Some Chamber members—whether profits or non-profits, wherther large or small businesses, whether men or women—never cross the threshold of a Chamber event. Sometimes it’s because they are shy and break out into a cold sweat at the thought of having to make small talk. More times, though, it’s because they don’t think of Chamber members as their market or their customers, so why does it make sense to come?. You know what I say to that? “You just never know. . .”
You never know just what connection you may uncover in the course of a conversation. You never know how you can help someone else or how she can help you. You never know who knows whom. You could be one degree of separation from the best customer/client/deal you have ever had. You just never know.
This Friday, you’ll have a chance to stop by the Chamber for coffee, tea and enjoy some tasty goodies at the Chamber’s Open House from 8:00am-1:00pm. Find out the 7 reasons why this is the place to be on Friday. Here are two reasons in pictures:
The Chamber's B-Board. When you visit the Chamber you get to post your business card here. Right now it has been stripped bare in anticipation of Friday. When you come to the Open House, you get to post your business card. First to arrive gets to choose the spot.
Then there's the Brag Board. You can post your marketing materials here. Got a brochure? Got a flyer? Got a sample? This is the spot to pin it.
I am being sustainable and recycling a poem I wrote in January 2007 about connecting, schmoozing, “friending” (as they call it in the Facebook world), networking. No matter what you call i t, you just never know what can happen when you do it. So with a slide of the trombone to Composer Meredith Wilson, I am taking liberties with We Got Trouble in River City from The Music Man:
Trouble, oh we got trouble
Right here in the Chamber
With a capital "T"
That rhymes with "P"
And that stands for perception
That stands for perception.
We've surely got trouble!
Right here in the Chamber
Right here!
Gotta figger out a way
To make members say, you just never know?
Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble. . .
Members of the Arlington Chamber and the general public!
You say what’s the point of attending an event
‘Cuz your clients or customers don’t hail from here?
Can you say for sure, really, truly for sure, that the people you could meet
Might not have a connection so good, so lucrative, so right, so sweet
One that might lead, I say could lead, to the very client-market-contact you seek?
You could be networkin' with the “sweetie-wife-husband-mother-father-son-daughter-brother-cousin-neighbor-schoolchum” of the very person you want to greet
With a capital G
That rhymes with C
and that stands for Contacts
That stands for Connections
Right here in the Chamber,
Right here!
My friends: Are certain phrases creeping into your conversation?
Phrases like "my clients are millionaires"?
"My customers are big corporations or institutions"?
“My business is international"?
“My customers are on the world wide web"?
"I'm a non-profit"?
“I work for the Town"?
Well, if so my friends,
Right here in the Chamber!
With a capital "C"
And that rhymes with "P"
And that stands for perception.
We've surely got trouble!
Right here in the Chamber!
If you think, you assume, OR you conjecture that members won't know someone
who knows someone that's perfect for you!
Not true!
Whom might YOU meet at a Chamber event that knows the very person you want to (or don’t even know yet that you need to) meet? Especially if you asked each other, “What kinds of people would help your business to grow?” You’ll never know if you stay in your office, I say, stay in your office and don’t venture out!
So make a date to come and see us this Friday. You just never know!
