Help – The One Minute Intro!

I have been having a lovely time over the past month getting out and about attending lots of networking events. However, it has been quite a challenge remembering to say “I’m Mel from Marketing Motion” after nineteen years of saying something else!

Then, of course, I have had to put together a whole new set of introductions. To be quite honest, it is still a work in progress and that is fine, because with marketing often you have to experiment to see what works best.

So, I thought it might be helpful to share some of my tips for creating your one-minute intro:

● Please do say your full name so everyone can find you on LinkedIn – most people I meet do seem to use this as their preferred Social Media channel.

● Begin with a very clear statement summarising what you do. Commit this to memory by saying it over and over again – yes that is me you probably spotted at the traffic lights in Fleet repeating my opening sentences like a mantra!

● Having the opening memorised also helps when someone says “I think we have time for some introductions, Mel let’s start with you.”

● For the main part of your intro give some information that very specifically relates to you – maybe the type of businesses you work with, give an example of a project you have undertaken recently or share a piece of useful information to demonstrate your expert knowledge.

● This part of your intro can be updated regularly, so that over time people get an understanding of the whole range of services that you offer… and just to comment that I very deliberately said “over time”.

Successful networking is about developing strong and long-standing business relationships and that takes time and patience.

● Finally, you need to close and actually that can be the most difficult bit – you need to end strong. Repeating your opening is fine or you might like to create a memorable strapline.

● Then you need to practice: speaking out loud, speaking more slowly than feels comfortable and you need to practice speaking more loudly than usual, so that people will be able to hear you clearly on the day.

● And then you are ready for the most brutal bit – you need to time yourself so you have 30-second, one-minute and two-minute intros ready at your fingertips… and this is the bit I am currently finding most challenging; so many thanks to Barbara Payne for giving me a few extra seconds when I ran over her bell at Chamber Connects last week!