陳豪在北京的ABC美國公司工作。他今天有事去找美國同事Amy。
(Office ambience)
A:Hi, Chen Hao. How are you today?
C:還好,不過,我有點兒事想請教你。
A:How can I help you?
C:今天下班,我又要去參加公司的社交活動。
A:Where the point is to make business contacts and develop relationships with current or potential clients?
C:沒錯,就是要多認識點兒人,跟客戶搞好關系。不過,我還是不太習慣這種活動。
A:What's the problem?
C:自我介紹完,我就不知道該說什么了。
A:Well, The first thing is to prepare your conversation starters ahead of time.
C:怎么準備啊?
A:Find out who will be there so you will know whom you will be seeing.
C:然后呢?
A:Find out as much as you can about the guests. The more information you have about them and their business, the easier it will be to talk to them.
C:可我根本不知道誰會去?。?/p>
A:I suggest you go ask your boss' assistant right now.
******
一個小時過后,陳豪和Amy又見面了。
C:Amy, 今天的活動是Jepson公司主辦的。
A:I happen to know that Mr. Jepson, the president of the company, loves airplanes. He is a licensed pilot and owns quite a number of small planes.
C:Mr. Jepson自己有飛機,還有執(zhí)照?太好了,我也喜歡飛機。
A:Well, see, you have something in common so you shouldn't have any problems talking to him.
C:那其它人呢?
A:Be ready to ask people about themselves. Start your conversations with open-ended questions.
C:Open-ended questions, 那是什么樣的問題啊?
A:Those are questions that begin with "how" and "why?" The kinds of questions that people almost have to answer with more than one word.
C:就是要問為什么,怎么樣這類的問題, 是嗎?
A:Right. Stay away from "when," "where" and "what" since it's easy to give short answer to those questions.
C:不要問什么時候,在哪兒,哎呀,太復雜了。我恐怕記不住。
A:Oh, yes, you can. People like to talk about themselves so long as you continue to listen and act interested, they will continue to talk.
C:做個好聽眾當然沒問題。我難道就不需要說話嗎?
A:All you really need to do is repeat or comment on something the other person has said. Like with Mr. Jepson, you could ask how many planes he has?
C:他要是說25架呢?
A:Then you respond, "So you have 25 of your own airplanes?" That's interesting. Tell me about them." And he'll continue to talk.
C:好主意。我試試看。