July 2006 Archives

Today, I celebrate 3 years of profitable existence of my company - Arun Consulting. It's been a rollercoaster ride - I haven't made it into a financial success, but it's been a real personal triumph for me - a little immigrant from India in this country - the Netherlands where I didn't have a network, money, or speak the language. I'd like to thank my customers and friends who trusted me enough to give me work. I cannot possibly name you all, but I'd like to specially mention Chris, Sjaak, Christiaan, Iman, Suresh, Nima, Simon, Andre, Hans, Luuck, John, Arindam, Jacques, Perry, Alex and Ben. A heartfelt thanks to all of you! You've made my dream come true. I'd also like to thank all those who were kind enough to mentor me along the way - folks that I met in meetings, networking sessions, friends of friends and above all my family. You've helped me grow and supported me through my tough times here. I won't ever forget that. Thank you!

To do that, you need to create enjoyable experiences when you meet prospects... I had a meeting today with a really great company yesterday. I enjoyed meeting them but I'm not too sure about whether they enjoyed meeting me. Maybe I'm a little insecure, but I feel a lot better when both I and the other party share a common passion and enjoy our conversation. I also feel that there's a better chance of making a sale when the other party likes you I created a top 10 format to make sure that you're liked:

1. Know your stuff. There's nothing worse than walking into a prospect meeting and wasting the other person's time because you didn't prepare well enough. People like to know others who are experts on something
2. Treat secretaries, gatekeepers, and other support staff with respect.
3. Find out about the other party as a person and show that you and she have something in common - learnt a common language, similar educational background etc.
4. Find out if she has any passions, and comment intelligently on them - this means that you need to know something about a lot of areas.
5. Find out what her company has been up to in the news - compliment her on any recent successes and talk a bit about it.
6. Have an idea of the strategy that her company or she personally could follow in the future. This means that you have to research their market position before you come in.
7. Show that you love their product and intensely enjoy some aspects of it. Research the product
8. Comment on how you'd like the product to evolve. People love to talk about their products, and dream all the time about how it can be improved
9. Show that you're socially responsible. No one will dislike someone who they perceive as "having a good heart" - but don't overdo this
10. Be inquisitive and authentic in a nice way - if you show interest, people will like that, but if you're nosy, people will not like it at all

Tags: prospect, sale, liking, personal development, influencing people