Lately, I’ve been putting in a better effort to initiate and establish relationships with business professionals within my local network. This effort affords us both an opportunity to be more than another business card collected, or another random fan/follower/commenter etc. in turn we could learn more about what each other brings to the table and catch a glimpse of each others underlying intentions.  Depending on who I was meeting, I could get a better understanding of what it really meant to be a small business owner from someone who’s been in the trenches. As much as I believe that online social networking is more than enough to make authentic connections especially with video conferencing platforms like Google+ hangouts and Skype; I’m fully aware that many people, business owners and personal acquaintances alike want to feel connected in such a way that technology can’t seem to replace. Honestly, this is still a hard concept for me to understand (probably because I’m an introvert and a loner by nature) but I’m learning and adapting as much as I can.

It still takes me a lot of courage to attend networking events but I seem more at ease when I meet others in one to one and small group settings. In the process of learning how to better present myself during local offline networking, I realized I wasn’t very prepared for one to one meetings and wanted to be more confident in my approach rather than winging it and hoping for the best. I began researching questions to help me not waste the time of the person who was gracious enough to sit and chat with me, (nor my own for that matter).

Here’s a list of 10 Questions You Can Ask During A One on One Business Meeting 

  1. How long have you been in business?
  2. What are your areas of expertise?
  3. What’s your Unique Selling Proposition?
  4. Who are your clients and what kind of work do you do for them?
  5. Describe your ideal client?
  6. What conferences do you attend?
  7. Who are your best referral sources?
  8. What efforts have given you the best marketing results?
  9. What is one of your most proud moments in running your business?
  10. How would I describe you to someone else if I were to refer you?

There you have it- a handy dandy list of questions to take with you during your next most important one on one meeting.

Would you like to add to this list? I would love to hear your suggestions on how to better my time during these one on one business meetings.

 

Flickr Credit: thetaxhaven

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