Let me describe a “fork in the road” scenario for you.  You know, one of those situations where, you may not realize it at the time, but if you take the correct way there’s smooth highway.  If you take the wrong way, however, there’s a dirt road and the going is not easy.  OK, the hypothetical situation could be you are at a meeting of a board on which you volunteer or serve, or you’re chatting with some parents at the PTA, you’re playing a round of golf, or you’re having dinner with some new neighbors.  For this discussion, let’s say you’re at dinner.  You’ve had a pleasant evening with your new friends, your neighbor starts to take a bite of cheesecake, but looks up at you with genuine curiosity and says, “So what do you do for a living?”  Believe it or not, you are now at that fork in the road I described.

Several years ago I was at a meeting of my local chamber of commerce when a financial advisor came up to me.  I had never met this fellow and so after chatting briefly I asked him, “So what do you do?”  He dutifully handed me his business card. After I looked at it for a couple of seconds, he launched into a sales pitch about what he did.  As my eyes glazed-over, resisting the temptation to look over his shoulder to assess better conversation opportunities, he proceeded to confuse me with his description.  His explanation was unclear to me.  He said something about fulfilling people’s dreams and then said he something else about living the life you want.  After hearing what he said I had two reactions.  My first reaction was, “After glancing at your business card, I thought I understood more about  what you do than I did from your narrative.” My second reaction was, “Boy does this guy have a serious case of ‘sales breath’ or what?”  His lack of clarity about the value he brings through his service offering left me no choice, I smiled pleasantly, shook his hand and moved-on to mingle with other people.

So how do you perform when confronted with simple straight-forward questions about your business?  Can you honestly say that in brief conversations you well-represent the value you bring to your community of clients?  There are several pivotal questions that you should be prepared for.  I recommend you fully script your responses and practice them as though you were preparing for an opening night on Broadway.  The stakes are high at this “fork in the road.” If your responses skillfully offer clarity about what you do and your brief reply describes true value that a potential ideal client would recognize instantly, then you will be able to see it in their face.  You will know that you have described your value suitably when, after your response to their question, a large number of potential ideal clients say something like, “Really? Tell me more!.”

The pivotal questions are quite simple.  Short uncomplicated responses to queries such as, What do you do? How do you deliver on that? What kind of clients do you serve best? Exactly how do you charge? What exactly do your clients get for what they pay you? What’s the process when someone hires you? … and a few others that space doesn’t permit.

Skillful responses to pivotal questions like these will make all the difference in that nano-second when the person across from you is deciding if they are interested enough to continue talking with you or not.

All of these pivotal questions are outlined in a financial advisor case-study I have prepared for you.    The 3-part case-study, of a financial advisor named Kate Wilson, deals primarily with how she launched high-level comprehensive services into her practice, but in the first episode she puts together her scripted responses to all theses pivotal questions. You can sign-up for Kate Wilson’s case-study at http://askmarklittle.com/kate/.  My primary advice to you is to carefully script-out and practice how you respond to simple questions about your business.  You will see improved results in your client acquisition activities simply by having a clear mindset about how to articulate the value you bring to people’s lives. I know I did.