David Lorenzo, author of the book ‘Career Intensity’, explains how to optimize the random business encounter.

Has this happened to you: you see someone you know from business in a non-business setting. Maybe it’s while picking up the drycleaning or out to dinner with your family. You exchange a few words, and that short interaction makes the process of getting a business deal done a lot easier.

Or perhaps you are waiting in line to get coffee at a Starbucks. You strike up a conversation with someone and end up exchanging business cards. Soon thereafter you get a call from that person you met while waiting for your beverage — and nab a new client.

In this Small Business Radio broadcast with host Anita Campbell, you will hear from David Lorenzo how to spot these situations and make them benefit your business.

What’s more, you will learn the key factors of a random business encounter, including:

• You and the other individual should have something in common (business or personal). It could be that you use the same health club, you are each getting a haircut, or some similar situation.
• The encounter should have a definite ending so no one feels threatened to continue. Eventually you will leave the space, i.e. your haircut is over or you get your coffee and leave.

In addition you will learn how to manufacture a random business encounter. David offers excellent examples and specific tips on how to help these happen and how to make your effort pay off.

Show recorded on: April 4, 2006

Show Length: 60 minutes

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This week’s Today’s Trend segment is “Developing Sales Prospects in Non-Traditional Ways.”
 

About David Lorenzo

David Lorenzo has more than 20 years of business experience as a successful corporate executive, entrepreneur, strategist, author, and speaker. He has worked with and mentored some of the world’s most successful businesspeople while helping lead many large organizations to unprecedented success.

Mr. Lorenzo’s experience in starting new business enterprises and repositioning under-performing business units, along with his ability to implement innovative performance improvement solutions, makes him one of today’s most sought-after trusted advisors.

Prior to becoming a strategist for The Gallup Organization in 2002, Mr. Lorenzo was vice president and general manager of Marriott’s corporate housing brand, ExecuStay by Marriott, in New York, New Jersey, and southern Connecticut. Under his direction, he grew the division’s annual revenue to more than $50 million in less than three years. Marriott’s leadership credited Mr. Lorenzo for establishing innovative revenue and cost-saving programs, and his successful management solutions were implemented throughout Marriott enterprises nationwide.

Mr. Lorenzo is a participant in the Wharton Fellows Program at the University of Pennsylvania, a management think tank that meets regularly to analyze and address timely business issues. He received his MBA from the Lubin School of Business at Pace University, and he received a Masters of Science in Strategic Communications from Columbia University in New York City.