Six Common Talking Mistakes

As much as we are taught to network in the business world, I find that people often make crucial errors when learning how to “work a room.”

Here are six of the most common ones:

1. Blabbermouthing. Talking too much. Going on and on without giving another person a turn. If you’re the one who hogs the talking platform you will soon frustrate others and they tune out the blabbermouth. If you are a blabbermouth who is wringing out the patience of other’s you will be labeled as such. Don’t be fooled. Just because your job requires you to speak for a living that everyone wants to hear your opinion on every subject. Professors, clergy, professional speakers who are all paid for a living pay special attention.

You’re a Publisher!

Blogs, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and other online platforms are giving organization like yours an enormous opportunity to engage directly with your customers or would-be customers,” write Ann Handley and CC Chapman in their book Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) that Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business.

“Now, thanks to the…Internet and…web-based tools and technologies, you can create online content—blog posts, videos, webinars, and web sites—that will attract customers to you, so you won’t have to chase after them. What’s more, you can entice your customers to share that content with each other, all across the Web,” they explain.

But There Are No Clients Out There

Believing that there are no clients out there is short-term thinking. You aren’t going to win your dream clients with the same type of marketing that you have always done. The point of a yearly marketing plan is to build a remarkable practice. That means you have to BUILD. The goal for 2012 should be to open the relationships that open opportunities and start this next year strong. You can build a remarkable practice if you have a plan. Most of your competitors will not so that will get you one step ahead to finding clients.