Sales people ought to know that preparation is key. It is one of the three p’s that I always used to repeat to my team: Prepare, Plan and Prosper. But it isn’t simply something that aids the success of salespeople alone – preparation in many ways should be the automatic first step in any process an entrepreneur chooses.
This week I spoke at a WimLink (www.wimlink.org) event in New York (the subject was about Networking specifically) and again the topic of preparation came up. In talking about networking, we hit upon the issue of how you deal with events. Whether large scale or small scale, again you can do a lot worse then prepare yourself well in order to gain maximum advantage and knowledge.
I so often wonder why people actually attend conferences. Typically when you speak to someone about their upcoming conference or trade show, they bemoan the fact that they have to go and sit through “boring” lectures and “sad case studies” or listen to people “drone on” about stuff they really don’t care much for. So why do they go? Only because their boss tells them, or they feel they have to be seen to be there. To me, all the wrong reasons. Conferences or Events can be great, but only if take the trouble to prepare, to research the subject, the speakers and the other participants.
E.Factor hosted an event in Amsterdam not long ago on “Fashion and Entrepreneurship”. We brought together a super panel of speakers from diverse areas of the fashion industry. But when it came to asking them questions, the audience was very hesitant to drill down into the industry secrets, or asked questions that were only peripheral to the subject matter. Whilst I believe that everyone should be able to ask anything they wish to know, and there is no such thing as a stupid question, I think it is such a shame when you have perhaps a once in a lifetime chance to gain some further insight. The same happened in New York this past week, where we hosted an event with superb people such as Herb Scannell, the CEO of NextNewNetworks, Robert Raciti, SVP GE Capital and Robert Prazmark, the person responsible for the Olympic sponsorships as well as other top experts. We did have a lively discussion – and the panelists happily answered all the questions — but it would have been really great if we had had more questions that really intrigued the speakers and required their collective brain power. It is so easy these days to find out a little information about the speakers and their subjects before the event – and it’s more fun too. No one should be afraid to put these speakers on the spot and invite them to talk about something that they really understand and have dealt with in their careers.
Soon we will be hosting another top event with Pierre Everaerts, the man who grew Imbev from a small brewing company (well, small is still multi-million) to a global conglomerate worth several billions and who has just led the acquisition of Budweiser’s parent company, Anheuser Busch. I can’t wait to see what questions will come up from the audience. And I know that the event will be much more interesting for all, if both the audience AND the speaker come prepared.
Check out EFactor.com
Leave Your Comments