Episode 173: “What Are the First Words Out of Your Mouth?”

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Synopsis

Assuming you’ve followed the suggestions in previous podcasts and started out by asking questions, what’s the next step? What do you say when someone asks you what you do? You need to be prepared, and you need to have something quick and interesting. You need a Unique Selling Proposition.

Don’t just say “I’m a consultant.” Say “I work with small businesses to help them attract more clients than anyone could possibly handle.”

The Referral Institute’s USP is “We help people work less, make more, and create referrals for life.”

The natural response to a USP like this is to say “How do you do that?”

Your assignment this week is to come up with a USP for your business and share it here in the comments. Then share it with your BNI chapter.

Once you’ve tested your USP, come back and tell us how it worked and whether you changed it for a better effect.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 173 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the web for networking downloadables. I’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and I’m joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you, and where are you today?

Ivan:
I am doing great, and today I am in southern California- but I am on my way to a big event here in the L.A. area in one of our regions where I will be speaking at a big event. It’s great to do some events locally. For so many of these podcasts, I am all around the world, but for this one, I am doing it locally.

Priscilla:
Great. So what is this topic that you are bringing to us?

Ivan:
We are going to talk about “What are the first words out of your mouth?” I have to preface what I am going to say with when it comes to networking and I have often said it, you have to ask questions. Be an interviewer. Find out about the other person. But what I am talking about here is let’s assume you have done that, and you have gotten some information. What are the first words out of your mouth about what you do? That is what I am going to talk about today. I just have a little bit of content and then if you want to chat about it, Priscilla, we can talk about it more.

Priscilla:
Okay.

Ivan:
So when someone asks you, “What do you do?” and you’re ready to respond to them, what are the first words out of your mouth? What are you going to say? If the words aren’t ready to roll off your tongue, then you are not ready and you need to be prepared for that so that it rolls off your tongue smoothly. When someone asks you what you do, make sure that you are ready with a response that is succinct but that is memorable. The attention span of the average adult is only about 20 seconds, so some long, drawn out answer to the question isn’t going to work and some boring answer isn’t going to help you, either.

You want to focus on what is called a Unique Selling Proposition, or USP. A Unique Selling Proposition is basically a mini commercial that you can give readily when you are networking and responding to people. I think this is sort of the answer to the age old question of “What do you do?” and how you answer that becomes really, really important. Here is an example. When someone asks you what you do, don’t reply with some bland general statement like, “I am a consultant” or “I am a business coach” or whatever it is that you do. Half the world can say that and it really doesn’t tell anybody anything.

Instead, you could say, “I work with small and medium sized businesses to help them attract more clients than they could possibly handle.” That is a great phrase- attract more clients than they could possibly handle. It’s a short and powerful statement. The Referral Institute has another on that I love. I love the Referral Institute’s Unique Selling Proposition. Their’s is “We help people work less, make more and create referrals for life.” I love that, particularly that last phrase, “create referrals for life.”

Both of these statements that I have given you- “attract more clients than you could possibly handle” or “We help people create referrals for life.” The natural response that people have is how do you do that? What is that? How do you do that? It’s not one of those I do such and such… buh dum bum.. What do you say now? Awkward, silent moment. A Unique Selling Proposition you know is working when most of the time when you say it, it gets the person that you are talking to to respond saying, “How does that work?” or “How do you do that?” or “What is that?” or “Explain more.”

You know then that you have gotten their attention. A Unique Selling Proposition is something that you will have to tailor to your specific business, but you can see that it packs more of a punch than just telling people that you meet that you are a consultant. Whatever 12 or 20 words that you come up with, make sure that your answer is quick and informative. It can’t really sound rehearsed. It certainly should not sound contrived.

It is something that you have to work on and practice. So I have homework for the listeners today. Here is the homework: your goal this week is to come up with a USP, a Unique Selling Proposition. It’s okay. It can be a work in progress. It doesn’t have to be perfect.

A good friend of mine wrote a book called “Implement Now, Perfect Later.” Robert Davis. Robert co-wrote “Business by Referral” with me. Go into this with that in mind. Implement now. Perfect later. This week, your assignment if you are listening to this podcast is to come up with a Unique Selling Proposition. Not only will this make you much more effective at networking events, functions, and particularly, BNI, but it will enable you to have more confidence in responding to that question, “What do you do?” For the listeners of the podcast, what I would ask that you do is share your Unique Selling Proposition with us here on this podcast in the comments. Get on the comments and say, “Here is my Unique Selling Proposition.”

I’ll tell you what- if you have some really good ones, I will comment back on yours if it jumps out at me as something really powerful.

Priscilla:
Okay. That sounds like fun. I am immediately thinking of one for myself.

Ivan:
Good. So are you going to put it up there this week?

Priscilla:
Okay. I will do that.

Ivan:
I’ll be looking for it.

Priscilla:
Okay. Good. I’m going to try it out on you.

Ivan:
Alright. I will respond. I promise.

Priscilla:
Okay.

Ivan:
Just to wrap up, once you have used your Unique Selling Proposition a handful of times, come back again and let me know how it has worked. So throw it out, what it is that you have come up with. And if you tested it and it works really well, come back and leave another comment and say, “Hey, I tested it. It hasn’t worked” or “ It did okay and then I changed it to this-” Now that would make this really powerful for the listeners, if they post what they are going to try out and then post later how it worked out and how many you changed it because a Unique Selling Proposition is often a work in progress.

Coming up with the phrase “creating referrals for life” did not happen overnight at the Referral Institute. It took a long time to play with that phrase and to get- that very simple sounding “creating referrals for life” took months to hone down into a simple phrase. So if you come up with something and you like it but then you tweak it, come back and leave another comment saying here is how you changed it. I think that is a really powerful learning lesson for those of you listening to the podcast.

Priscilla:
I think a really good place to practice it would be in your 20 or 30-second period in the meeting, whatever that is for people.

Ivan:
Yeah, you mean the 60-second presentations in BNI? Yeah, absolutely. Share with your members. Here is the ideal way: Go back to your BNI chapter and say, “I just listened to the BNI podcast. It’s talking about a Unique Selling Proposition. Here’s mine, here’s what I have come up with. I would like some feedback from you. Should I tighten it up? Should I tweak it? Do you like it? Do you hate it? Give me some feedback.” Then throw it at them and get some feedback. That would be a great way then to get quick feedback to then post up here on BNI podcast.

The more we members, directors, and participants in the BNI program immerse and engage in this culture of learning, the more successful we will be.

Priscilla:
Okay great.

Ivan:
Thanks Priscilla.

Priscilla:
Thank you, Ivan. Well, that’s it for this week. I would just like to remind the listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. Thanks so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you will join us next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.