The art of deflection

1. Start your introduction by greeting Bill by his first name, and then quickly
reintroduce yourself-stating your first and last name, the name of your company,
and its location-and ask Bill how he’s doing today. Remember, from your very first
word, your tonality must be positive and upbeat, with a hint of bottled
enthusiasm slipping out around the edges.
2. Remind him that you two spoke a few days or a few weeks ago, and that you
emailed him a bit of information on your company. Do not-I repeat, do not-ask
him if he actually received the information or had to chance to review itm as
there’s an excellent possibility that he’ll say “no” to at least one of those
questions, which gives him an easy exit ramp out of the encounter. The way to
avoid this is to simply ask him if the conversation “rings a bell”, to which he will
almost always reply with a yes.
3. Once he does, then briefly explain to him how the last time you spoke, he
asked you to give him a call the next time an extraordinary investment idea came
across your desk.
4. If he replied no, the act a bit surprised, but chalk it up to the fact that he must
get a ton of calls and emails each day, and then assure him that you did, in fact,
speak to him, and that you did, in fact, email him some information; but there’s
no need to worry, as it was just a bit of background on your company. Then
complete step three-reminding him that he asked you to call him the next time
you had an investmend idea.
5.Explain how something just came across your desk and that it’s one of the best
things you’ve seen in quite some time now, and if he has sixty seconds, you’d like
to share the idea with him.
6. Complete your introduction by saying “Got a minute ?” *using the reasonable
man tone*