generally isn’t hard. Scour your previous-meeting notes for questions that went unanswered, for little opportunistic openings that never quite yielded to your touch. Then look through the morning’s news. Do a Google News search for any of the topics of interest to your client. See what crops up. Jot yourself a note or two, and you’re armed. Your resulting small-talk/opener can go something like this: “Hey, did you see that story about that possible merger we’d talked about last week?” Simple as that. However the client responds—yes or no—you’re in control of the conversation, and are free to steer it that way during the ensuing meeting or call. Note that that fictitious opener might not feel like classic “small talk,” but that’s okay. Note that 1) it’s probably not on the actual agenda for the meeting or call (since it covers territory you’d prefer to explore), and 2) it’s a lot more suitable to your purposes than, say, “Hey, my kid just threw up alphabet soup and you could still read the letters.” Taboo or not taboo? You’ve always heard that you should avoid the topics of religion and politics in polite conversation. We’ll agree with the former. But we’ll leave you with some unexpected opinions on the latter. On the surface, we couldn’t agree more. We’ve seen clients of ours post rabidly political rants on supposedly-business-limited sites like LinkedIn, and it always makes us cringe. For every person you’ll win over, you’ll insult at least one more. It’s not worth the fallout. And you’ll notice that we practice what we preach here at Copel Communications. You won’t see anything that tips the scales in either direction; indeed, we’re often called upon to take up the mantle of varying causes in a professional capacity, and we do just that. But let’s get back to small talk. You can sometimes plumb your client with an innocent-sounding query which gets them to open up, big-time, in your favor. Consider something like this, if the context would work for you: “I hear that the Trump administration is considering scaling back on XXXX/spending more on XXXX…” That’s all you need say. You never took a side. But your client may well not walk so fine a line. Fine. Let them spout. And take notes! It could serve you well. Do you have small-talk tips or war stories to share? Feel free to respond to this post or contact us and let’s chat. |