News

When: Thursday, August 23, 2012

Time: 12:00 PM EDT (30 minutes)

Audience: Exclusively for members of our LinkedIn Winning at Prospecting group (Join Now and get a link to register for the webinar)

Host: Nick Miller, President of Clarity Advantage

Fee: Complimentary

Two psychotherapists attending a psychology association conference introduced themselves to each other in a hotel corridor. After they exchanged greetings and first names, the first therapist looked very closely at the second for a few moments and said, “Well…. You’re just fine. How am I?”  (Think about it. It’ll become clear in a moment.)

In group settings,  we connect with people we know, we approach people we’d like to know better, and we introduce ourselves to complete strangers (Yes, we do that, don’t we? We’re not just hanging about with people we already know, are we?).

Conversations with old friends start easily. There’s a history of common ground. Not so easy with strangers, particularly those that we feel ‘out rank’ us for one reason or another. So, we either ‘refuse the jump,’ avoiding the possible embarrassment of an awkward start,  or  we open with the obvious – the weather, sports, the event buffet, the table centerpieces, some remarkable bit of clothing.  And, those are all fine… we need to start somewhere.

But what then?  Assuming we haven’t mortified ourselves, how to move beyond obvious (and important) small talk to something a bit more engaging so that our conversation partners don’t conclude we’re the most boring bits on the planet short of dental drills?

Designed to benefit business bankers, small business bankers, branch managers, and humans, generally, the webinar will focus on:

• Choosing engaging conversation starters
• Revving up the other person’s energy and engagement
• Transitioning to move beyond small talk
• Concluding the conversation

It’s almost a cliché that all the bankers attending a meeting are circled in the corner talking to each other. That could be a great defensive move, like ‘circling the wagons’  – the public is pretty angry with bankers at the moment. We need to take every opportunity we can to engage people and move beyond small talk to more important matters, and generally, we’re not very good at that,”  says Clarity Advantage President Nick Miller.  “In this webinar, exclusively for members of the Winning at Prospecting Group on LinkedIn, we’ll focus on ways to begin conversations, particularly with people who ‘out rank us,’ and move beyond small talk.”

Join our Winning at Prospecting group on LinkedIn now and we’ll email you a link to register for the webinar.