Strategy #19: Teach people a better way to answer the universal icebreaker question, “What do you do?”

This is probably one of (drums and bugles here!!!)…

the most powerful, most cost-effective, and most
seriously-neglected marketing strategies available…

to any organization, no matter what business it is in. Simply giving people a great way to answer the universal icebreaker question: What do you do? This is, of course, not an innocent question – far from it. In fact, it’s really two questions: 1) “what can you do for me,” and 2) “what is your social status and how much money do you make?” The way that someone answers that question will create an immediate and indelible impression in the mind of the person who’s asked it.

When I work with people who are in classic sales professions such as insurance and real estate, I’ll sometimes walk around the room tapping people on the shoulder and asking them, “What do you do?” I’m constantly astonished by what a terrible job these sales professionals do in answering that question. “I sell real estate” or “I’m in the insurance business” are responses guaranteed to have the questioner immediately looking for someone else to talk to. Yet those are the answers I hear almost every time from people whose livelihoods depend upon getting people to want to talk with them.

Even worse, responding with “I’m a housekeeper at Mercy Hospital” will create a whole range of negative, though almost always inaccurate, assumptions on the part of the person who asked the question. The questioner will assume someone with a low level of education and ambition, who probably is not much of a conversationalist, and certainly not someone they would want to meet after work for cocktails and dinner.

Over time, people tend to grow into their job titles, and the baggage that comes with those titles, the way a turtle grows into its shell. Teaching people a better way to answer that universal icebreaker question can help them break out of the shell. It is also a great marketing strategy. Wouldn’t you like to have every person in your organization give a mini-sales pitch every time they were asked what they did?  To be able to crow about their organization and what they do in it (more on this when we get to Strategy #45).
I once gave a talk for a group of hospital CEOs. I commented on the fact that (unlike many private sector companies) most hospitals do not have a dedicated field sales force. Given that we all need to somehow sell our services, including patient care, I asked who carried out that essential sales function for hospitals. Not surprisingly, the predominant response was “our nurses.” Then I asked them how effective their “sales forces” were, on a scale of one to five.  We averaged the responses: the average score was just a hair above 2. I got a smile when I pointed out that a score like that would be grounds for terminating the CEO in a private sector company.

No matter what business you’re in, this might well be the most cost-effective promotional strategy available to you – both for recruiting customers and for recruiting new employees. Consider the following alternative ways that people in various occupations could answer the question “what do you do?” and which would be a better sales pitch for the organization that they work for:

“I’m a nurse at Mercy Hospital,” versus “Thanks for asking. I work at Mercy Hospital, where we make miracles happen every single day.”

“I sell insurance,” versus “I work at Stellar Insurance, where we teach humans how to do what comes to squirrels naturally.”

“I’m just a housekeeper,” versus “Have you ever visited University Center and seen how the floors shine and the smiles on people’s faces shine?  That’s what I do, I make things shine!”

(Have you ever considered that the word “just” might be the most unjust word in the English language – as in, “I’m just a housekeeper” or “I’m just a stay-at-home Mom.”)

Business coaches call this the “elevator speech,” the way you would answer the question “what do you do?” on a quick elevator ride. Put some thought into the “elevator speech” that you wish everyone in your organization would deliver when given the opportunity to brag about their jobs and about your organization. Then give everyone (yes, everyone) in your organization a business card with the usual stuff on the front, and that ideal elevator speech on the back.

Next >