Don’t pitch, listen! The story of an expat entrepreneur

Today I would like to share a common belief in a lot of expat entrepreneurs, ‘you need to have a great elevator pitch and deliver it perfectly.  

No, no, no. I am going to go against the grain of a lot of self professed marketing gurus and say:

‘Stop pitching, stop working on your elevator pitch and start listening.’

I usually give as examples some of my clients stories, today I will give you one of mine.

One of my biggest client is based in the Middle East. Without giving away too much about who he is, I will just say he is a member of a ruling family.

I met him in 2005, it was a chance encounter in a hotel lobby. I was going to leave later that day and was drinking my morning coffee, he was waiting for someone. We struck a conversation. He asked me what I did in life and I explained to him (not in a 20sec elevator pitch mode) how I helped expatriate entrepreneurs. The conversation lasted 45minutes!

During those 45minutes, I didn’t talk much about my work. I listened to his story, his work and what motivated him in life. He spoke about his children, his tennis game, where he had been traveling to for work and vacations. In the end we exchanged mobile numbers. A couple of weeks later I received a phone call from his assistant asking me to come and meet him. We talked for two hours that day, and drank gallons of tea and coffee. Did I get any business out of this meeting? No.

I will fast forward to today. This man is one of my largest clients, but I didn’t start working with him until my fourth meeting with him.

What does that story show us?

• Slow down the meeting and sales process
• DO NOT do elevator pitches, it makes you sound like telemarketer
  
• Build meaningful relationships over time

So, this is my take on building connections with clients. It’s not scripted, it will never go as planned, it will rarely go the same way twice, but it gives you enormous confidence and more importantly people see you as someone who understands them.