How do you answer the seemingly easy question, What do you do? Do you talk about YOU? Do you talk about your products/services? Do you talk about your industry? Do you explain the process of how your products/services work? If you answered yes to any of these questions you are missing an enormous opportunity.

Every time someone asks you What do you do? and every time someone reads your marketing materials you have the opportunity to:

* Interest potential clients
* Increase the potential for referrals
* Find out about potential strategic alliances
* Create recognition for yourself and your business
* Position yourself as an expert

Stop right now and take the time to discover how to answer the question, What do you do? in a profitable way.

The bottom line is that in general, people are not really that interested in you and what you do (you may have heard this before, start believing it!) What they really want to know is what you can do for them. All of the communication about what you do must focus on the benefits of your products/services, not the features. Focus on how your products/services benefit the people who use them and the results they can expect.

Think about the last time you met someone and they told you what they do. Do you remember what they told you? If so, would you be able to clearly explain it to someone else? Your goal is that the people who hear or read your marketing messages remember what you do AND are able to tell someone else.

The first step to answering the question, What do you do is to define your ideal client. The more specific you are, the more success you will have in building your business quickly and positioning yourself as an expert. The next step is to define what do you do for your clients. How you benefit them. When you are clear about these two things, and you can easily communicate what you do, you will feel more confident talking about your business. People you talk with will easily see exactly how you can help them and hopefully remember what you do!

Here are some examples to get you started (as you can see, you dont necessarily need to mention your profession!):

- I work with professional women who want high returns on their investments (Financial Planner)

- I create delicious, healthy meals for busy executives that have no time to cook. (Personal Chef)

- I help busy doctors find more time to spend with their families (Life Coach)

- I rescue stressed out business owners when their computers crash (Computer Technician)

- I help stay-at-home moms feel pampered and relaxed (Massage Therapist)

Try out this formula: I work with (your niche or ideal clients) who are having trouble with (problems your ideal clients face) and who want (what they want to see happen, the result).

Another way to explain what you do is to relate it to a known situation, a common experience. So when someone asks you what you do you can say, Well you probably know how busy doctors are, what I do is I help them spend more time with their families. Or, You know how stay-at-home moms are always taking care of everyone else, well what I do is make THEM feel taken care of.

You will know you are on the right track when the next question you are asked after you say what you do is: How do you do that?

Dont wait another minute. Get started now, grab a piece of paper and write down what you do and then practice saying it. You can test it out on friends and colleagues to refine and improve it. Then start using it everywhere (with people, on your website, on your business card) and you will see and feel the difference this makes in attracting more clients!

(c) 2005 Stephanie Ward