Round-Robin Introductions

We’ve all been to meetings where everyone in the room gets a turn to introduce themself.

And we know how agonizing this can be!

Most people take the commonsense approach. They state their name and they tell everyone what they do.

I’m Lloyd and I’m a plumber.

I’m Jackie, your yoga and meditation coach.

On it goes while the minutes tick by—looooong minutes you’ll never get back!

Here’s a tip:

Introduce your value as well as your role.

Which of the following introductions is most compelling to you.

“I’m Bert and I’ll be your project manager.”

or

My job will be to make sure everything happens on-time and on-budget. You’ll be hearing from me at least once a day to keep you in tune with our progress. I’m Maria, your project manager.

And this brings us to tip number two: If you state your name at the beginning like Bert did, no one will remember it. Most people only remember information after they’ve tagged it as important. If your introduction captures their interest, they’ll say:

Interesting. What was your name again?

We just get too many messages that say

“I’m so-and-so. Buy my stuff.”

We’ve trained ourselves to filter spam in our brains and in our inboxes. Offer value up-front and then give people a name they want to remember.

Why not ride your elevator pitch to the penthouse?