How well do you market your business when you meet someone?

By asking some ‘Sneaky Questions for the Budding Entrepreneur’, business coach Steve Gardner offers some tips on how to talk about your business without losing clients.

Imagine you are at a party and someone you know but haven’t seen for a couple of years comes up to you and says “Hello, I haven’t seen you for ages, what are you doing now?”

Well, your business brain should be screaming at you:

“Customer alert, customer alert. Opportunity, opportunity!”

If, however, you then twitter on enthusiastically about (for example): 21st century mouse trap technology, a fascinating international symposium you attended recently on rodent psychology, new extermination techniques in the home, and the need for government grants to improve the lot of the business entrepreneur (small mammal specialist), your potential customer’s brain will be screaming at them:

“Idiot alert, idiot alert. Run. Hide. Avoid.”

You have just lost a potential customer and the sad thing is: you didn’t know it.

If, on the other hand, your answer was more along the lines of: “I run a successful business that specialises in killing mice quickly, cleanly and cheaply” the response from your potential customer is more likely to be something like “Whoa! That’s a bit weird but tell me more.” And then you are (or should be) into selling mode.

You need to appreciate that potential customers can get quickly bored with too much excruciating detail.

It is vitally important that you are absolutely crystal clear about what it is that you do in your business. If you are not, there is a strong chance that you will either lose business or you won’t gain it in the first place.

To succeed in business, you’ve got to have a passion for what you do, BUT you need to appreciate that potential customers can get quickly bored with too much excruciating detail.

So, what are some of the solutions to this?

Parker Pens are not ‘in the pens business’, they are in the luxury gift business. National Express is not ‘in the rail and coach business’, they are in the transport business. Barclays are not ‘in the banking business’. I am not in ‘the coaching and training business’ - I’m in the developing potential and transformation business.

So, what business market are you in? As with defining what you do in your business, it is very important that you understand clearly which market you are operating in. If you do not, there is a strong likelihood that you will waste a lot of time, money and effort targeting the wrong people and trying to sell them something they don’t want.

By understanding which market you are in, you may be able to identify additional business opportunities.

At the risk of extending the mouse example beyond its useful life: if you realise that you are not in the mouse extermination business, but in the pest control business, then you might also offer means to eliminate cockroaches, woodworm and hoodies; or provide means of preventing infestations occurring in the first place.

By understanding which market you are in, you may be able to identify additional business opportunities.

By clearly understanding the business you are in, you will find it easier to identify exactly who your customers are: where they are located, what they do, how they think, where they go and what they actually want from you (rather than what you think they ought to have).

By clearly understanding the business you are in, you will find it easier to identify the businesses/people with whom you are competing. And then you will be better positioned to do something about them.

Here are some solutions to consider: