Why accountants & lawyers are boring at parties – and why this makes them rubbish at sales
The majority of us, who work in professional services, struggle with the part of a social, or business, conversation that starts with “So, what do you do?”
Answering it tends to kill the conversation.
There’s a reason for this - we default to the job title. Because we worked so hard to become qualified, or experienced. And it’s what everyone else in our profession says, to describe what they do, so we say it too.
“I’m an accountant.”
Wow!
Now there’s a statement that kills a conversation.
And I’m not just picking on accountants either. Accepting that most people aren’t lucky enough to say they are a dolphin trainer, fighter pilot or rocket scientist – how do you fix this?
What you are is less interesting than the outcome you give your clients.
Let’s say an accountant is in conversation with the owner of a medium size estate agency.
Are they going to be interested in the fact that you say you are an accountant? No.
How about this?
“I help business owners make more money and pay less tax.”
What sort of conversation are they going to have with you now?
Think about the outcome you give clients – it’s all they care about.
Once you use this language it’ll make you more interesting on your website, on email shots, in telemarketing – and at parties too.