wordsThere’s no denying it; words are powerful. I’m talking POWERFUL!

A single word can change your entire perception of a situation.
A single word can completely change the effectiveness of a marketing or sales message to your market.
A single word can have an effect on your entire business.

Let me explain what I mean.

About 20 years ago a software product for large mainframe computers was developed. Remember that there were no PC’s in those days; mainframes were the biggest computers normally used by businesses and those that had them typically had their own staff of programmers. This software was a tool designed specifically for those programmers and helped them with testing and debugging. Naturally, it was important to clearly convey the functionality of the product to the market (corporate programming groups), but it was complicated to describe. “…a tool that allows your programmers to manipulate data files and make quick changes and fixes for testing, debugging, and troubleshooting…” …. What was that again?

Then one day, like a bolt of lightening, it hit the developers. The product is an editor. Period. An “editor”. What a concept! Why didn’t they think of that before? An editor. Now it is crystal clear. Programmers know what an “editor” is. The software allows them to “edit” their data. Bingo! A single word changed the entire perception of the product, and enabled them to clearly describe to the market exactly what it does. It also allowed them to list it in directories and catalogs where the listings would be most effective.

At one time the train industry was trying to figure out how to attract more passengers. Then they realized that they were in the “transportation” business, not the “passenger” business. Suddenly they had an entirely new market, and began transporting freight, oil, coal, vehicles, etc. A single word is all it took to change history.

What is it that you do?

Instead, maybe I should ask, “What is it that you think you do?”

Ponder that for a moment.

Action exercise ... define what you do and write it down in twenty-five words or less. Be very careful, concise, and clear in your description.