BLT (*) – Opportunity Radar: Got it? Use it? Enhance it?
Opportunity Radar – Got it?
“Opportunity Radar: The ability to see or hear opportunities for yourself and for others, then to explore that opportunity and take the appropriate actions for something to happen.”
Source: 50 Quick Wins in Sales & Marketing, Jackie Jarvis
The truth is, we can become obsessed with selling our products and services to our end-customers. However, this often comes at the expense of promoting ourselves to the intermediaries who exist all around us, be they contacts or friends.
Use it
Business development opportunities are everywhere – in fact, you never know where your next one might be lurking!
Here are three things you can do to ensure your Opportunity Radar is functioning well to unearth business opportunities:
- Know what you are looking for. Would you recognize an opportunity if you saw one? Know the characteristics, qualities, attributes of an opportunity so you can spot them easily.
- Turn your radar on. Start the day with a desire to identify opportunities.
- Know what to do with an opportunity once you find it. Have a clear plan of action for moving identified opportunities to the next stage in business development.
Enhance it
As per the definition at the head of the page, an opportunity radar is “the ability to see or hear opportunities for yourself and for others.”
Hence the opportunity radar cuts both ways – if you want others to look out for business opportunities for you, then you must be prepared to do the same for others.
Everybody is technically a customer
Qualities required in order to articulate the needs of others:
- Be open and curious
- Be conscious of what others do around you
- Be able to pick up on other people’s problems
- Be able to identify possible solutions
Live exercise from around the room
You need a pithy pitch for your business; you need to stick in your introducers’ memory so they know what you do and are able to recall that when speaking to others.
Put simply, you need to make your business as memorable as possible in order to figure upon their Opportunity Radar.
Split into smaller groups, each person gave their elevator pitch and an example of some work they’d done for a client, the more specific the better. We then tried to encapsulate that in a short headline.
Here are some examples from those present:
Bruce – Print Management “One logo, multiple uses”
Alison – VA, PA & FA (Fitness Assistant!) “Fit for business”
Matt – Copwriting: “Writing for the right audience”
Mark – Website designer: “Not just building websites – making them do you want them to do”
David – IT – “Integrating systems for time and cost savings”
Quick topical question – Are you fit to be President?
On the eve of President Trump’s first anniversary, the press was full of speculation about the results of his medical exam, both physical and mental.
The 15-minute mental health exam is called the the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and is widely used to test for early signs of diseases like Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.
President Trump boasted about scoring 30 out of 30 on this test, making him the most intelligent president – “I guess they all realized they were going to have to leave it to a president that scored the highest on tests.” – but this is not an IQ test.
In fact, see for yourself – how would you score on a sample of questions from this test? Are you Presidential material?!
- What time is it on the clock?
- Eleven minutes past 10
- Ten past 11
- Ten past 10
- Two minutes past 11
- What are the animals shown in the picture?
- Lion, rhinoceros and camel
- Panther, rhinoceros and camel
- Lion, tapir and camel
- Lion, rhinoceros and giraffe
3. Subtract seven from 100. Based on the result obtained, subtract seven once again. Keep taking away seven from the obtained results three times. Identify the correct series of numbers from the options.
- 93, 86, 78, 71, 64
- 93, 86, 79, 72, 65
- 92, 87, 80, 73, 66
- 93, 85, 79, 72, 65
- If banana is to orange equals fruit then what does train is to bicycle equal?
- Means of transportation
- Road
- Based on this quiz, can you recall what the first question was about?
- It was about animals
- It was about the time
- It was about a mathematical calculation
- It was about a pair of words that have something in common
(*) BLT is a free fortnightly networking group that meets from 7:15-8:45, every other Thursday at The George & Dragon, Marlow.
For more details, please leave me a message – new networkers are always welcome.
The next meeting is Thursday 1st February
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