Know your 10 Minute Speaker!

7/5/09

Something that really impressed me at the recent BNI Directors' Conference in Amsterdam was the way in which David O'Dell introduced the speakers. He had been given a biography on the person that he was to introduce, but instead used his own personal knowledge of the speaker, gained from the relationship he had with them, to make the introduction. Not only did it build his own credibility but it gave a far better and warmer introduction to the person he was introducing. It was genuine and really demonstrated his liking and trust of the person concerned and really started the whole presentation in a very positive way.

This was so much better than the often badly read, married to so and so, children none, pets none, home town, Oh, can't read that but I think it says they were there for eleven years, and so it goes on. What does that say about the person and what you think about them?

So, Secretary/Treasurers how about this for an idea?

If you don't already know the 10 Minute speaker really well, how about having a One2One with them a couple of weeks before they are due to speak? Not only will you be able to give them a much better introduction, but you will be building your own credibility, and increasing the number of referrals you pass between each other. But may I suggest that it might be worth asking the speaker if they mind you doing your own introduction of them just in case there is something in their biography that they really want the group to know.

Overall this is what they call a Win, Win, Win situation!