Baseball's opening day does more than draw thousands of fans to downtown Toledo; it brings out tired baseball analogies to conference tables all across the city. Sales managers, business owners, and human resource directors will refer the need for team play, playing ball, and the need to have a game plan if one is going to be successful.

As you inaugurate your 2009 baseball-watching season, forget all of the over-used analogies and think like the guy who is next at bat when the bases are loaded. As he approaches the plate and stares down the pitcher, he isn't thinking about the game plan. He is concentrating on knocking that ball out of the park.

The only way to knock that ball out of the park is to be able to connect with it. The focus on connecting has been lost for younger generation of business professionals, especially in the setting of a networking event.

As a member of this younger generation, I feel it is a disgrace that so many young professionals have been trained to simply show up everywhere and thrust their business card upon anyone with whom they come into contact. Unfortunately, this aggressive pitching of self and product is a disease that is infecting business professionals of all ages and demographics.

If you could be a fly on the wall at your next networking event, you would quickly see that everybody in the room is just waiting for their turn to talk. You would see that the personal agendas are preventing real connections from occurring. It is almost as if everybody in the room is throwing baseballs at one another, but nobody in the room is ready to catch. This creates a defensive environment, guards go up, and people are equipped with ways out of strained conversations so they can get back to pitching themselves.

When the focus is upon connecting instead of pitching - when you focus upon being receptive to those around you - then true networking occurs. A successful elevator pitch is not thirty-seconds long; nobody wants to listen to you for thirty-seconds. Throw out your elevator pitch and replace it with a power question. No tricks, just clean, wholesome communication.

A power question is your attempt at starting a genuine conversation. If the person you are talking with has no interest in a real conversation about what you do, they will not come back at you with a follow-up question. However, if a genuine interest does exist, now you are playing catch. Instead of straight pitching for thirty-seconds, you can boil down your entire unique selling proposition into a series of a few questions and answers.

The key to your power question is having something that communicates the most elementary version of what it is you do, tapping into an existing problem or desire. As a marketing and sales professional, my power question is, "You know how businesses need new customers?" This begins a conversation that allows me to explain what I do.

No, you should not be then launching into your elevator pitch; you should be saying what you do in one sentence. For me, I say, "Well, what I do is help businesses connect with new customers." If the person I am talking with has ever wanted to know how to connect with new customers, they are, of course, going to ask me how I do that for the businesses with which I work.

These are not tricks. They are simply powerful ways to have a fruitful conversation. They are ways to relax, to keep your eye on the ball, and to allow people to connect with your message. Keep the business cards in your pocket until somebody asks you for one! People will be interested when you re-frame yourself as interesting.