Talk (about yourself) less, listen more
A first date is an opportunity to get to know someone better and you do so by asking the client questions and listening to their answers. It is difficult not to talk about an exciting product but if you can resist, you will learn why they are interested to begin with. Always provide useful information, but do so sparingly.
Ask open-ended, insightful questions to uncover their needs, frustrations, and desires because your client might not be aware of what their pain point is. Actively listen, clarify points they make, and genuinely show interest. You will have a better advantage over your competitors the more information you get out of your client.
Extend the conversation to more than business. Get to know them personally. Relationships are not built solely on business numbers, percentages, and statistics. Next time you are networking, practice your listening skills. Ask questions about them, and avoid speaking about yourself.
It is difficult at first but you will find that people will feel the need to reciprocate and find out all about you after speaking about themselves for a while. That is unless they are not interested in you and just want to talk about themselves for a while which in that case, is probably a red flag.
BoweryJE22
Thanks, Kyle My biggest takeaway was how it went over asking open-ended questions and how very important it is you don’t want to corner yourself into a one-word response.