I had someone introduced to me, so I sent her my booking link. My link has 7 questions on it which exist for a very important reason. We're meeting for 30 minutes, and that's not a lot of time. We don't have time for "So, what do you do?" We need to get into it. So the questions ask the basics (What do you do? What do you need? How can I help you?) If someone skips the questions, it tells me two things... 1) It'll be an awkward meeting because we're starting from a blank slate. 2) They don't respect my process, and they *may* be hard to work with (or may not) No answers? I email them and ask them to fill out the form. Still no answers? Cancel. Some people may think that the questions are just nice to have or don't apply to them. But let me tell you, after about 3,000 one to ones, I never want to walk in cold to a networking call again. What do you do to ensure your networking calls are effective and not awkward?

Great questions from Bob to encourage people to talk about themselves. Will you spot the one that's not actually a question? - “How did you get your start in the [widget] business?” - “What do you enjoy most about your profession?” - “What separates you and your company from the competition?” - “What advice would you give someone just starting in the [widget] business?” - “What one thing would you do with your business if you knew you could not fail?” - “What significant changes have you seen take place in your profession through the years?” - “What do you see as the coming trends in your industry?” - “Describe the strangest or funniest incident you’ve experienced in your business?” - “What ways have you found to be the most effective for promoting your business?” - “What one sentence would you like people to use in describing the way you do business?”