The beginning of January I came into work after being away in Nicaragua for 3 weeks and then an extra 3 days on top of that to nurse myself back to health from a nasty case of tonsillitis.  I walked to my desk and Mike says to me “Hey Meredith you want to give a presentation?”, knowing that I rarely say no to most things they ask of me, especially after being away for so long.  I half jokingly said “Yah sure” with no concept of what I had just signed myself up to do.

An hour later I had received an email from Neil Lock at Market Edge Media thanking me for my participating as a presenter for their conference and that my speaking slot was from 1:40-2:25. 45 MINUTES????  I thought I had signed myself up to present for 5 minutes to the 15 colleagues I see every day.  Not a 45 minute presentation to a room full of strangers.  I was left with only one option, take control of the situation and do the best job I knew how to do with any resource I could think of.

I spent the next week and a half talking to colleagues, reaching out to people I knew had given good presentations, and people that had lots of experience giving presentations.  I researched my topic a bit and I reached to my inner creative side a bit in an attempt to build an engaging presentation. (Click here to view)  Upon doing so my “converting leads into investors’ best practice” broke down into this.

• Qualify your leads
• Don’t spam (be respectful of people’s time)
• Engage, Communicate and Build Relationships
• Tell them why…

As I write this blog post it seems that these 4 points are pretty obvious, not just for converting leads but for anything you do that involves people you want to work with, as this was pretty much the strategy I used to figure out this strategy. I established who would be a good person to help me (qualified), I reached out to them politely but did not call them 20 times a day (didn’t spam), I asked them questions about themselves where the answers I knew would help me (engage, communicate build relationships) and then told them why this was important for me and why they were my choice (tell them why).

Among doing so not only did I manage to put together and give a kick ass presentation (if I say so myself), I managed build a small group of supporters who were tweeting me well wishing, coming to support me, telling others to come watch me, sharing my presentation among others after it was over and introducing me to their colleagues.

So whether you’re trying to convert a lead, build a presentation on how to convert a lead or figuring out who your next hire should be it seems that these 4 steps are a safe bet.  Doing nice things and working with people we like makes our days enjoyable and the above strategies make it easier to be that enjoyable person.  If that’s not working for you…maybe you went wrong somewhere in step 1 and they aren’t a good fit for your end goal.  But persevere with these concepts in mind and I feel confident it will all come together on most fronts!

Given the factor of time for putting this presentation together I only had the chance to speak with some of the Dig clients to uncover their best practices for converting leads but please take the opportunity to share.  Your ideas and experiences are most welcome!

Finally, I want to thank those who took the time to help me with my presentation, those who came to watch me give my presentation, and those who came and introduced themselves after my presentation.  It was a most enjoyable experience all around.

Ashlee Uttersbeck : Castle Peak Mining @ashleeu
Kristina Knopp: South American Silver @SoAmSilvercorp
David Matousek: Eagle Hill Exploration @Eaglehillex
John Hope: NBC Universal
Ann Handley: Marketing Proffs @MarketingProfs
Anthony Wright: RBC Olympians
Anne Marie Mccaffrey: Ellicom
Stephanie McKnight: Fraser Academy
Travis Cooper: Citi Group Financial
Diana Forzley: B-TV @BTVCeoClips
Joness Lang: Riverside Resources Inc. @rivres
Kaley Reid: Riverside Resources Inc. @rivres
Charlene Robertson: Quantum Rare Earth @quantumrareQRE
and
The entire Dig Media team! @DigMedia

Cheers,

Meredith