Many of us find it really hard to distil what we do into a compelling networking introduction. We find ourselves describing labels… I’m an accountant. Or become the kitchen sink throwing everything that we do into the mix in the hope that some of it will appeal.
The result is that our audience is confused. They don’t understand how we can help them or who would be a good referral. That’s one of the reasons we mix up our introductions each month. Each month’s theme is designed to make us think about what we do and who we do it for. It keeps the introductions fresh and interesting and hopefully helps with our marketing messages in general.
Our April 2025 networking introductions are based on a chapter from Todd Unger’s book ‘The 10 second customer journey’. The chapter is called ‘Get the nod’ and is about creating a compelling brand proposition. Unger suggests that in a digital world we should be able to do that in one sentence and three bullet points. He calls it thinking like a landing page.
Thinking like a landing page.
A landing page is intended to get an ideal client to take action. We only have a few seconds to capture someone’s attention. We need to remember that people buy with emotion and logic, so we need to use both. Our page needs to quickly get their attention and appeal to both their emotion and logic. This can be challenging if you’re not a marketer or wordsmith (or even if you are 😉.
If we’re going to come up with a compelling brand proposition presented in one sentence and three bullet points we need to get inside the minds of our ideal customers.
What do they …
- Think
- Feel
- Believe
Our job is to make them feel understood.
Why does your ideal client want or need your product or service?
- What’s the itch you scratch?
- What’s the obstacle you remove?
- How do you light their fire?
We need to describe both the functional aspects (what it does) of our product or service with the emotional insight of why your ideal client will want it. So ask yourself… ‘what do my ideal clients struggle with and how do I fix that?’
Learning from examples
Your next step is to present that in one sentence and three bullet points. Let’s look at some examples…
Slack
Be more productive at work with less effort
- All your tools in one place
- Integrates with your existing workflows
- Find anything, anywhere, anytime from any device
The sentence communicates the essence of what they do and who they do it for i.e. making workers more productive without having to work harder. The bullet points explain the three main benefits. By describing what they do to meet the needs of their customers they are appealing to the logical side of the brain. The bullet points highlight how Slack solves their customers’ problems so there is emotional appeal too.
Another example…
Uber
Uber convenient transportation
- One tap and a car comes directly to you
- Your driver knows exactly where to go
- Payment is completely cashless
Again logic is dealt with in the descriptions of how Uber works and emotion is dealt with because the bullet points address the key concerns their customers are likely to have.
How can we construct our one sentence and three bullet point networking introductions?
This might work for an accountant/bookkeeper
Make better financial decisions because your books are up to date
- Record expenditure in real time with one click
- We track your incomings and outgoings so there are no nasty surprises
- Weekly reports so you can spend wisely
A social media manager might use
Let social media fill your marketing pipeline
- Right message, right place to reach your ideal client
- Responses in your tone of voice to build the relationship
- Weekly tracking so you don’t waste money on ineffective activities
And here’s one for a nutritional therapist
Good food for a healthy lifestyle
- Plan healthy meals that you will want to eat
- Know which foods are best for you
- Keep your energy levels high throughout the day
Over to you. We are inviting you to introduce your business in one sentence and three bullet points at our April meetings. I hope the examples here might give you something you can adapt. But if you want some help drop me an email and we’ll set up a quick Zoom call to thrash it out, see the form below.
