Seven ways to give your audience the third degree. What can you ask someone to gain credibility? credibility in your field will open up your audience to talk about their business pain. We define business pain as a problem that a business needs to solve the pain may be that they do not have enough sales or they do not have the appropriate process for tracking their forecasting. The pain could even be that they cannot hire the appropriate staff in order to handle daily requirements. Most often when you're at an event business people talk about what is bothering them at work.

They do not talk about their successes, especially if they're being overheard. They will talk about their pain. It is through asking questions with you as the expert that you will discover your process specs business pain. One good question is always, how are your sales during this quarter or this year. You may also ask them what they are currently working on to improve their business processes. There are a host of other questions you can ask in order to get the answers you were looking for.

When asking questions, do not get into specifics you need to generalize because you want to make the appointment to go deeper into what the company does. The goal of diving into the business pain is not to find out what the pain is per se. It is to find out that there is pain and in what areas. If you are specifically interested in sales, then your question should be generally around sales and not say HR questions. You must be specific about what you want to know not what the person is leading you toward. There's often pain in more than one area of the business.

Remember you are the expert in your field. Try To stick to your questions where you can easily offer free advice. Now that you've asked all the important questions you will receive the answers these may not always be the ones you were looking for. It may be that you have no chance at doing business with this person. important thing is to make sure that you listen carefully to what he or she has to say and offer some simple solutions. You should not take notes that is distracting to the speaker spend time practicing your listening skills so that you can recall the conversation and take notes.

What do you do? There are always situations where you can make comment on the moment when in lineups or generally talking to people you have never met before. It is important to start the conversation somewhere I generally make a comment on something relevant to the time and the place we are both immersed in, in a Starbucks lineup, I may even make a comment on the new clover based coffees or a new tea flavor. asking them if they've tried it. Often this is enough for the other person to open up the floodgates with the conversation. location.

Where are you from? Asking questions around the location of their work in this situation works wonders. I often asked if they're having a break from work, or do they work nearby? Depending on the answer, I am able to zero in further as to their occupation, and a discussion is open to find out more about their expertise. I never opened my mouth with what I do until they asked me most often they are more than willing to talk about themselves. What about their business?

I asked what do you do in Vancouver where I now live, there are hundreds of tourists here in the spring until fall. So I will stop and ask if they both want to have their photo taken as I walk around the seawall. This is a bit of giving. And it also opens the door to find out where they're from and how long they're staying. Now, this may not sound like it will lead to more business, but it just might. I often ask if I can take the photo and post it on my Facebook page.

Most say yes, and give me their contact information. I got two new customers this past spring by just talking to someone from another part of the country who had an interest in being an author. You just absolutely never know. What marketing tactics are you using? We all have marketing strategy, but how are you dealing with your marketing strategy? And what components do you have in place?

First of all social media. Most people are flattered when you ask them about their strategies for marketing. They know what is working for them, and this is a chance to talk about it. Ask about their social media strategy, particularly around either Facebook or LinkedIn. This is an opportunity to open up the conversation at the same time learn something new for your own chest of marketing weapons. There is nothing better than learning something, as this is potentially a way to lead to another meeting with the person to learn even more, and possibly pick up business.

Beyond tactics, what is your strategy? keep the conversation going with more questions around the marketing tactics theme. Asking about the overall strategy is even more flattering to others. They will also start to ask you questions around your tactics and strategy as well. Take Time to make note of what they are doing and ask to see if you can meet them to learn more. You have probably not made a decision whether this person is a prospect, but at this time forming a solid relationship could be far more important.

The reason behind this is not to do business with them, but perhaps they know someone that can use your services. You have to build that relationship first before hitting the next step. And finally, questions. Be prepared to ask questions. This is a great way to dig deeper into a conversation and learn more from others. The goal here is not business as I said before, but the goal is to solidify that relationship.

Social media is social media working for your business. We mentioned social media in this lesson already, but I wanted to go into a bit deeper with this tactic, you need to really ask a lot of questions around this topic to find out more about the person you're talking to and see where they fit in. Let's start with LinkedIn. LinkedIn is known for being a business connection site. In reality, it is loaded with recruiters and job seekers. However, there are other folks in the wings as well.

Ask them if they are on LinkedIn and get them to agree to connect to you. The information on LinkedIn will help you decide whether this person is a prospect or not. Ask about the way they are using LinkedIn. And if they're not discussed the potential with them. It does not matter what way the conversation goes, as long as you have a discussion going. Facebook is another topic.

Are they on Facebook? Do they have business pages? If so, can they tell you what it is so that you can like the page? Would they take the time to like yours as well? Can you do it on the spot with your smartphone? That's the best way.

There are always ways to open up the conversation and take the opportunity to open up the potential for setting another meeting. The ultimate goal at a networking event. What events do you attend? learn about other events in the area, or opening a conversation you may well ask what other events this person has attended, dive deeper into how they felt about those events and what they found to be the best part. The feel felt found trick for getting more information. Would the event be worthwhile for you to attend?

Being that you're a professional in your area of expertise? You will get some great answers and a way to communicate with them. And should you come across the nets that would be suitable for them. You should tell them as well. This tactic has worked for me. I was selling an information product to my past and when talking to a lot of people, they were more than willing to tell me about their other events.

Even through emails and phone calls long after the events we had attended together. It became as if we were a networking club looking for the best opportunities. You should also learn about associations and association meetings. There are often professionals with many areas of expertise at networking events, asked questions about associations and which ones they belong to, and what types of meetings they have. I know from experience that rotary I've been a member for over 23 years and a few clubs, uses guest speakers almost every week. There are five clubs in the downtown area of Vancouver so there are five opportunities to speak about an aspect of the business each week.

The same is true of many service clubs. As far as associations go, they may not meet as frequently but the opportunity to speak will certainly exist. You just have to have the right topic and not a sales pitch to add people to your contact list. You may be wondering why you would want to speak at an event? Well, it is the way to give your elevator speech to at least 20 different individuals all at the same time. Lastly, learn about best approaches that are working.

Ask questions about what works for them at events, offer a couple of suggestions of your own. Try a few new ones based on your conversation. People are always willing to talk about themselves and what is working for them. Tell me about your business. We always want to know the who and the what. What sets you apart from the competition, opening a conversation with finding out the benefits of another product or service will add to the information you are collecting.

This is another way to see if this person could be a prospect or simply stay on the suspect list. Let them do the talking, listen and learn so that you have the ability to ask further intelligent questions. Ask Why did you start your business? And when you may be surprised how people answer this question. Most often they could not get a job anywhere else so they decided to start their own company. This is so true when you leave the corporate world.

I am not particularly a corporate person. Although I have worked in fortune 500 companies for many years. I prefer to do my own thing and my own type of business and I find I meet those with the same mindset at networking events. Yes, I am an expert in my own right. However, I love to learn More about people and what they do and what they need so I can discover the possibility of doing business together. So when did they start their business?

And why? becomes an excellent question to open up the dialogue? location? Where is your business located? Most people answer with local locations and you will want to probe further. If they work from home, they may not want to disclose the location.

You can just ask for a general area for where they service their clients. I work with a naturopathic doctor who has a mobile clinic. So she comes to me. She also has a home office that is a long way for me to travel. When I asked her this question, she talks about her service area rather than her location and the days of the week she is in the local area. It opens up another conversation around how that works for her business.

So popularity What is your most popular product or service? This is a great question. I would only use this question once you have learned more about what they do for business. If you are at an event where you have research the audience, you may know something about the industry, but not enough to get the details of the business model being used. Once you understand a little bit about the industry from them, ask the question about the products and services. The business itself, how do you generate most of your business?

This is one of my favorite questions. I am always on the lookout for new things to try. And this question often gives me ideas I can try and implement for myself. This question also leads to the potential of a follow up meeting to learn even more. Let's take a look at the question. What are your biggest issues Firstly, question you need to ask is, what's new in your business?

Asking this question will let you know if the technology they're using has been changing, or if they still offer the same products and services as they had in the past. A good way to know if the business is keeping up with trends or lagging behind is to ask that question, what's new in your business? This may be an opportunity to offer to help in some way. Is there anything new in that industry? I would substitute the word that with your industry trends are important for everyone. finding information around the trend should help you and your own sales process.

After all, you should be attending events where your target audience is present. What challenges do you face on a daily basis? This question will allow you to compare notes with what you are providing probe further for information and offer solutions. that are easy to implement without paying you as a consultant. Remember, the more you give, the more you gain. This rule absolutely never fails.

Free solutions that do not give away your entire portfolio only put you in a better light with a prospect. And finally, what sets you apart from your competition? This is another floodgate of questions. Be prepared to learn a great deal about the company's strengths rather than a comparison with other companies. You will be exposed to features and benefits and customer service components. Who is your ideal customer?

This is a question you absolutely need to ask. First up are geographics. Where does your ideal client live? Are you local, regional or national? something pretty simple. A good way to discover if you're both after the same thing geographic area.

Although geographics are important, they are only one piece to the puzzle. Next are demographics. What is the age and gender of your client? What products and services do they buy? This question will give you more detail as to their customer. You want to know as much as possible in order to offer your help referrals?

How would I know a good referral for you? What is the best way to give you a referral? Only they will know the answer to this particular question as only they know their ideal customer. If you are willing to help others succeed, then you will take the extra step of asking them about their ideal client and how you will know them when you come across them. You should also ask how to send referrals to them. ideas to remember from this lesson.

Remember we are questions to ask. We only Want to find the business pain of our intended audience? The issue is that potential customers may not consider that particular pain to be the most crucial. Other issues are often far more important. Your job is to ask salient questions to find out what is bothering them at work. It is not difficult to discover as most people love to talk about their problems.

Your job is to steer the conversation in the right direction. What do you do? get the conversation going and get them talking about their business interject with further questions along the same line to discover as much as you can about what they do. What marketing tactics are you using? People love to share what they are doing successfully. They also love to share what is not working at the same time.

From this. You have a good conversation starter over how you can help each other do a better job. of marketing. is social media working for your business? Every business should be taking advantage of social media. But the sad truth is most dabble in it and do not make a strong effort to capitalize on the connections.

A great way to get the conversation going and come up with solutions that may work. Let's talk about events. What events do you attend? This is another way to build a stronger and bigger network of prospects. events can be association meetings, networking events, service clubs, speaking opportunities, barbecues, lunches, cocktail parties, and many more. The more you know about what is available, the better your chances are of increasing your business.

Tell me more about your business. Find out the trends and the new things in their industry. You never know Will pertain to your own market. Learn as much as you can and ask further questions on how they are coping with the constant changes in their industry. What are your biggest issues? People love to talk about what is bothering them.

For some reason, we all move to the negative side of things and want to talk about the problems. The best part is the fact that you will find out more about their business pain and potentially how you can help them. Just ask a few simple questions around what bugs them on a daily basis. Who is your ideal customer? This is where you can share connections, if they make sense. Yeah.

First, you must get them talking about their ideal client and who that person is including location, age, gender and profession. This way you can decide how you want to deal with potential referrals. I am not saying you should refer people to someone you've just met. I'm saying this. Make opened up the chance to meet the person outside the event to learn more. At this point, we have been asking a lot of questions and giving our audience that third degree.

There are some additional tactics for helping us get the information we need. In the next lesson we will deal with success secrets, audit, observe and take notice