When my daughter was five years old. She heard someone refer to my wife as a “bean counter.” My wife is a CPA and VP of Internal audit for healthcare company (among other credentials). So, I explained that beans referred to the money that a company earned and bean counter was a fun term for an accountant or CPA.
Our daughter understood, but I could not leave it there. I further explained to her that her mom recounted the beans at her company to make sure the bean counters did not make an error. Fast forward a few weeks and I overheard my daughter explaining to a friend that her mom “recounted beans for a living.”
The point is a compelling description of what one does will leave an impression on others. However, most people’s answer to: What do you do? Is uninspiring and not engaging. Call it an 30 second commercial or an elevator pitch or just good communication, most people don’t have an interesting message.
I conducted an unscientific survey a couple weeks back.
For a week, I asked everyone I met, even the people who I knew the answer to What they did?
The question was always asked in the context of their professional life, although I never asked What do you do for a Living. The reason was not to write a post for my Blog or LinkedIn, yet I thought the results were interesting and I am writing a blog post and article for LinkedIn.
I asked 47 people. 47 because that was the number of people I met & remembered to ask the question.
The statistics:
36 were men; 11 were women; 16 owned business; 10 were sales “professionals”; 7 were in the hospitality industry; 7 were professionals, i.e. CPA, medical; 7 were retired.
The answers were categorized into three categories based on my unscientific approach to being interested in how the person responded:
1. Compelling
2. Boring / Pedestrian
3. Funny / Unusual
For the answer to be Compelling, it must cause me to want to learn more. In other words, it caused me to engage with the individual.
A boring or pedestrian answer was just uninspiring and did not cause me to want to engage or learn more about what they do.
Funny or unusual is obvious.
Let’s start with funny, one of the retired gentlemen in his mid-seventies very proudly stated that he chased his 62-year-old girlfriend around the house. Upon further inquiry, his libido was in good shape, but his girlfriend was a big quicker.
45 of the answers were boring and pedestrian – forty-five out of forty seven. Only one of the individuals had a compelling answer.
Most of the answers described the person’s role at a company or what they did. For example,
· I am doctor. I am sales person. I am retired.
· I own a business. (not even I own a toothbrush manufacturing business)
· I sell copiers. I sell IT services.
· I am a hotel manager. I am a bartender.
Boring!!
The most compelling answer I heard was: “I put broken people back together.” She was a psychiatrist who specialized in individuals who had suffered significant physical and emotional trauma. We had a five-minute conversation about what she does, her training, her background and how she deals with her day to day. Compelling.
I get bored easy and change up my answer to the what do you do question. Some of mine are:
· I help CEOs of $10 to 50 million companies get 50% more productivity out of their sales teams.
· I help business owners with underperforming sales teams create accountability and save time, reduce risk and grow revenue.
I think that I will start using a new one: I fix broken sales teams.
Does your answer to the What do you do question create curiosity and engage your prospects? Is it compelling?
If not, think about what solution you provide in the context of risk, money or time.
Send me an Email if you get stuck.
