About 20 years ago, Ken Friedman was in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he watched a power point presentation from a lawyer representing a very prestigious law firm that lasted 3 hours and was titled "Development of franchise rights". Every local owner of Burger King, McDonald's, Subway and other franchises attended this bizarre event. Friedman had to attend this because he went to franchise classes.
Friedman calls this event bizarre because it was very funny. The presenter was a gentleman in his 60s who came from the South. He wore a tie and spoke 3 hours for the franchise rights. He was so boring and his stuff was so irrelevant that it was strange that other people stayed awake at the end of the presentation. The lawyer also seemed to be bored with the matter he presented. In fact, there were several points where Friedman had to refrain from laughing. Other colleagues came to the extent of being afraid to see each other so they did not start hysterically laughing.
Surprisingly, all local franchise owners, who were invited to attend this event, carefully watched the event all the time and were the only ones (besides the students) who tried to appear interested in the presentation. At the break, Ken Friedman talked to the owner of the local franchise of "Jeninlin" and another franchise owner, and he realized that nobody had a clue about what this Las Vegas lawyer was talking about. However, everyone agreed that he must be really an expert on this subject.
When the event ended, some lawyers watched as all members of the audience went to the lawyer and told him that they "enjoyed" in his conversation, asked him for a business card and told him that they wanted to talk to him about some sort of problem-related to their franchise. The lawyer must have collected more than 10 customers that day. It was then and right there that Ken Friedman Las Vegas realized that something important happened. Just because the lawyer had spoken so much about his work, everyone assumed that he was very good at what he was doing and were eager to hire him as their lawyer.
If you want to get a business, you need to talk about your work. People should see you as an expert and believe that you are very good at what you are doing. People need to believe that they can turn you to advise on what they are doing and you also need to believe that you are enthusiastic about what you are doing.
When you think about it, the people you want to call for help are likely to be people who seem to be most excited about their work. You need to realize that by listening enthusiastically and by being enthusiastic, it will attract more people towards you. An example of this is writing articles and posting them on your blogs. Another example would be speaking in public or getting more public attention from the social media.
However, talking about your work has a deeper meaning than writing articles and taking part in the social media. Speaking about your work means that you should be enthusiastic about your work with everyone you meet. Talk about your work with people in your office. Talk about your work with your customers.
The reason why talking about your work is important is that people remember those who show enthusiasm for their work. This same thing applies to your peers. You should be remembered as a person who enjoys your work from all those you have come into contact with.
Remember the example of the boring attorney Ken Friedman saw in Las Vegas about the franchise rights more than a decade ago. Imagine what could have happened to this lawyer if he was really interesting. Simply, he spoke and got a lot of work. You need to talk to get a job, and I advise you to talk a lot about what you are doing.
One of the most effective marketing messages Friedman has heard was "You can build a better mousetrap, but if the world does not know about it, they will make way alongside your door." People need to know what you are doing and think that you are enthusiastic about what you are doing. That's why restaurants and others put huge billboards on the highway, and some even put billboards that read: "Just four more turns to the best Pea soup in Nevada." Then: "Turn here for the best pea soup in Nevada !!!" People are enthusiastic about something as simple as a pea soup because restaurants talk about it. So you also need to talk about your work.
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