Business Breakthrough Thursdays

Andrew Winig on How to Answer "What Do You Do" in 30 Seconds

September 08, 2022 David J Fionda
Business Breakthrough Thursdays
Andrew Winig on How to Answer "What Do You Do" in 30 Seconds
Show Notes Transcript

In this episode  of Business Breakthrough Thursdays, host Dave Fionda speaks with Elevator Pitch Coach Andrew Winig about those crucial 30 seconds you get to introduce yourself to someone new. If you've ever struggled with what to say in that tiny "elevator pitch" window, this is the podcast episode to listen to.

Learn:

  • How getting "pigeonholed" or "typecast" might actually be a good thing
  • What the biggest mistake in networking you can make
  • How to be remembered as a "great conversationalist" without actually talking much
  • What the goal of your first conversation should be
  • How to break through the noise

Andy draws on improv, sales and even his dating experience to share wonderful insights into networking dynamics and the principles of successful pitches.

As an entrepreneur and business owner, Andy discovered that business networking success starts with an effective 30-Second Elevator pitch. His proven 3-Step Elevator Pitch Coaching Process is based on his 10 year journey from cold call to referral salesman. Andy’s mission: to help small businesses get better leads from business networking. Andy received a BSCS from Yale University, where he was awarded a magna cum laude and elected to the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honors Society. 

Business Breakthrough Thursdays is a podcast for business owners, not just any business owner but leaders who are not satisfied with their current levels of growth, productivity, or profitability. Leaders who are dedicated to taking their business to the next level. Leaders who want to breakthrough. In this podcast, we'll interview Breakthrough business owners, innovative CEOs and thought leaders, people who are creating change for their businesses, their industry, and their community. Each episode will give you actionable ideas and strategies to help create your own breakthrough business. Please welcome your host, David Fionda. 

David: Hello, everybody, and welcome to Business Breakthrough Thursdays. I'm your host, David Fionda and we are at episode three. Today I have the pleasure of welcoming one of our instructors and experts, Andy Winig. I've known Andy for 20 plus years, but Andy is an entrepreneur and business owner, and he's discovered that business networking starts with an effective 30-Second Elevator Pitch. His proven 3-Step Elevator Pitch Coaching Process is based on his 10-year journey from cold call salesman to referral salesman. Andy's mission- to help small businesses get better leads from business networking. Andy received his bachelor's from Yale University, where he was awarded a magna cum laude and elected to the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honors Society. Welcome, Andy. 

Andy: Thanks, Dave. It's great to be here.

David: You know, and tell me Andy what is the biggest mistake you see people make with their elevator pitch? 

Andy: You know Dave that's a great question. The biggest mistake people tend to make is what I call the laundry list and that's this approach where you throw everything at the wall to see what sticks. You're trying to cram everything into your 30- second elevator pitch. I can't tell you how many times people come to me for coaching and say, okay, I do three things and how am I going to fit them all in 30 seconds? I'll tell you that that's a mistake because it's not the way networking works. Sales doesn't work with sales either, but especially with networking what you're looking to do is start a conversation. So, when I work with people on the elevator pitch, I'm looking to have them say something kind of short that gets a conversation going. 

So, instead of talking as much as you can about yourself. It's more about, you know, saying something that causes the other person to respond in a way that starts a conversation. You can't tell them everything about yourself in the first meeting and you wouldn't want to and that's really part of the big mistake. People think they have to get it all out the first time to meet someone. Really, it's a much better situation where your goal of the first conversation is to create a second conversation with the people that you want a second conversation with. You're not going to want to talk to everybody. You're not going to want a network with everyone. So, I work a lot with people on how to figure out who they want to talk to and how to say something that causes the right people to respond in a way that looks for further conversation. 

David: Sales on one is not about closing the sale in the first meeting. It's about getting someone to advance and there's a bunch of steps to advance, and I guess networking is the same thing, you're not looking for. All you're looking to get out of networking is to get a callback or something like that. So, you talk about it's best to be specific, but doesn't that limit you know, the opportunities if you're trying to be specific? How do people avoid being pigeonholed to be specific? 

Andy: Well, what I like to tell people is that if you could be pigeonholed, you're on your way. That's really the goal. It was funny. I noticed this the other day. My daughters were introducing their cousin to a family friend, and the friend said, "Oh, so you're the artist." There was this kind of awkward moment because she was actually thinking about this cousin's sister. This cousin is known as the dancer and so once she heard she was the dancer she's like, "Oh, yeah, the dancer. Okay." 

Then they talked and it's funny because this young woman dancing isn't all she does right. She's actually a pretty good artist in her own right. She's a very good athlete, like a bunch of stuff she does. People always shy away from that pigeonholing, but all the pigeonholing does is put you in context for people. It helps people remember who you are. Like, oh you're the elevator pitch coach. Oh, you're the person who works with foreign nationals. Oh, you're the family entertainer who does Star Wars balloon shows. Whatever it is, then you can talk about the other stuff. 

Once you've got that out of the way then the conversation became very normal again. She was asking questions and the cousin was answering, and it just went along. So, people are nervous that they're going to be pigeonholed, but you want to be pigeonholed. You want people to think of you in a particular context. Again, I never recommend that people stop selling what they're selling. If you have a different product, you have 20 different products, that's great. You should continue selling all of them. 

What I'm recommending is that you talk, you market one of them. You just market one of them because that starts the conversation that gets people talking to you. Then as you talk to them more and more you can bring up other things that you offer, but you can't bring him up all at once. You got to start. I just said earlier you got to start with one thing and that will lead to other conversations. 

David: I remember going to a networking event and I'll never forget this. I think I told you about this. This guy said, "Oh, so hey, I'm so and so from so and so. For the next 15 minutes, all he talked about was what he wanted to sell me. I never got to say, and you know me, I'm a pretty loquacious guy. I didn't get a word in edgewise. Not a word and when he's done you see I've got to go talk to this guy. I'll be in touch. I'll give you a call. We'll be in touch. I'm like what was that? I mean, and the guy had the guts to call me back. I'm like what do I do? I have no idea. Oh, get the business together right.

Andy: Right, and that's the thing. If you're talking and actually people are like, I need a 30- second elevator pitch but a lot of people who get this wrong. They go on for 15 or 20 minutes just talking and talking and talking.

David: All he did was, and it was so crazy because what he basically did is he found companies way to save money and he just went into the process and the detail and the people who worked for. He never once asked me what do I do. Based on talking to you, anyone. I meet, I ask them so what do you do? How can I help your business? How can I help your business? People will talk like that all the time, right?

Andy: People love to talk about themselves. If you get someone talking about themselves they'll consider you a great conversationalist. 

David: It's like, you know, I always say, sales are like dating. It is. It's like dating and imagine if you're in high school and you see someone that you want to meet, maybe go out with, and all you do is talk about yourself. You're not going to get anywhere but if you get them talking about themselves, then you have a better chance of them saying... You don't know very much about them just like I said. That's all from prior experience blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 

Andy: I think we've all been there. We've all been talking to people who just would not stop talking. 

David: Right.

Andy: You don't want to emulate that. It's better to better say something and have people respond then you're actually having a conversation.

David: And then you're shocked when they don't call you back. Why? 

Andy: They don't take your calls. 

David: What didn't they call me back? Oh, my God I thought we hit it off so well. Yeah, it was somebody just blabbing in the person's ear for, like 20 minutes and they walk away going oh, my, I'm not going to call this person. Are you kidding me? 

Andy: Exactly. 

David: That's so true. So, if everyone in the rooms in a conversation, how do you recommend using your elevator pitch? How does that work? You're at a networking event. Well, we haven't been in one in a while, but I'm sure they'll come back soon.

Andy: They will yeah.

David: But you're at a conference. It's 35 people trying to drum up business. Everyone is engaged in the conversation. What do you do in that situation, Andy? 

Andy: Well, you have two choices in that situation but what I really like to recommend to people is to head over to the bar or the place where the food is and everything because that's where people tend to go when they don't have anyone to talk to. I'll say that people walk in like everyone's talking to someone. It's not usually true. Usually, if you look around, especially if you look over by the food, they're generally people there who are looking for a conversation. I recommend first looking for people who are alone because, and I get a lot of people... 

I'm an introvert. People don't believe that about me, but I actually am an introvert. I learned how to do this and trust me as nervous as you are about approaching someone they're much more nervous to do it. So, you're actually helping them. If you go over to someone who's standing alone, it's helpful to them and to you and you can find a lot of good. Quiet people are sometimes really good people to talk to so it can be good to do that. The other thing you can do is approach groups of three or more. 

You never want to approach a group of two people who are talking. There's really no unawkward way of breaking into that conversation. It might be inappropriate to break in. So, you're looking for groups of three or more and especially if you know someone in the group they can bring you in but just go and stand on the outside, laugh. When somebody says something, you can generally get moved into the group that way. So, you're looking either for people who need a conversation partner or groups of three or more. That's really the best way to approach people. 

David: I was laughing because I remembered that guy I told you about that wouldn't shut up. I was in a conversation when somebody interrupted me. "Hey, hey, it's Charlie here. Can I talk to you about something?" Then he was like Okay, Dave, I'll call you. It's was like, one on one conversation. The guy kind of dives in takes his card out, thrusts his card in my face. I'm like, wow, that's how not to network. You're talking about the same thing. There are a lot of parallels between dating and network.

Andy: And the biggest parallel, actually, Dave is that you're looking to rule people out. Really what I talk about in networking you want an elevator pitch that causes you not to talk to the people that you're not interested in getting to know better. When you're networking, you're getting to know and trust people, that trust develops over time. You have to be talking to people that you like talking to. If you're trying to get a conversation going and it's really awkward at the networking event. It's not going to be less awkward on follow-up. 

You're really looking for people where the conversation works. on. I like telling the story about I went speed dating. This was years ago now.  I've been married for a while, but I went speed dating. We have seven-minute dates, and I joked the only thing a seven-minute date didn't rule out was a woman with who I had eight minutes' worth of conversation. Anyway, we had nothing to talk about. But in networking, you meet people, and you follow-up with them and you have a coffee meeting, and you have another coffee meeting. You get to talk to them over time, you get to trust them over time. People try to do it all in that first meeting and you can't.

David: So true.

Andy: You are, and I mean, people who don't respond to you. It's fine They're not the right contacts for you. It's okay. People are still relieved when I say, you know what? You're not going to connect with everyone. Just pay attention to people that you do connect with. So, I really think there are a lot of parallels there. 

David: A long time ago when I had my accounting software business. I was training this guy. They bought my practice, and I took a young kid who was an accountant. I taught how to sell software. That's the metaphor I used was a good salesperson who only closes for the next step. They don't ask for the order right away. It is like dating. You don't say to somebody hey, let's get married. I mean, we had a roommate that we'd say that on the second day the tuxedo would come out. I mean, you know, whatever. It's like no you can't, you've got to wait. I've always wanted to write this book. You know how sales are like dating because it really is. Networking is the same way. It's really about just getting to that next step and focusing on the next step. 

Andy: It's relationships, developing relationships. That's what you're looking to do.

David: I like your idea. I never thought of it this way, but I do. When I go to a networking event I say very little about myself. I want to learn what people do so I can say, can we benefit each other? That's really what the end of the day is.

Andy: I'll say it for you Dave that when you meet someone on the networking floor, you don't necessarily know if you can benefit each other. People take that, carry that in all the time. and I really recommend inviting people that you like talking to, to coffee because as you get to know people more, that's when the really cool stuff comes up. So, I do encourage people not to think too hard. Is this a person I could connect with? Just have the conversation and again I have people invite people to coffee meetings. A lot of people don't respond. If you invite three people to a coffee meeting only one or two are going to respond and just let the other one go. You're looking for people in your network who are responsive. If they can't respond to you there's no reason to chase them, they're not connecting. 

David: Right: That's something I learned today Andy because yeah, you're right. You're right. You need a little bit of time to be able to figure that out you know.

Andy: You can't size people up on the spot. Hearing someone's 30-second elevator pitch doesn't give you enough information to do anything other than decide I want to hear more about that. But honestly, if you're going to connect more about the other stuff, you're going to connect more about your hobbies and the families and that kind of stuff. You're just looking for people to enjoy talking to because that's how you develop trust. That's how you get to know people over time is by having all those conversations. 

David: So, the follow-up, how do you decide whether or not you follow-up with that person? If you can't do that assessment, which I'll do differently next time, how do you decide? 

Andy: So, there are two things that can happen in a networking event. You could absolutely run into someone who is a prospect. You could run into someone who has a budget and a burning need for what you're offering, and you set up a sales meeting with them. So, that's one kind of follow up thing. So, if you do run into someone who wants to buy from you, I recommend setting up a sales meeting and then networking with other people. You don't network with people that you're selling to. The way you find people to network with is you look for people you enjoy talking to. I'll never forget, I was having a good conversation at one networking event with this guy. We're actually talking about commuting. It sounds like the most dull conversation, but why don't we something [14:24 inaudible] we were connecting, and this guy comes running up, looks at both of us like, okay, what did you do? 

The whole thing fell apart. It just fell apart. So, I really encourage people to go and do the conversations, and I recommend finding three people at the event that you liked talking to and you invite them to a coffee. That's the process I'll be talking about in this course we're launching in the fall that you go out and you find people you enjoy talking to you, have you have an elevator pitch that gets you into conversations, and then once you're in those conversations, you look for people that you enjoy talking to. Those are the people that you invite to a coffee meeting. They're by definition not people you're going to sell to. They're not people who are going to buy what you're doing.

David:  1% of the time do you run into a prospect for your services that are hot? Roughly.

Andy: 5% maybe 10% and that's the thing people don't understand too. A lot of people treat networking as a prospecting thing. They gather all the cards and then do the follow-up. But what you're looking to do is if you can develop trust with two or three people from that networking event, you get access to all the people that they know. That's a much It's a much more productive way to network to get to know a few people really well and then the people they know, they trust you. They trust them. That's how it works. So, yeah, I run into actual prospects very infrequently.

David: What I've found and again I do a lot of networking for both of my jobs. What I typically find is that the majority of people at networking events are service providers and not actually prospects. Is that your experience as well? People you could partner with or refer business with. I went to this very big networking event in Needham back last December, and I would probably say I met 40 service providers that I could build a relationship with, but only two or three people who were there to buy stuff. Is that your experience as well? 

Andy: Right. Yeah. I mean, I think that's true. I mean, even if you're at an event with somebody who could buy from you the chances the timing is right, that this is now exactly the right time for them to buy from you just isn't. It's just hard to make that match up. So, you want to keep showing up and you want to keep being there. Yes, I mean, people joke the Chambers of Commerce it's all bankers and financial advisers. But if you can find a banker and a financial advisor that you could get to know, they're not all the same. I've got some wonderful bankers that I know. So, you're looking for a banker that you can sit down with and have a conversation, not about interest rates and that's how you develop that. I mean, bankers can be very helpful. I mean, you need bankers at various times and people that you know will need bankers. 

So, if you can have a banker that you know, it is a good person, you can refer stuff to them. I don't have anything to refer a bank or to now but over time if I get to know... So, invite a couple of bankers and we see how it goes and again, most of them most of won't be much. You just know what they are, but over time you develop the rapport with people that you run into someone who's looking for a loan or trying to do something with commercial real estate. Oh, I know exactly the person you can talk to, and that that's where that comes. I talk to people too. Referrals don't have to be a client. You can refer to someone a book. People love it. I've given people books to read. They're like that was a great book. You can refer them to gardeners. 

I mean, there are all sorts of things that people need that aren't necessarily clients. So, if you're getting to know people in listening to who they are, you can come up with a lot of ways you can help them that aren't just by giving them, clients. So, I like to back that off with referrals too. It's not just about referring them to people. It's about understanding where they are. Maybe they need your service provider for one of their kids or they're looking at a different school or whatever it is. You never know. So, I encourage people to get to know people and take it from there. You'd be surprised how much stuff you know that can actually be helpful to someone else. So, that's how I think about that. 

David: That's interesting. So, it just isn't about referring someone to a client or referring someone opportunity. It's also about making them more informed or making them better or giving them some good advice. That's great. That's really great. I always feel the pressure of oh, God, I can't refer this guy, this person, anything. So, I think that's a great way of doing it. 

Andy: But you know what? If you talk to them for long enough, if you have a long enough conversation with them, there will be something you can help them with. Again, I mean, you could recommend a book or a podcast on an article you saw. I mean, there are plenty of things that you know that could be helpful to them and I agree. You're not alone, Dave, because a lot of people take that pressure into these networking events. No, that's what I teach people that you don't have to come up with referrals right there. 

But you know what? If you're thinking about referrals, you're not paying attention to them and in a way that you could really help them. I have clients. I refer them to my web guy. I have clients I refer them to lawyers. One of my favorite referrals was a woman who owned a cat hospital. I referred her to my insurance agent because she was having exactly the same kind of workers comp issue that my agent had finally solved for me. It was a rotary dinner actually. We sat together at a rotary dinner. We were talking and overtime...

David: I think I know who she is. I think I know who she is.

Andy: Yeah. Yeah. But it was a great referral because I didn't go in there trying to refer her to my insurance agent. We talked about cats and all that kind of stuff, and eventually, this came out and I was like you should talk to my insurance agent because she solved exactly that same problem for my business.

David: No kidding.

Andy: I've always been proud of that because again, a conversation. She didn't blurt out that she needed help with her worker's comp insurance. We were talking and talking about our businesses and it came out. She loved it. My insurance agent was delighted, she was delighted, everyone was delighted. So, that's the kind of thing that I looked for it and again, it was good for my insurance agent, but it's a different kind of referral than most people think of when they think referral. I like people to relax their definition. 

David: So then what it's really about is in the course of conversations you're having with these people is to really learn about what they need and what their businesses need and how you can help them. I know that there's a lot of people to do B&I and I'm sure it's great. B&I, first of all, I never did B&I because they started some ungodly, ridiculous hour. But I get invited in and it was all about, okay, I get this client for you, you get this client for me and that's the currency and I'm not sure it works but...

Andy: B&I works very well for certain things and with B&I, you have to be careful because you've got to find the right group. All groups have different personalities. So, I know people who love B&I and I have great respect for B&I.

David: Me too. me too and I was impressed. I just didn't have the kind of referrals that I could do for people with what I did.

Andy: No. That's true of any networking group you're going to visit. It's good to figure out the type of group. I remember one group that I joined. I was visiting one week, and I had to miss the next session because I was giving a talk and they were like what are you talking about? I was like I'm talking about business networking. They are like that sounds like it could be interesting to us, so they all came. We had the meeting at the talk that I was giving, So, I was psyched about them. They were willing to learn and again, that was the kind of group I was looking for. There are more transactional groups. They're all different kinds of groups. So, I think it's good to visit a couple. Whether it's B&I or not I think it's good to visit a couple of kinds of groups to make sure you like the people and you have a good feeling about it. 

David: But the learning is that you need to go beyond just the referral. You've got to figure out other ways. There are other ways you can help.

Andy: I call it opportunity spotting and again it's one of the things that I teach. We're not tuned to think. We're trying to think about how can they buy from me and how can I buy from them? That's not the way it works best. That can work but it's not the way networking works best. So, we all have this, and it happens at every single event I have and I'm sure everyone you've been to. There's a monopolizer. One person just bends your ear. Thank God that person that bent my ear for like 15 minutes decided he was done bending my ear and he wanted to go bend someone else's ear. 

Andy: There you go.

David: So, do you have any tips to politely say buzz off?

Andy: I do. I do. 

David: Sorry to our listeners out there but when you have someone like that you're like, oh, my God, I can't listen to this person anymore. So, let me ask you, do you have any tips to politely end the conversation? 

Andy: I do. I do and the trouble with people that we're talking about is that it's hard to get a word in edgewise as we were talking about. The problem is they don't stop and what I found really works well, is that use their name. So, as they're talking away, you say Dave, and that will give you an opening to say, hey, you know what it's been really nice meeting you. I'd like to go and continue networking. People understand that. You're not lying. For a while, I was telling people to go. They want to go get a drink or go to the bathroom whatever, but I don't really like lying to people. 

People understand that networking events you're not supposed to talk to someone for 15 minutes. So, someone's been going on and I do recommend first, trying to get a conversation. If someone just starts launching in, you come to a lot of these kinds of events, you can try to get them off their business pitch. But if you decide you really want to get out, I recommend using their name. That said people don't want to be rude, but of course, it is rude if someone's just chatting your ear off for hours and hours. 

David: They don't think so. 

Andy: No, they don't. Well, so just use their name and then you could say, I really enjoyed meeting you. I'd like to go meet some other people now and just shake hands. Once you can shake hands again, shake hands, and off you go. 

David: That's great. Alright, one more follow-up. What is the optimal time you should spend talking to a person in a networking event? No hard and fast but...

Andy: There are people who go to networking events and just spend all the time talking to people they know, and that's kind of a waste of time. But if you never talk to the people you know that's kind of bad too, because the people that you know are the people who know you best and trust you more and you might have opportunities there. So, it's good to talk to them too. I think that five minutes is a long time to be talking to someone. If you've got five minutes’ worth of conversation, it's probably worth inviting them to coffee to continue the conversation and then going and meeting other people. 

So, three to five minutes I think is pretty good. You don't want to be too short with someone and you could be in you could end up in a 10-minute conversation that turns into something really interesting. So, I don't like to rule that out. I don't like to have a hard and fast rule, but if you're talking to someone five minutes, you can easily say to them, hey I've really enjoyed our conversation. I wonder if you want to get together for coffee, see how we can help each other grow our businesses. You can set up a follow-up for that so you're not spending the whole networking event just with that one person. You're looking for two to three people you can follow up with that. That's how I teach. 

David: So, basically, within the first three to four minutes you should get an understanding in your own mind about whether you want to have a full-on conversation. 

Andy: I mean, you know whether the conversation is awkward or not within the first couple of seconds. 

David: Well, sometimes the first 30. That guy, five seconds in I'm like, oh, God here comes the pitch. Gee, do you want to save money? I'm like...

Andy: Oh, no. That's a stressor. I wish you'd tape that one. I could use that in all my training. That's a good one.

David: Right. Do you want to save money? Let me help you save money. Here's how I'm going to do it. 

Andy: So, everyone's got a name tag so just say their name, tell them. Again, you don't want to get monopolized by someone, but you don't want to be too short with people. You can always see the people who are always looking for the next person to talk to. So, I like to be engaged with the person that I'm talking to, talk to them. Again, you get to a point either where you said what you needed to say, and you can move on or there's more to say so you can set up a follow-up.

David: Sure.

Andy: Those are the two options. 

David: So, events over, time to wrap up. What's the best way to follow-up after a networking event?

Andy: Well, yeah. A lot of people like to collect as many business cards as they can, and I admit I did this for years. I had a stack of business cards on my desk and I would call them, and it turns out that's worse than cold calling. I say it's worse because at cold calling at least you know your cold calling, whereas from a networking event you think you are networking but you're not. If you've gathered a lot of business cards and you're calling people they don't remember you and I encourage people. 

Everyone has a stack of cards and I encourage you to grab that stack of cards. Just look at the first few cards, see if you can remember anything about that person. I have business cards on my desk from people. I met them two weeks ago, and I have no idea who they are. So, you're really looking to make the connection first.  What I like to do. I leave a meeting with 2 to 3 business cards in my pocket. Again, if there are sales on top of that, I leave with those cards too. But I only ask for a business card from someone I want to follow up with. So, I get home, and again, we go through this all in the course, but I have a specific email I sent to invite them to a coffee meeting. 

So, that follow-up it's always about people. You've got to connect with them first and then follow-up with them. A lot of people try to grab the business card and then follow-up and that's not networking. That's not even really cold calling. I don't know what that is. But you're looking to make a connection with people. The people you make a connection with you can follow up with. Again, I like to follow up with a coffee meeting and we go through all of that in there. 

David: That's great. Well, Andy, it's been really informative as always speaking with you. Today we talked about the biggest mistake that people make with their elevator pitch. They try to include too much information. They're not more specific. Talking about it's okay to be pigeonholed because that's the way for you to spur conversation. It's really about having a conversation, learning about someone not trying to sell them something, Ways to deal with if someone's at an event. Circulate by the food table. Look for people who came along and more importantly, approach three people who don't approach two people. 

The monopolizer, I love that tip but also don't always focus on the contacts you could provide them but other ways you can help them identify opportunities. Then follow-up, don't just start cold calling up to follow-up. Do it in a way that is memorable. So, we've had the great pleasure of having my friend and business networking expert Andy Winig here with us today. Andy, thank you so much for your time. Thanks so much for your great tips. We're really looking forward to getting this course launched in the fall with you. We think that it could benefit a lot of our members and help make their businesses more successful. So, thanks very much, Andy. 

Andy: Thanks. It's been great.