Do you know how to talk about your business?

Lately I have been meeting many types of entrepreneurs here locally in Cincinnati, both accomplished and nascent. I have also watched quite a few students taking entrepreneurship courses give pitches for their businesses since my last post. Every single business and every single entrepreneur is unique in their own way and each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

However, I noticed one thing that nearly all of them had in common. They simply did not know how to properly talk about their business.

It’s a similar problem when say, someone asks you to tell him or her about yourself. I have to admit I have had trouble with it too sometimes when I am caught off guard. Imagine yourself sitting at a bar or at a meeting and someone you don’t know says to you: “So, tell me about yourself.” Most of us can go into brain freeze mode and end up saying something about what we DO. Here is how a typical conversation goes:

A: So, tell me about yourself.
B: Well, I’m a lawyer.
A: Oh, wow. What kind of law do you practice?
B: I’m a family attorney.
A: Oh. So you do like divorces and things?
B: Yeah, I also do prenuptial agreements.
A: Oh.

Exciting huh? Well, that’s the way it goes when I talk to some of these newbie entrepreneurs.

Me: So, tell me about your business.
Them: Well, we sell widgets.
Me: Oh. What kind of widgets do you sell?
Them: Plastic widgets.
Me: Oh, so you distribute them?
Them: Yeah, we also make them.
Me: Oh.

When you are thinking about your business, and yourself too, try to develop a solid statement that gives the listener an immediate picture of what you DO and what you ARE so they can actually ask interesting questions that may get them interested in your business. Test that statement over and over and see what kind of response you get from different statements.

Ideally the conversation should go something like this:

A: So, tell me about your business.
B: I would love to! We are a locally based company that manufactures and distributes plastic widgets globally. We are really proud to have some of the bigger players in the industry as our clients such as Advantage Corporation, Accelerate Media, and Accent Incorporated. Are you familiar with the industry?
A: Yes, actually, I am actually in the market for a new widget supplier.
B: Well, I would love to put you in contact with one of our clients if you’d like to talk to them about our service.
A: That would be great, I appreciate that. The widgets we are using are breaking more and more often. It is really frustrating.
B: I know what you mean, we had this one client…

This intro gives the size, scope, and purpose of the business immediately. We know what they DO and we know what they ARE! So no time is wasted on trying to figure out the boring details. We are immediately able to get to what is INTERESTING about the business.

Don’t make someone work at understanding your business. Make it easy. Get them engaged in your story. You may find they will quickly become engaged in your business.