If you are going networking and answering the question “what do you do” with your job title, then you are potentially missing out on the opportunity to kickstart a conversation which could lead to your next customer.
Picture the scene, you are gathered around the coffee table, there are several people at the event that you haven’t met before, and one says to you, “So what do you do”, and you answer with, for example, “I am an accountant”
That’s the conversation done. Its ended. And you probably straight away move on to asking them what they do.
Now I am not picking on accountants; Every business does this. You could answer with “I’m a PT”, “I’m a roofer” or “I’m a business coach.”
My point is that, firstly you have answered the question wrong. That isn’t what you do; it is what you are, So you have failed even to answer the questions correctly, but you have also given a closed answer that doesn’t lead to any further questions. Everyone knows what an accountant is, a PT is, a roofer is etc etc.
You need to answer with what you actually do for your customers. What benefit do you provide, and why do people buy from you.
Picture the scene again.
you are gathered around the coffee table, there are several people at the event that you haven’t met before, and one says to you, “So what do you do”, and you answer with, “I support business owners just like you to ensure you understand your finances, stay legal, and probably most exciting to you, reduce the amount of tax you pay.”
Rather than a blank stare and the conversation moves on, the person who originally answered the questions is now way more likely to say, “haha, that does excite me, so how do you do all of that” and you can carry on the conversation with another little bit of info before saying “but we probably don’t have time to cover it today, shall we pencil 60 minutes into our diary next week to chat over a coffee one to one.”
So by changing how you answer a question, which will always get asked, you have booked a sales meeting.
Now think back to how many sales meetings you have just missed out on. I bet next time you won’t make the same mistake.
