The Importance of Understanding What You Really Do

18th July 2009

Some people may respond to my title with a little incredulity, I can imagine such comments as, “Of course I know what I do” – well, judging by the responses I have had from many, many business managers over the years, I would respectfully beg to differ.

Even though I’m writing on this subject I’ve certainly been guilty of this myself, mainly due to the turns my career has taken as the world of business and the internet have evolved in recent years, opening up opportunities which didn’t previously exist.

So, what do you do?

So – let me expand on my thinking – when a stranger asks “What do you do for a living” – or “What business are you in” “What does your firm do” – can you respond in a way which sums it up in one clearly understandable sentence?

Try asking the question of others – unless you move in circles where everyone is highly focussed you’ll find that very few people can meet the challenge, they’ll babble on about how good they are for so long you’ll wish you hadn’t asked, or they’ll stumble through the answer without actually telling you clearly what they really do.

Really – do try this out – you’ll be amazed at how many people will fail the test.

What’s my solution?

Start off with a piece of paper and write down the following things off the top of your head – no stealing from company brochures – they may be totally wrong!

What do you do?
Who do you do it for? ie. B to B, Target age group, Sex, ethnicity or other grouping.
Why should someone choose you/ your company to do business with?
What’s in it for them – what will the key benefit to user be on completion of the transaction?

What’s in it for them?

Many business people become so enthralled with their own offering that they forget how to see it from a customer’s perspective, so you’ve got to strip your offering back to basics and approach it as if you knew nothing about the product or service, starting with a couple of key points:

What would / should a customer expect from such a product or service?
What other companies would a customer be considering re delivery of this product or service?

When you’ve finished writing out your answers, you need to whittle them down to the key highlights, and then create a sentence that sums it up in as few words as possible.

An example might be,

“I’m Joe Johnston, my company makes square waterproof widgets used worldwide by manufacturers of all weather camping equipment”

One short sentence should say clearly what you do, who you mainly do it for and what marketplace you cater for, the above example is simple, but I feel it gets the point across.

Say what you do then shut-up

When telling people what you do you need to say as much as possible in as few words as possible, then be quiet, don’t babble on about how great you are – that’s is a sure fire way to turn off prospective clients.

Just tell me what's in it for me

What’s this got to do with my website?

Did you realise that when someone visits your website or blog you’ve got just a few seconds to capture their attention, if you don’t they’re gone in just one click of a mouse, so it’s even more important that you have your message defined for use online – there are few second chances to get visitors back to your website.

When you’ve got yourself a hot intro line you can use it, or subtle variations of it for personal encounters, company marketing materials and on your website or blog, if you have a sales force make sure they use it too.

Don’t take it for granted that what you’ve got already is OK, that may not be the case, as every market place evolves both in terms of products and customers expectations, so should the marketing messages transmitted to the prospective clients.

One good way to try out your message would be to create a Twitter message which effectively sells you, your product or service, as Twitter allows only 140 characters you’ll have to make sure it fits – I hope you enjoy the challenge!

About the Author

Jim Montgomery

This post has been written by guest blogger Jim Montgomery who runs a digital publishing company providing educational and informative products and services. Based in Northern Ireland. Jim’s goal is to educate individuals and small business owners how to ‘do it for themselves’ using the latest easy to use and manage software and services.

You can connect with Jim through his own website or read his blog. Follow his tweets on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Jim_Montgomery