HOW TO EXPLAIN WHAT YOU DO WITHOUT SOUNDING SCRIPTED AND AWKWARD

Let’s not beat around the bush here… you’re damn good at what you do. Your services can literally create AMAZING transformation in your client’s lives.

But when a well-meaning lady at a networking event asks the dreaded “so, what do you?” question, you either:

– clam up and sputter out some kind of mumbled response… then give yourself a mental face palm thinking “WTF was that??”

OR…

– launch into a stream of verbal diarrhoea about what you do and why you’re so passionate about it that your listener spends your whole speech trying to figure out how to politely excuse herself to the drinks table without looking like a bitch.

So how do you figure out how to articulate the brilliance of what you do in clear, easy to understand, but still super juicy and compelling language that makes your dream clients whip out their credit cards?

These 3 tips will give you a simple and practical formula to explain what you do in 2 sentences or less without sounding scripted or awkward.

Tip #1 – Be SUPER Clear

There’s a real temptation when it comes to doing your ‘elevator pitch’ to want to sound impressive.
Understandable right… because the dream scenario here is to finish the pitch and have your listener immediately say “OMG that’s exactly what I need, how do I sign up??”

But the temptation to be impressive often results in:

• Sounding overly scripted and robotic like you’re reading for a political ad campaign

• Getting caught up in industry lingo that gets no more than a polite nod and smile from potential clients who don’t want to sound dumb by asking what you mean

• Trying to come up with fancy, intriguing or clever ways to describe basic things (I mean come on… you don’t need to call it “undercarriage purification towelettes” when the words “toilet paper” would do JUST fine)

If you’ve ever finished your spiel and your listeners has asked “so what does that mean?” that’s a pretty big sign that you’ve sacrificed being CLEAR for being CLEVER.

A great place to start is to ask yourself how you’d explain your business to a 12year old.

Young enough that you’d need to be super clear to be understood… but old enough that you don’t have to dumb it down to “when a Mummy & Daddy love each other very much” type territory.

Tip #2 – Don’t be all mysterious

You know how McDonalds have their secret sauce recipe? And they want you to know about it because it makes them unique, so they’ll talk about it over and over again, but you never actually know what’s in it?
Well that’s the exact OPPOSITE of what you should be doing when you’re explaining what you do.

That’s why we roll our eyes when we see those posts that say
Person A: OMG you’ll NEVER guess what happened
Person B: What happened??
Person A: I’ll PM you..

Here’s the kicker… if you care enough about that person, the curiosity factor works and you want to know the answer.
But if that’s a random acquaintance in your newsfeed, you don’t reeeeally give a shit and you don’t want to know THAT badly… so the curiosity factor fails.

If you try to be all mysterious when sharing your business online, your potential client’s thumb might pause momentarily in it’s scroll, their brain says “wtf does that even mean?” and they scroll right on by.

So the trick is… make them care first.
Make sure you’re letting them know WHY they should be curious to know more.

How do you do that?

That’s where the next tip comes in…

Tip #3 – The ‘OMG I NEED THAT’ factor 

For a potential client to realise that they need or want what you have to offer, they have to understand how it’s relevant to them.

And there are 3 main factors to incorporate into your message to help them make that connection.

Person – who are your services for?
Pain – what are they struggling with?
Pleasure – what do they really want instead?

You can pull those factors together by saying…

“I work with (this type of person) who is struggling with (this specific problem) and wants to be able to (have this specific pleasure)”

Clear, specific and immediately obvious whether your services would be relevant to them, or someone that they know.

Here’s some examples…

“I work with pet owners who worry that their pet’s behaviour could be a sign of an underlying problem and who want to be able to get to the bottom of what’s going on so that they can have a stress-free relationship with their pet. 

“I work with mums of young kids who feel like they’ve lost their identity after having kids and want to be able to rediscover what they’re passionate about outside of being a mum.”

Or my own example…

“I work with women in online business who struggle to figure out how to talk about what they do in a way that makes sense to their potential clients and want to be able to craft juicy and compelling language that makes the RIGHT people sit up and say “OMG I NEED THAT”. 

Now it’s your turn.

Put together a statement that incorporates the person, their pain and their pleasure and share it in the comments.

You never know… someone might just say “OMG that’s exactly what I need”