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Define What It Is That You Do

by BNI New Zealand

When networking, people don’t really care what your profession is, they are more interested in what you help your customers achieve.  What legacies you leave behind after working with them.

When someone asks “What do you do”, what do you say?

Most people come out with I’m an Accountant or I work in Real Estate, however if you were to say:

“I help people pay less tax” or “I help people buy the property of their dreams” you are more likely to have this followed by “What do you mean?” Or “How do you do that” which is exactly what you want as this invites more questions.

It’s certainly a more powerful response than “I’m an accountant”, for all sorts of reasons, not least because people have their own preconceptions about what an accountant does.

It also does not hurt to contribute a bit of humour for example:

A Computer trainer – “I take the pain out of Windows”
A Funeral Arranger – “People are dying to see me”

To properly educate and train your BNI sales force, you need to be able to clearly articulate just what it is that you do. During the 60-second commercials next week, I want everyone to come up with a new response to the question “What do you do?” your aim being to get people interested enough to ask you more.
You may wish to make this into a competition with a small prize.

Reference: The Jelly Effect by Andy Bounds 

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3 comments

Eddie Higginson 1 March 2008 - 8:58 am

Hi – this good stuff. trained/coached people for years on this very approach – with two small, but important, additions –

1] In response to your acquaintances’ enquiry, I like to start off by saying, “Thank you for asking, I help people …. etc.”

2] I finish with, ” … and what do you do?”

Hope this is useful.

Cheers, Eddie Higginsons, Xponentials Chapter.

Graham Southwell 2 July 2008 - 5:45 pm

Thanks Eddie –
g

Mike Johnson 13 May 2011 - 12:10 pm

Just can’t resist adding to the humour: after the computer trainer line, how about a glazier :”I put the pane into Windows”?

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