Who wants to be a Millionaire?

OK, hands down. I spoke last night at the Millionaires Business Club, just outside London. It was a very enjoyable evening, with well-organised networking between people who run multi-million pound businesses. It's the sort of event that makes me glad to be a professional speaker. As well as speaking to the group, I enjoyed a fine meal and was able to chat to all of the audience about business, in the splendour of the dining room at Moor Park golf club.

An obvious question, which I was far too polite to ask anyone there was "So how did you manage to become so successful?" The answer, of course was obvious. Everyone there was a good communicator, who not only spoke about their own business, but was genuinely interested in what other people did, and how they could help each other.

Like me, you have probably been to networking events where people drone on about what they can do, delivering their "elevator speech", with no regard for your interests at all. I'm afraid this doesn't work any more, if indeed it ever did. No-one is interested in what you do, unless it is something they could benefit from. And how do you find out their interests? You ask them. So, if you have an "elevator speech", then stop boring people with it. Ask them what they do, and explain how your business might help them do more or better. That's exactly what people in the Millionaires Business Club were doing last night. That's how they got there.