Ow, That Hurts

Last night I went to another networking meeting for entrepreneurs. The door price of $5 filtered out the most frayed edges of "I've got an idea for a jet powered poodle" type people. Sure, there was one guy in jeans, white sneakers, a bright red t-shirt reading a Superman comic who kept saying stuff like, "I don't understand. What's your target market? There's a lot of target markets, film, tv, people with hair, (and on from there)..."

But in general, the meeting was, actually, excellent. The best way to perfect what you want to say is to practice saying it, and this kind of slightly awkward, low risk, high school prom like arrangement of walking up to strangers and saying, "I do X" forces you to hone your pitch and be confident, otherwise your new acquaintance quickly moves along to the next fellow.

My favorite was a young man who told the assembled group, "I'm terrible at sales."

"Nonsense," came the response. "Tell us what you do and we will help you figure out how to sell it."

Masterful.

An old boss of mine used to call it the "broken wing duck" sales approach." Or, for those of you who watch the Simpsons, the "Poor Old Gill" sales approach.

Here's another sales closing technique I found on the web. It reads like Bugs and Daffy doing a "You don't have to shoot me now" routine. Funny.