Ah, the cocktail party question.  How well do you do with it?  Ever wish you had a better answer at that chamber mixer or networking lunch?  There is lots of good advice out there to help you, and I encourage you to soak it all up.  There is nothing more important than answering that simple question.

In fact, I contend that your internal and external answers to that question form the basis of all of your marketing and selling success — it is that fundamental.  There is a simple reason we all stumble over that question…

It’s the wrong question!

Don’t be fooled, it’s a trap.  A perfectly innocent trap laid by well-intentioned people, but a trap nonetheless.  As I have talked about in this blog many times, we should not focus our message on the products or services we provide (what we do), but should instead focus on the benefits our clients realize by working with us (what they get).  Answer the question “what do you do?” and you end up right where you don’t what to be.

Here is the question you wish they’d ask:

“What is the ultimate result your clients experience by doing business with you?”

So what can you do about it?  Don’t answer the actual question…pretend he or she asked the other one.  Here is an illustration using my own business:

Innocent conversationalist:  “So, what do you do?”

Andy:  “I develop marketing and selling strategies for small business owners.”  Or even worse “I’m a marketing consultant.”

Innocent conversationalist:  “{silent groan} Oh, I think I hear someone calling me.  Nice to meet you Alfred.”

So here is another scenario:

Innocent conversationalist:  “So, what do you do?”

Andy:  {silently translates question to be “What is the ultimate result your clients experience by doing business with you?”}  “I help business owners create more profitable companies that require less of their time, energy and stress.”

Innocent conversationalist:  “Really, how do you do that?”

Not only is it a more powerful way to answer the question, it starts a conversation by making it natural for the other person to ask “how?”  Another way to think about this situation is to not talk about what you do and how you do it.  Instead, talk about what your clients get and why they’re excited about it.