Is cycling the new golf?

So we all do a bit of face to face sales and marketing and you always do your best to plug your company to gain new or extra work. I learnt a long time ago a very simple thing, let the person you are talking to do the talking. The skill is to have enough relevant questions to ask… the hard bit. I found that asking what people do outside of work is a great way to get to know someone and their interests. Normally when talking to business owners and decision makers I ask the said question, what do you do when you are not working? Years ago a fair amount of the high ranks often said golf, not a bad thing fresh air, the great out doors etc etc. Myself I’m not into the golf thing, I am a cyclist. More and more clients, potential clients or just decision makers who I’m chatting to have mentioned one of my favourite words, cycling. Once the common ground bridge has been crossed those conversations tend to go on for a lot longer and in the case of networking those individuals tend to gravitate towards my direction, not to talk business (at first) but to talk about our common ground. This has ultimately lead to business being done.