So
What Do You Do?
by Nancy Roebke
Once you have the attention of a business
prospect, at some
point in the conversation, the prospect
will ask you, "So what
do you do?". In most cases, you will only
have 60 seconds, to
catch the interest of the prospect. Therefore,
your response to
this questions needs to be specific enough
to tell what you do,
but interesting enough for the prospect
to ask for more
information.
.
Here is where "bullets" about your business
come in handy.
Bullets are short statements about your
firm that highlight a
specific product, service or attribute
about what you do. If
these bullets highlight something unique
to your firm, they are
even more effective as attention-getters.
Let's say you work in the field of Insurance.
An intro may be,
"By careful planning, I protect people's
assets". This intro
says what you do (careful planning) and
what the prospect gets
because of it (asset protection). This
got the attention of the
prospect by telling them "what's in it
for them" and highlights
a specific service that you offer.
Another example would be an Accountant.
An Accountant, once
asked- "what do you do?", might respond
with " I help keep more
of your hard-earned money in your pocket,
instead of in the
IRS's pocket". That would prompt the next
question- "How do you
do that?"
It is not suggested that the intro response
be so long and
detailed that the prospect tries to get
out of the conversation
from sheer boredom. You know more about
what you do than your
prospect needs to know at this first presentation.
When an intro
is effective, it will lead a prospect
into asking more
questions. When a prospect asks a question,
you will usually
have their attention long enough to hear
the answer. That
answer, properly worded will lead to more
questions.
It is strongly suggested that you have
several of these short,
60 second intros available, since the
same intro will not work
for every circumstance where you may be
asked what you do. An
intro at a business function may be different
than an intro
spoken on the golf course.
Copyright c 1998 Nancy Roebke
Nancy Roebke
Execdirector@Profnet.Org
http://www.profnet.org |
