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Elko Mining Reverse Expo Teaches Lessons on Communication

Published: March 22, 2017 |

Erik Kieser speaks at second annual Elko Mining Reverse Expo. (photo: Marianne Kobak McKown)

Erik Kieser speaks at second annual Elko Mining Reverse Expo. (photo: Marianne Kobak McKown)
[Click image to enlarge]

Instead of selling products or services, companies should tell their customers what “pain they ease.”

This was just one of the lessons learned during the second annual Elko Mining Reverse Expo this week in the Conference Center.

The one-day event had two guest speakers and speed pitching between companies and booth analysis.

Erik Kieser talked to the attendees about communication and the four types of listeners. He said communication “is always about the receiver and it is never, ever about the sender.”

His 90-minute interactive speech had people examining how they communicate their message when trying to sell a product or service.

“We think in terms of services, but we need to think in terms of easing pain,” Kieser told the group.

Part of easing someone’s pain and presenting a message effectively involved understanding the different types of listeners. Kieser said there are four types: “analyze the crap out of it, look at the details, how it feels, and cutting edge” people.

The analyze group always moves to the end and wants information in bullet points. They look for the optimal solution.

The details group wants the best solution and every question answered. Kieser said these people want extra material left behind so they can read over it.

How it feels people want a connection and think in terms of conversations. They are about the team win.

Cutting edge people love blazing new trails, but are terrible at listening. They are imaginative and out-of-the-box thinkers.

Kieser told the group as they give an elevator speech to sell a product or a service, they must pay attention to how the person is listening so the speech can change according to the person receiving it.

“Elevator speeches are not cut in stone,” he said. “They are living creatures. They are a base line or starting point. … An elevator speech is a foot in the door. … they are not closing the deals.”

Northeastern Nevada Regional Development Authority Executive Director Pam Borda said she was very pleased with this year’s event.

“We sold out everything, so not only do we have the max that we could get in front of the operators for the reverse expo part, but we offered Michele (Reeves) as kind of an additional bonus for them.”

Reeves talked to the group about prominent branding and marketing and evaluated the booths set up at the expo.

“I’m really, really happy with how it’s turned out,” Borda said. “The nice thing this year is we were really focused on trying to get some locals and some of the companies that Sheldon (Mudd) and I have been working with to try and get to locate here and they all had an opportunity to get in. We have some companies here from Canada and Australia. We’re excited about that.”

Nevada Mining Association President Dana Bennett said the Elko Reverse Expo started last year after association members expressed a lot of interest in the fall event at Lake Tahoe.

“Of course we want everybody to come to the convention, but we also recognize that it’s difficult to travel to Lake Tahoe for some folks,” she said. “For some of the smaller vendors that are located in the Winnemucca, Battle Mountain, Elko area, this provides an opportunity for them to participate in ways that they might not be able to at Tahoe in September.”

Borda said they host the Elko event in March so it is six months before the fall one.

“We don’t want to burn the operators out, because they’re so kind to do this for us,” she said. “It’s a really good mixture of the mine support companies, which is our focus. We’re focused on the companies that work directly with the mines and not so much other stuff that everybody uses, like hotel rooms. Some of those people who wanted to be in are sponsoring so that’s very cool. We’ve tried to make it a place where there’s space for everybody, but the operators really want to talk to the people who can help them at the mines, that provide some kind of service or support. I think we did much better with that this year.”

The association said 175 people signed up for the event, which is more than last year.

“We’ve had great participation and great enthusiasm,” Bennett said. “People registered quickly. It’s something that is now becoming a part of their regular calendar and their regular rotation and people are very excited about it.”

While the focus is on the mining vendors the mining companies also participate.

“At the mine expo in June, if you’re selling something, you set up a booth and you hope that that buyer will stop and talk to you,” Bennett said. “At a reverse expo, it’s the buyer who sits still and the seller goes by, and so the seller has very short period of time — seven, eight minutes — to make their pitch and hopefully they catch their attention and a business relationship can develop out of that. So really the pressure then is on the seller to present a compelling presentation to the operator.

“We’re all familiar with Barrick and Newmont and Kinross, that are major mine operators, but the Elko area also has a lot of major vendors, big companies that also hire other vendors and so this provides an opportunity to connect with some of those big vendors as well.”

This year will be the fourth year for the reverse expo in the fall at Lake Tahoe.

“We like it because it’s different,” Bennett said. “People in business are always looking for opportunities to present their products, to find new products, to find new services and this is a great way to showcase the innovation that’s happening in the mining industry in an innovative way. It’s innovative conversations being done in an innovative way. From what I hear from our convention planner, this is what’s happening nationally. People want the opportunity for face to face, so that’s what we’re providing.”

Source: (March 17, 2017) Elko Daily Free Press


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