You meet someone at a party or you're introduced to someone at a business meeting.  They ask the question, "What do you do?"

How do you explain what we do?  Do you say, " I sell radio advertising?"  How about, "I work for a television station and sell spots." Or, "I sell newspaper ads."
These responses are likely to have people excuse themselves quickly and leave us standing alone. People DO NOT want to buy radio,TV or newspaper advertising.  People DO NOT want to buy "spots".  People will, however, buy what radio,TV or newspaper advertising will DO FOR THEM.  So, how do we begin communicating what we really do in the first 30 seconds that we meet a new prospect?

We have our personal 30 second commercial ready!  We speak to the other person in terms of what we can do to help their business.  We sell benefits.  Here's how it sounds when you are making a first contact on the phone or in person to someone you don't know:

"Hello, my name is ____.  I'm not sure if we have anything to talk about or not.  I help business people such as yourself who are frustrated by shrinking margins or slow sales because of the soft economy. Some of my clients have trouble finding and keeping great people.  Some of them are finding it difficult to compete with the big box stores or the Internet.  Which of these might be of concern to you?(wait for response) Might it make sense for you to invite me over to discuss how I might be of help? How about Thursday or Friday?"

How we explain what we do is put into emotionally-based (note the use of the verb "frustrated") language that concentrates on the fact that we provide solutions to business problems.  We don't sell spots, we provide solutions. 

The first five minutes that you spend with a person can determine whether or not the relationship continues.  Let's use our own commercial to sell what we do!