Fishing is a very interesting sport. It’s all about presentation. A fisherman puts something out there that is packaged in a way to make it as attractive as possible to the fish. The goal is to draw them in, to offer them something interesting to them. And, when they aren’t hungry, there’s no presentation in the world that’s going to get them to bite.
Contrast this with hunting. There is usually no presentation. Their is usually some kind of pursuit. I think of Elmer Fudd, stalking “that scwewy wabbit.” Pursuit and more pursuit until BAM! The hunter lets them have it with both barrels.
When we meet someone for the first time, we have a choice between hunting and fishing. Hunting amounts to something like preparing a 3-5-minute elevator speech and delivering it all at once – both barrels.
It’s pursuit and delivery whether they’re hungry or not. I much prefer to go the fishing route.
Fishing doesn’t just apply to meeting the client for the first time or sitting for that first interview. I believe that it also applies to our approach with the person next to us on the plane, at the lunch table, or working out at the gym. People desperately want us to be interesting.
Often the last thing they want is for us to become a wall of words.
Fishing, then, can be applied to all of our first-impression opportunities.
Brian Walter is a motivational coach and trainer. His approach to applying the fishing technique is to “play catch.” He compares delivering the full load, the complete elevator speech, to keeping the ball. Don’t keep the ball! Instead, play catch! Have the entire elevator speech ready to deliver, but give it to them a little at a time. Give them the chance to respond. If they are hungry to know more, they will.
If not, we’ve saved both of us a lot of time.
Let’s try an example.
“So, Brian, what do you do for a living?”
“I’m a coach.”
“Really? What sport do you coach?”
“Not sports. I coach a team of software developers. A lot of the principles are the same, but no sports.”
At this point, if the listener is interested, they will ask more. The game of catch will continue, with each toss of the ball delving further and further into the details.
If they’re not interested, the listener will not throw the ball back.
The conversation will stop – or perhaps take a turn to something else.
If this is the case, we’ve avoided a potentially embarassing situation where we’ve delivered far more information than the listener ever wanted to hear from us. Everybody wins.
I strongly recommend that we have at the ready a quiver full of answers to questions like, “What do you do for a living?” If we develop a set of opening “fishing lines” that offer our listeners a nugget of interesting information and leave them wanting more, we can improve our chances of making a good first impression.
Posted by briancastelli 
