WHAT DO YOU DO FOR A LIVING?

John Jantsch of Jantsch Communications (Kansas City, Missouri, USA) asked this question in a post on his small business marketing blog, Duct Tape Marketing .

“A lot of folks answer that question with a job title or category or worse, something painful sounding like, I sell houses. If you really want to get your marketing message to a place that will get your prospect’s attention you must be able to answer that question—what do you do for a living?—with a valuable benefit. One that makes the listener say, “Really, tell me more.”

“I was listening to a doctor of geriatric medicine answer this question the other day, and I think he gets it. When asked what he did he said, ‘well, I’m the Chief of Geriatrics but what I do is help people stay in their homes longer, go to one more grandaughter’s wedding and attend their great, great grandson’s Bar Mitzvah.’ Now, you tell me, when you need a doctor to care for you when you get to that point in life, who would you call?

“This example is true for your business, service or product as well—what magical thing can it do for me? Tell the world, that’s what you do for a living, from this point forward.”

This got me to thinking…what do I do? I bring tips and tricks on management and marketing to librarians in small or one-person libraries to enable them to serve their customers better, to inform their management how valuable they are so they get the respect, support, and compensation they deserve, and to let them know that they are not alone—they are part of a network of individual in similar situations.

Now, you try it. Write down what you do—in one sentence—and send it along to me (via the comment feature at the end of this post). (If you want to be anonymous, send it to me by email and I’ll post it for you.)

URL: http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/weblog.php?id=P563