Have you been following the Olympics? It may not matter if you care about the Olympics, but they likely matter to your customers.
This last week I’ve made sure to know who I’m talking to and if they have any type of a connection to the Olympics or a particular country, sport or event.
It’s amazing when you start thinking about the people you talk to and how they have a connection to the Olympics. If they do, make sure you mention it in your phone call or email.
Has this helped me? It sure has. In the last week, I’ve been able to have much deeper discussions with several people by merely making sure we talk about the Olympics. If you’re wondering how I know what to talk about, it goes back to my CRM system and the notes I keep on people I talk to.
Use this two-week period as a great time to reach out to people you might not talk to otherwise. I’ve had several contacts in the UK who I’ve sent congratulatory emails to, and in both cases I got great notes back. The same has applied to contacts I’ve had here in the United States but who I know have connections to other countries.
The Summer Olympics only come around every 4 years, so it would be a shame if you didn’t use them right now to your advantage. Yes, they’re going to end soon, but I’ll argue you can still use them as talking points for a good week or two following the end.
If you’re still stumped in thinking you can’t use the Olympics, simply follow a few of the personal interest stories on some of the athletes and I’m sure you’ll come up with a good angle. A couple more examples I’ve used include talking about track events with a person who lives in Oregon, because Oregon is the hotbed in the United States for running. Several people I know who live in the Caribbean like to talk again about the athletes from Jamaica, etc.
As I write this, I’m in the Bahamas, so you can be sure I’ll be talking about the local team when I meet with my business associates.
Copyright 2012, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
