Getting the Gig – report, Brian's photos and email responses

From:  Garth Spiers
Date:  Tue Jul 23, 2002  9:22 pm
Subject:  RE: NI - sales and marketing event 'getting the gig'

Dear Tony and all-those-who-couldn't-get-in-this-time,

Here is a summary of the event and outcomes from the experience last week about 'getting the gig':

1) We all did a one minute 'elevator' speech about our offerings and got feedback.
A lot of stage fright before hand, but a very useful experience for all.

2) We went along with Richard's analysis of the stages in a marketing/sales function and most of us highlighted the stage of making the initial contact as the most difficult.

3) Talk about successes and why they came about
Generally thought to be two aspects to success called 'Magic' and 'cranking the handle' Most of us it seems, rely on magic!! Although other approaches more left brained can work too - such as presenting at conferences, setting up a small taster of a workshop and invite the media. The free publicity can be worth it. Nevertheless, being healthy, confident, 'in the flow' seems to be rewarded by the 'hand of god'.

4) We split up into trios for problem clinics, we each asked for help and got it from the other two.

5) The we captured ideas, learnings and actions points, which were:
- the 'one minute to win it' was felt to need a lot of practice in order to be authentic, congruent, in rapport and enthusiastic
- the use of simple language seemed to win the day such as 'corporate plumber'
- doing cold calling was not everyone's cup of tea but Nick got a big success that way - it took perserverance
- getting a Presence in the market place was important, not fully explored, but one way to make a higher profile on the web is to provide links to other sites.
- Action : let's all (NIers) give links to each other??? What do you guys say?
- Action : Nick, Tim, Coulston and Garth to contact each other to define a simple but powerful customer contact s/w. Richard uses Outlook and swears by it.

I think informal buddying was set up by some people to support each other in new efforts.

In short, good time was had by one and all - made even happier by hot sunshine and Eve's cooking.

Many thanks to Richard for hosting it.

Garth

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Here are Brian’s photos (ed. look out for Garth’s cool headgear!)

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Here are the emails

From Jean-Marc Le Tissier.

Hi, folks.

Garth, thanks for the summary.

I'm struck by the comment "the 'one minute to win it' was felt to need a lot of practice in order to be authentic, congruent, in rapport and enthusiastic".

I disagree. The best 'preparation' we can do is to get clear for ourselves on what we do, why and so on - to get clear on our intent, which presumably is to be helpful, add value, make a difference (we each need to find our own words). Authenticity, congruence and rapport are by-products. They will come without effort. if they're hard, take that as a sign that you don't believe in what you're offering.

Cheers. Jean-Marc

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From Nick Heap

I very much enjoyed yesterday's Gig Getting event. It was reassuring to find there were no magic answers and helpful to learn things I could do to become more effective. I also got some very valuable personal feedback, useful and gently given! The learning environment was friendly, supportive and challenging. I think we could do much more to help each other.

Best wishes,

Nick Heap