boringOK, this might seem like an odd one, but ask most people what they do and what do you get? “I’m an accountant,” or, “I work in marketing/customer service/support” etc.

Attend a business-networking event and listen to the introductions.  “We’re a leader in…” or, “We make…” or, “We’re a software company…” etc.

Boring. Hard to stimulate interest with an answer that makes someone want to reach for the bacon-wrapped water chestnut and shout, “Next!”

Take it a step further.  Apply a modified form of my “Trade Show Floor” test to your colleagues at work.  It goes like this: “Hey, if someone asks you what our firm does, how do you answer that question?”

Quick background on my “Trade Show Floor” test and a note to marketers and sales executives everywhere: when I walk trade shows, I like to ask the booth staff what their firm does.  Instead of crisp, audience/customer-focused verb phrases that make me want to learn more, I usually get unintelligible gobbledygook. The more tech-oriented the show, the more tech filled gobbeldy gook that I get.

To the best of my knowledge, no one is in the market to purchase gobbeldy gook.  If your numbers are down it is possible that your people are trying to market and sell gobbeldy gook.  Remember, no one is buying this stuff!.

Back to your colleagues and the question.  I’m willing to wager a cup of leadership caffeine or your favorite coffee that the answers are closer to gobbeldy gook than to clarity.   Imagine the chaos if you have a whole company of people that cannot simply describe what your firm does and for whom. (Sure hope I got that whom/who thing right…it’s been a life long struggle.)

Core questions to ask and answer:

  • Who do you serve?  Who are your customers?
  • What vexing problems do you solve for your customers?
  • How do you uniquely solve those problems? (Your Purple Cow factor.  Thanks, Seth Godin.)

Wrap it all up in a verb phrase. Before you know it, you’ll have John Jantsch’s (Duct Tape Marketing) version of a talking logo.  I love John’s examples (I paraphrase):

Typical: “I’m an architect.”

Revised: “I’m an architect that shows contractors how to get paid faster.”

Typical: “I’m a tax accountant.”

Revised: “I show recently divorced women how to dramatically reduce their taxes.”

Executed properly, you’ll have people saying, “Wow, tell me more.”

The Bottom Line:

Quit boring people to death with your personal and professional introductions.   Tune up your descriptions, try them on for size and when the accurately describe what you do for a specific audience in terms that seem to interest people, make certain that the description is taught to everyone in your firm and that it jumps off of your website and all of your materials.

Don’t leave people guessing on the most important of all personal and professional marketing issues.

“Hey, what does your firm do?”