Introductions: Making YOURSELF Clear
Introducing yourself? Here’s your most important message: YOU.
You’ve heard the old saying - people buy from people they know, like, and trust.
This means that people are buying you before they are buying your offering.
Therefore, we should be clear and compelling, not foggy and confusing, about who we are and why someone should listen to us (and care about what we offer).
So - whenever you introduce yourself, lead with YOU.* Your goal is to make a great first and lasting impression about who you are.
*(YOU goes for you as an individual, or you as a business)
Clarity wins. Fogginess loses.
Gaining clarity, therefore, as a person and/or as a business, begins with identity. Who are you? What is your unique value and superpower?
Without knowing and declaring your outstanding value, you become just another commodity, just another nobody blending into the background noise.
Here’s an example of what I mean:
“Hi, I’m Lloyd. I’m a consultant providing fractional CFO services.”
Lloyd has just committed the business-killing sin of being vague, jargon-y, and forgettable in his introduction. He’s spilled out a title and a fact, but he’s too generic to rise above the fog. A technical or non-differentiating message doesn’t move the needle on that whole like, know, and trust thing.
(Also, with that introduction, I don’t even want to talk to Lloyd. He sounds boring.)
Result: I won’t buy from or remember Foggy-Lloyd (or refer him to others).
But wait! Now Lloyd has invested in making himself clear:
“Hi, I’m Lloyd. I’ve spent the last 25 years resolving financial chaos across multiple manufacturing businesses. I tell my clients it’s more skill than sorcery, but sometimes they believe in magic anyway!”
Here’s what Clear-Lloyd has done: without going into the details, he has painted an intriguing picture and positioned himself as a unicorn in his field - all in a few moments. And he’s being fun and confident.
Result: I “get” Lloyd’s outstanding value, and I’m going to remember him.
(I’m also going to ask him how he does what he does, and we’re going to have a memorable and enjoyable conversation, and Lloyd will move from unknown to known in my mind. Which is the whole point of an intriguing introduction.)
Getting clarity involves crafting simple and memorable words in 4 pillar areas:
Identity (who you are and how you do your magic) - see above
Need (specific, wallet-opening business pain or hope) - future post
Ideal Customer Profile (exact description of the decision-making buyer) - future post
Offering (tangible and easily understood overview of product/service) - future post
Back to our starting point: Being clear starts with your unique and value-adding identity. Every professional and every business needs to identify their superpower and boldly occupy their niche in a specific marketplace. That opens the door to being known, liked, and trusted. And that’s what it takes to become unforgettable.