What's the Problem?

Much is made of the dreaded 'elevator pitch' and what you say when people ask you what you do. How do you answer that question though? Particularly when it comes from someone who genuinely cares and might be talking to your ideal prospect in their next conversation.

Very often our response to the question 'what do you do?' reveals very little and leaves people in no better position to introduce us to key contacts. After all, people we may want to meet are interested in themselves and how what we do impacts on them personally, yet few people consider this when explaining what they do.

On Wednesday I gave a talk for Service Network in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. During the talk I asked the audience what they wanted the people in their network to say about them to others. We captured the responses using Zing technology where, after discussing their responses in groups, they could type their answers using a keyboard on each table and the results would appear on the screen behind me.

The majority of the responses described the quality of what people do rather than the context or detail. For example:

"Customer Focused"

"Professional, knowledgable, funny, approachable"

"As good as her word - delivers".

These are all good qualities to display, and important factors in whether people want to work with you or not. But if this is all people are saying about you, why would anyone be interested in the connection in the first place? Let's take another example that really makes my point clear.

"I am an expert in my field."

That's great to know, but if your field is nuclear technology and I am a website designer, what relevance does that have to me? When we think about what people in our networks say about us to our prospective customers, we need to understand what will provoke those prospects to want to speak to us. In other words, it has to be relevant to them.

Geoff Ramm, who is an excellent speaker on marketing and who was at the event, typed in his response:

"The person who will put bums on seats and will inspire our audiences!!!"

Geoff wants his network to speak about him to meeting planners, people who are putting on events and want high quality speakers. What does an event planner want from their speakers? Someone who will bring more people along and inspire those who are there. They want their audiences to buzz after a talk, to tell other people about it, to take action and to come back.

In his response Geoff has recognised that and his message is crafted to appeal to his potential bookers. Just what you'd want from a marketing expert!

What do you want people to say about you? What can they say that will provoke action and get the people they are talking to, your prospects, to want to find out more and meet you?