Last week I went to the Tate Modern in London and saw the Gaugin Exhibition and Ai Weiwei’s amazing sunflower display……..and the experience opened a new business door just 7 days later!So often people walk through life blind to the information they acquire at every turn….via experiences, observations, or simply conversations. Where do you store them in your head? How often do you call them up again in the mind’s database for positive use, or do you simply leave them to gather dust like Weiwei’s sunflowers at the Tate? My point?
I was enthusing about the exhibition to all sorts of people, most of whom smiled, said ‘glad you enjoyed it’, and went on their way, not really aware of what I had seen. Then, a couple of days ago, I found myself on the doorstep of an art gallery pitching for business. I met the marketing director and, guess what, she’d seen the exhibition and was equally enthusiastic about it! One thing led to another and, after several minutes, it transpired that she had taken her degree in the city where I used to read the news whilst working as a broadcast journalist! We were able to talk about the area’s districts, where we had lived and what local attractions we both used to visit. Humour followed, a relationship was established and we hadn’t even discussed the project in hand. There was a clear connection, all because I had bothered to mention the Tate exhibition that she, too, had visited.
As I have said a million times before, I store experiences in my head. They are housed in millions and millions of pigeon holes which, somehow, I have the ability to access quickly and in a relevant way; so do you. However, so few people utilise their vast experiences in order to support or make new connections. Remember people do business with people they like but, first, you have to give them a reason to like you, and that involves wearing more than a nice tie, great aftershave or a short skirt! Superficial works for a few minutes but will never stand the test of time so you have to learn to listen so that you can use your vast knowledge to make ‘relevant connections.
