Following the  event on 1/7/09, a week later I was contacted by one of the people who was at the event because he wanted to discuss his project in Uganda and to pick my brains on the best way to approach it.

I told him I was due back in London on 14 July, but had several meetings during the day and wondered if he could join me and my associates at an evening networking event organised by the folk at Business Action for Africa. He agreed and at the meeting he introduced me to two people that had been at the event of 1 July where I had met him but I had not had the chance to talk to them at that event.

What was significant about this is that the reason that we had not managed to talk was because like me they had been “caught up” in the two chaps tale about their project, and nearly three weeks after the event one of them was still very angry about this, specifically because she had not managed to meet other people as a result.

In the last thread I offered up a hypothetical scenario of these guys meeting 500 people over the course of the year that are unable to advocate for them, but here I was standing with 3 of those 500 including myself that makes it 4. If we each know at least 100 or so possible people to refer them to..

This is scary stuff if we work on the assumption that Word of Mouth is a very important if not vital sales tool? The significant point here is that everyone remembered who they were and what their company was called, but the mentioning of their names and company had people “pulling faces” in anger!

How about that! I would certainly hate to be in that situation.

I would like your help to unpack this please, and here are some questions for starters!

Should we hold these guys responsible for the fact that we were unable to speak to the people we wanted to at this event?

What is the best way to handle such situations?

How can we avoid this situation in future?

How can we ensure that people remember us for the right reasons and want to refer us to their contacts etc?

I  enjoy meeting new people and face to face networking is something I really look forward to.

All things being equal I make an effort to meet and speak to at least 3 people whom I have never met before at each event and learn about what they do, their interests etc

 And on 1/7/09  whilst at a networking event in London I had  the same  strategy in mind. I joined a group as someone in the group had caught my eye from early on in the evening. A discussion was already under way so I stood by and listened and even joined in the discussion.

Our host was part of this group and he left to find us drinks. This terminated the discussion, and gave me an opportunity to speak to the person that had caught my eye.

As he started to introduce himself to me two people joined the group. He stopped and greeted them too. It seemed like the two chaps had been let loose.

They spoke at length about their project and the rest of us in the group listened, some in the group walked away, our host had returned with the drinks, he listened for a while and moved on.

At some point I managed to get a word in and I said to the two people, interesting project and I heard you say you are trying to launch it in Africa, how can I help

BIG MISTAKE, the academic chap of the two went into all the science of the project etc
I interrupted him again and I asked “what sort of person are you trying to meet in Africa and have you got a preference of African countries?

Is it the man on the street, a civil servant a minister etc, What do they look like?

“Oh, the general mass” came the reply and at this stage I had lost the will to live as everyone else had left the group.

I thought to myself give it one more try! So I said to them

Your project is a really good idea and I think most if not all the African governments would want to talk to you, but you may want to consider coming up with a way to explain it simply perhaps in 60seconds with emphasis on what problem you hope to solve in order to get their attention

So if you would like to start telling me who you really would like me to introduce to and what would I say to them in 60 seconds that would encourage them to want to speak/meet you!

The penny finally dropped and they both told me about their project and the person they would like to meet in on sentence

I didn’t get to speak to the person I had wanted to speak to but I must say I learned a thing or two.

Your message may be very clear to you but it is important that it is even clearer to your audience

I did wonder what would happen if these two people spoke to 500 people at networking events over a course of say 6 months and none of those 500 people understood who it is they want to meet or what their project is all about!

Would those 500 people go on and advocate for them?

I have to be honest and say they certainly didn’t inspire me to review my network for people they may want to meet!

Some tough questions for you and me

“Do I put my message across clearly enough for people to understand what I do in simple/memorable terms? “

“Does this enable people to advocate for me in my absence?”