If you can answer this FAQ, you stand more chance of being successful.
It’s a really simple question but can you answer it?
‘What do you do?’
The same question applies to you, personally, and you, the business.
Richard Saul Wurman, the 81 year old founder of the TED talks refers to it as ‘the most important question of all’.
And I think he’ll sleep well tonight knowing that I agree with him.
‘What do you do?’ is a question asked at dinner parties. It’s the first question you’ll be asked at a networking event (after ‘What is your name?’). It’s certainly something an investor or bank will have at the top of the list. It’s the foundation of the success of any business.
So, it’s alarming just how many people and companies can’t answer it.
In fact, they unintentionally avoid it.
For example, they reply with some kind of elevator pitch.
This is an answer to a different question.
Elevator pitches should start with the what-you-do but they are usually competitive, ‘cleverly’ written marketing statements instead.
They also mention the competitive landscape and the business opportunity.
Neither of which interest me if I don’t know what you actually do.
Another avoidance technique comes in the form of a vision, mission or purpose.
These are all excellent statements but they describe what the future will be like, how we’ll get there and why we get out of bed to do ‘it’.
But they don’t usually say what ‘it’ is.
It would save everyone a lot of trouble if we all had a killer, one-liner that we could use as a default.
Assuming you agree, what should this sentence be and not be?
- It shouldn’t be a competitive statement. The question wasn’t ‘how are you better than the competition?’ This is not marketing. It’s ground zero. There’ll be plenty of opportunities to point out why your business is superior later elsewhere.
- It should be in mum-proof language, not jargon. In order to boast about how good you are to her friends, your mother needs to get what you do and she needs to be able to pass it on without puzzling people. She’s not impressed with exaggeration or industry acronyms. And in this respect your mum is no different from anyone else you meet who’s not in your industry.
- It should be short. Your questioner is probably expecting a sentence. If they get a straight answer from you, they may ask other questions that allow you to elaborate.
- It’s okay to refer to what someone else does. A friend of mine is the marketing head of Gæst. For some time he has explained Gæst as ‘like Airbnb, only for meeting rooms’. This makes his meeting room booking platform really easy to understand because Airbnb have spent gazillions establishing the principle. (Airbnb bought Gæst recently.)
So, what possible objection could anyone have to a simple ‘here’s what I do’ statement?
Well, I’ve heard a few:
- “Other companies do the same as we do.” Yes, they do. And they’re also equally guilty of confusing people about what exactly that is. Remember, this is not a marketing answer you’re being asked for here.
- “If we’re clear about what we do, people will copy us.” I think this is highly unlikely but, if someone copies your idea, it’s because it’s copyable. Not because you described it in a really nice sentence.
- “Simple statements don’t sound very impressive.” They do when the norm is baffling gobbledygook. Or exaggeration. Simplicity shows confidence, honesty and clarity of thought. That’s pretty impressive.
- “What we do is far too complicated to explain in a sentence.” Well, I just Googled ‘nuclear fission’ and the first sentence on Wikipedia did a pretty good job of getting me to understand it. I’m not saying it’s easy to be so single-minded and brief but it’s possible.
Of course, sometimes, telling someone exactly what you do will quickly put them off or make them say ‘No!’
This is good.
You have not misled the wrong customer. You have proven that you are probably not a good fit. Or your idea is not quite what they had in mind.
And you won’t have wasted their time or yours.
Conversely, it could make them say ‘Yes!’ in a flash.
Nobody buys into an idea they don’t get.
So, make them get it and be successful doing what you do.
