An essay by John Melonakos
Connect with Pain, Not with Overviews
I’m at the largest GPU technology tradeshow in San Jose, CA this week. It’s a great time to connect with people in our industry.
When striking up a new conversation with someone at a tradeshow, startups should connect by identifying with the pain they alleviate rather than providing a summary of the things they do. Consider these two different approaches:
Rookie Approach –
- Dive right into a summary: We make XYZ. We have a product called MyProduct that you can use to do <fill-in-the-blank great things>. Visit our website.
Rockstar Approach –
- Start by asking a few intro questions to understand how to frame the rest of the conversation. Here are some examples to choose from:
- What kinds of things are you working on?
- Have you started using XYZ technology yet?
- Do you do ABC yourself, or do others in your group?
- Try to Make a Connection on the Pain Statement: You know how tough it can be to do ABC and how the devil’s always in the details. We are focused on getting rid of that problem. Our XYZ product, called MyProduct, does <fill-in-the-blank great things> to solve that problem.
- Customize the Message: You want to fit the frame.
- Make a Plan for Follow-up: Don’t just take their information. Think up something useful that you could send them and then promise that you’ll send them an email to deliver that useful content. Capture their information.
- Follow-up. Make notes so that you ensure follow-up actually occurs.
Of course, all of the pre-supposes that you are selling pain killers, not vitamins, which I’ll discuss in a future post.
How do you lead into discussions with new leads at tradeshows?