What do you do for a living?

It’s unfortunate how incapacitated B2B companies are when it comes to value definition and value recognition. Seeing as how these are the essential halves to every successful seller-buyer relationship, you would think every B2B organization would be skilled at both, but this is not the case.

We tell prospects what we make. We tell friends what we do.

Prospects are the strangers you meet at chamber of commerce breakfasts and other business networking events. Most prospects will give you about 20 seconds to articulate your elevator pitch and then it’s their turn. And so on, around the breakfast table. This gives you enough time to introduce yourself, explain that you are with company X and that your company offers product Y or service Z. According to ritual, no time is allowed for value definition or value recognition, and any attempts to do so are frowned upon by the table.

Friends and relatives on the other hand, actually care what you do for a living. Possibly unfamiliar with the rules of B2B networking, they are still listening after 20 seconds, long enough for you to further explain the value you and your company can create, value that can only be understood when the conversation is not limited to what you make, but what you can do.

Too bad B2B organizations have not learned to communicate the way most friends and relatives do. If they did, they would all be wiser buyers and sellers.

JB