Meaningful Conversations 101

The training wheels well and truly came off this week as I officially began my ICURe market exploration journey. It’s hard to believe it’s been a whole week since bootcamp in Southampton and I never imagined having a more productive and busy January in my entire life! This week, I started to put the training I received at bootcamp into action by setting up meetings and even having my very first meaningful conversation. I also had time to fit in a few more training sessions on digital marketing strategy, networking and how to structure and run meetings. In this post, I’m going to discuss what makes a conversation meaningful, how to set up meetings and finally tell you all about the highs and lows of my very first meeting.

What makes a conversation meaningful?

In my last few posts, I’ve talked quite a lot about meaningful conversations, with the ICURe trainers challenging each of the entrepreneurial leads to have 100 of these over the 12 week programme. But what does it mean to have a meaningful conversation? Think about how many conversations you have every single week, how many of these would you consider to be meaningful? I don’t think there is one clear definition however in the context of market exploration, a meaningful conversation is one that helps you learn something about your technology, the market, or your potential users and customers that you didn’t already know. It’s a conversation that allows you to look at your research from a different perspective and one that challenges your assumptions, moving you one step closer to figuring out where you might fit in the market. In a brilliantly instructive training session led by Katharine Bourke, we were encouraged to assess the ‘meaningfulness’ of conversations by asking ourselves some key questions:

1. Did I find out something new? (This could be something about the market, a potential user or customer, or evidence related to our research)
2. Is it critical and important information?
3. How does this information impact my current assumptions, hypotheses or understanding?
4. Did I communicate a clear call to action? (More on what this is later!)

If you find yourself answering yes to all of the above, you can quite confidently consider your conversation meaningful, you’ve successfully learned new and important information about the market and altered or confirmed your understanding of how you might fit in it.

So now that we know what a meaningful conversation is, you might be wondering, “how do I go about starting a meaningful conversation?”, you maybe guessed that walking up to a stranger at a conference and asking “would you be interested in having a meaningful conversation with me?” is not the best way of making new connections (or friends)! You’ll be pleased to know that this is not the strategy I am going to suggest. There are many different and creative ways of developing connections and organising meetings with interesting people, and even better, there are many ways to get started right now from the comfort of your own home (or office).

First and foremost, it’s no surprise that the internet and networking apps are among the most powerful tools in an entrepreneur’s arsenal. There are a whole range of tools available online allowing you to stalk (in a professional way of course) pretty much anyone, anywhere in the world. I’ve been using LinkedIn Sales Navigator (1 month free-trial followed by $80 per month, so not the cheapest tool out there). Sales navigator allows you to search for people, or ‘leads’ as they are called on linkedIn, filtering by job role, company, location, and a whole lot more. This means that once you identify the key players in your market (which is relatively easy after a few hours of google searching), you can then start to identify individuals that work for those companies and try and reach out to them. Now, this might sound straightforward, but the LinkedIn ‘cold-call’ method can be quite gruelling, with only about a 5-10% success rate (this level of rejection is not for the faint-hearted!). But there are certain measures you can take to try and improve this rate and to put yourself in the best position possible for receiving replies to your cold-calls:

1. Keep it short and sweet – most people will spend around 7 seconds glancing through your message so you want to try and engage them in a short, interesting and clear message.
2. Do your research – make your message more relevant and personal, demonstrating that you’ve taken the time to understand the recipient’s background, interests, or business needs.
3. End with a clear call to action – Make it easy for the recipient to respond by stating exactly what you’re looking for, whether it’s a meeting, feedback, or a connection.

If cold-calling sounds too intimidating for you, by far the best way to connect with others is to find yourself someone in your current network that can give you a warm introduction. This is where ICURe really offers incredible value as the facilitators, trainers and other teams on the programme all come with years of experience, insights and a whole lot of connections. Some of the ICURe trainers this year are probably the most well-connected individuals I’ve ever come across! After a brief presentation of my research to the ICURe team, I was immediately flooded with “I’ll connect you with my colleague in xxx” and “You should speak to xxx, I’ll introduce you”. These kinds of introductions are like gold dust, opening doors to influential people and helping you build a strong network.

Finally comes the boldest networking approach – walking up to a complete stranger at a conference, introducing yourself, and starting a conversation. I’m generally outgoing in social situations, but I’ve been surprised at how challenging this can be. However, the more I push myself to do it, the more I realise that most people are open to a friendly chat, especially in a networking setting. A simple introduction, a relevant question, or a shared interest can be all it takes to spark a meaningful connection. In my next post, I’ll be discussing some of the tactics I use when starting a conversation at a conference or networking event, so stay tuned.

Meaningful Conversation Number 1

So, we’ve learned what makes a conversation meaningful, how to arrange them, and now, finally, it’s time to share how my first official ICURe meeting went. I arranged a meeting with a company that develops information systems for organisations. A member of my research team kindly provided a warm introduction to one of the company employees via LinkedIn.

Going into the meeting, I felt well-prepared but still a little nervous. At the start, I found myself giving a detailed explanation of my technology, slipping into transmission mode rather than receiving mode. While it’s important to communicate the value of what I’m working on, I had to remind myself that the aim is to learn as much as possible, that means listening! Key learning? Keep my introduction short and sweet and focus on asking the right questions to encourage a meaningful discussion.

What I hadn’t anticipated was just how keen the company employee would be to explore collaboration opportunities. They were highly enthusiastic and eager to move quickly, which was both exciting and slightly challenging. I had to think on my feet more than expected, which made me realise the importance of preparing for different meeting dynamics. Going forward, I want to have a clearer vision of what I hope to gain from each discussion, so I can respond more effectively in the moment.

A particularly interesting moment came when I learned that the company was developing a product very similar to mine. At first, this felt like a setback – I wondered whether they had already solved the problem I was working on. However, as the conversation unfolded, I discovered that they had been struggling to develop a key feature of my solution and were open to potential collaboration. It was a valuable reminder not to be discouraged too quickly. Just because someone is working in the same space doesn’t mean there isn’t room for meaningful partnerships.

After an hour of exciting conversation, the meeting came to a close with a question I was not at all prepared for: “Tell me exactly what you want.” It may seem like an obvious thing to be asked, but after taking in so much new information, I suddenly found myself thinking, “I have no idea what I want!”. This was an invaluable lesson to learn in my first meeting. While it’s important to be open to new ideas and unexpected opportunities, having a clear call to action and a next step in mind is essential. At the same time, I’ve realised that honesty is the best policy, there’s nothing wrong with acknowledging that I’m on an exploration journey and that I don’t have all the answers yet. People appreciate transparency, and rather than trying to force certainty, I focused on keeping the conversation moving forward.

I ended on a simple but productive next step: setting up an in-person meeting to demonstrate our technology and explore how we might collaborate further. Moving forward, I’ll make sure to enter each discussion with a clear idea of what I’d like to achieve – while still staying open to where the conversation might lead.

Reflecting on the meeting, one area I want to improve is ensuring I listen more. ‘The power of the pause’ is something I have not yet mastered, currently I like to fill every pause possible!! While I felt engaged throughout, I realised I had spoken for at least half of the meeting, if not more. To gain the most from these discussions, I need to create more space for the other person to share their insights. A great piece of advice I received from Katharine Bourke was to use three simple but powerful words: Tell me more. It’s a small shift that can lead to much deeper conversation.

So all in all, I would say the first meeting was a success! It felt great to get the first one done and I consider myself very lucky to have had such a positive first experience with a company who were genuinely interested in my technology. So 1 down, 99 to go, and for the next few I’ll be packing my bags and heading to…Dubai! Arab Health 2025, here I come. Stay tuned for the next post where I’ll discuss business cultures from around the world, tips for networking at conferences and details of my first trade-show.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the next one!