“I lead a football team, why? ”: how to pimp your answers to the question “and what do you do?”

The question comes quickly, often even before her twin "and your name is...?".

In networking evenings as in private dinners, you often exist by your profession before simply being yourself, at least in the first moments of the conversation.

So much so that everyone has learned, over time, to sum up their profession in a few words.

But, to the question "what do you do?", an answer shaped by habit and concern for conciseness is not necessarily the most stimulating, neither for oneself nor for the other party.

Go off the beaten track

A factual presentation, raw and repeated over and over again, does not offer much leverage to continue the discussion or to establish a semblance of complicity.

Hence the importance, to brighten up these codified conversations, to get out of the nails.

“When the context allows it, I say that I am a spy,” smiles Adrien Loriller, partner of the economic intelligence company Avisa Partners.

In addition to amusing the interlocutor, and therefore arousing his attention, this type of introduction encourages him to ask questions, that is to say to participate actively in the discussion.

In the same spirit, an antithesis can be useful to create confusion.

"I have several shocking phrases that I use in the introduction, to intrigue, such as 'I create sugar without sugar'", explains Raphaëlla Nolleau,

in recent months.

“The reaction is unequivocal: I am asked what I mean, how it is possible.

I can then continue and introduce myself”, continues the entrepreneur.

I have always found people who launch into long monologues prodigiously annoying.

Raphaëlla Nolleau, co-founder of Yacon & Co

Prompting questions rather than giving answers

Whether you are talking to a potential investor, partner or client, the key is to let him ask questions, so not to give him all the answers on a plate.

The idea?

Maintain his attention.

“That's why I don't give too many details, too quickly, continues Raphaëlla Nolleau.

And then, I have always found people prodigiously annoying who launch into long monologues, we pick up after a few minutes.

Here we are touching on one of the paradoxes of networking and its codes.

If everyone knows that we often network "for" something - to raise funds, canvass clients, find a job..., the whole point is to make people forget about it, at least at the beginning, and to pass on a thoughtful and anticipated approach for a spontaneous meeting.

Read alsoThirties, select and influential: these new networks of power that bring together the elite of tomorrow

"That's why, when people ask me what I do, I can also answer: 'things that are much less interesting than you,' says Adrien Loriller of Avisa Partners.

Encouraging the person to tell me about their life and their work seems to me the most effective way of establishing a bond of trust with them.”

It is still necessary to find the right tone to flatter the other without throwing him off to the point of creating discomfort.

“I say it in a tone of humor and I immediately bounce back with a question, it goes very well.

Then, of course, you have to confide in yourself.

Learn to "pitch"

Now that the discussion is launched, it would be a shame to dry it up by presenting your position in an overly factual way.

It is better to reinterpret one's profession and its role, to formulate it in one's own way, as a way of revealing oneself, beyond one's title.

“I describe myself as a team captain, in a company that tries to shake up the codes.

Firstly because it's true, but also because the reactions are often good-natured and very curious," explains Asmaa Chakir Alaoui, co-founder and CEO of VelyVelo, a start-up that designs and rents electric bikes to professionals. winner of the Business with Attitude Madame Figaro 2021 award.

Read also“Think of a green, uncongested city, where our children can breathe”: Asmaa Chakir Alaoui, from VelyVelo, winner of the Business with Attitude prize

In video, dive into the making of the Business with Attitude Award

Anticipate the meeting

Clearly, "the challenge is not to say what we do, but why we do it", as explained to us by coach Isabelle Sthémer, co-author of

(1).

With a nuance: we do not present ourselves in the same way to everyone.

Hence the importance, prior to a networking event, of preparing several versions of your pitch, to react according to the profession and profile of your interlocutor.

Better: practice reciting them, in front of friends or colleagues for example, allows you to appropriate them and gain flexibility, when the time comes.

Precious ease so as not to be disconcerted by the reactions of his interlocutor, and to remain focused on the hard-hitting elements that one wishes to put forward.

“Pretty early in the discussion, I quote figures or key names, thus underlines Raphaëlla Nolleau, of Yacon & Co. People are interested in us for our network and the concrete successes that we can display.

Generate 250.

Others, depending on their profile and their objective, will cite their years of experience, the number of people they manage or the names of some prestigious clients for which they are responsible, for example.

Always with the same guideline: wrap key information in a light conversation, to avoid the catalog effect, at a slow pace, with regular breaks.

A way to leave room for the other to ask questions... or to draw their business card.