How many times do you have to present yourself to your clients and prospects before it really sinks in who you are and what you do? some say three times, others say six times. I had a friend in the PR business tell me one time it nine times (the “novena,” my Catholic friend would repeat).
Today I had another conversation with someone who had a similar experience. Sandy Watson, who works as the senior construction coordinator at DSKW & Associates, related a recent experience.
Sandy attends and networks with a professional women’s real estate group here in Dallas called CREW. Sandy has been attending CREW events at least weekly for the past year. She interacts with a combination of new people, acquaintances and long-time friends in the group. The other day she stood up to give her short introduction and she could tell by the reaction of several people that she had finally gotten through to them. comments included “…oh, so that’s what you do…” and “…I thought you did something different than that…”
It most likely was a combination of things, almost all related to repetition. Sandy had been to the meetings for many months and told the same or a variation of her introduction. Sometimes she used examples (told stories) to make her point. The point is it took time to penetrate the brains of her audience.
This falls in line with our short list of things to remember:
- Be patient.
- Be persistent.
- Remember it isn’t about you.
Patience works–it took most of a year to get through.
Persistence fits here as well since she hist the core group with her message regularly for a year on a regular basis (same times each week).
She also found the right story to relate that got to the listener–how they could relate and get the point. It became about them.
So, how long is it taking for you to get through to your audience?
Relentless
