Lesson 4 | Five Attributes of the Successful Bridge Talk™ (3:03 minutes)

So we talked about five dangers, but there's also five key attributes of a successful Bridge Talk™, and the first one's called effective ambiguity. When someone asks, "What do you do?" If things are a little ambiguous, so effective ambiguity, it can really work for you. It helps us avoid stereotypes and putting ourselves in a bucket, and we want to create a category of discussion but without exactly narrowing down exactly where you are and what you're doing because you're trying to create some dialogue. So ineffective ambiguity, it doesn't tell anybody anything useful at all so we want to avoid that but effective ambiguity gives them enough to know that you're relevant and keeps them engaged in the conversation.

The second is stereotypes. We talked about it earlier, but don't give your title. You're not going to say that you're a Financial Services Advisor. You're not going to say, "I'm an insurance person or an investment person." You're going to stay away from stereotypes because the reference point they have is probably flawed. Not always, but probably.

The third is, it should be conversational so whatever you're going to say next, it needs to sound conversational. And there's a simple three point test for it so, can I say it successfully in these three environments? So could I say my Bridge Talk™ in a restaurant or a pub? Someone walks over to you and says, "So, what do you do?" And you say, "Oh, I do this." Right? So, can you do it there?

The second is, could you answer it in some sort of house of worship? You're sitting there and someone says, "By the way, what do you do?" And you say, "I do this," and they go, "Oh, okay, good." So could you do it there?

And the third is, could you do it from a stage? Could you step out onto a stage with a thousand people in front of you and use the exact same words with that group as well? If you can handle all three of these, then you know you've got it. If you're using words like, "Develop proprietary solutions to optimize and enhance people's opportunities for greater whatever," it ain't conversational, it's marketing. Your Bridge Talk™ wants to be in real language, words that you and your potential client would use day in and day out. You do not have to sound clever here. You need to sound clear.

The fourth thing it should do is create permission, and if they haven't said, "Tell me more," or, "What do you mean by that?" at the end, you don't have permission, but if your Bridge Talk™ is structured well, and you're in front of the right niche, it does.

And the fifth one, it's about creating interest, not education. You're not trying to teach them the industry, teach them your word, teach them a specific domain or discipline that you have, you simply want to generate some interest. Your goal is to answer decision one, and that's agree to meet. Our goal at the end of this is that they do have some interest and they say, "Well, tell me more," and we can talk a little bit more about it. And if they're still interested, you ask, "Why don't you come back to the office? Or why don't we line up a time to sit down?" And now we've agreed to meet. We get to decision one.

So where are we going to go next? It's to the actual structure of the Bridge Talk™ but remember, the five key attributes of a successful Bridge Talk™: effective ambiguity, no stereotypes, conversational, creates permission, and it's interest, not education.

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