I got a call from a company awhile back looking for a consultant.
There are always a few questions I ask to get a feel for the company,
its culture and where they’re at in their development. I remember this
guy distinctly, because when I asked him, “Who are you?” He answered,
“We sell this product and that product and provide this service and
that service, we do about this much in revenues, etc.”

I told him, “No. I don’t want to know what you sell, or what service
you provide, or how big you are, I want to know who you are as a
company. Let’s go at it this way. In twenty words or less, complete the
following sentence: My company is…..”

How would you answer that question? Can you succinctly sum up what
you do in just a few words? If, when asked the same question you say,
“My company is the preferred provider of plumb bobs to the national
society of homebuilders,” then you get the idea.

This idea of spelling out very clearly and very succinctly came to
me when my daughter came home from school one day and asked my wife,
“Mom, what does dad do?” Her mom replied, “I don’t know. He goes to
work every day and does something in business. Why?” “Oh, I don’t
know,” my daughter replied. “The principal just asked what my dad does
and I didn’t know what to tell him.”

That night my wife asked me, “What do you do at work?” I had a long
list of things I did each day, accomplishments I’d had, etc. She looked
like that wasn’t what she was looking for and said, “Jenna’s principal
asked what you do. How is a ten-year-old going to tell him all of that?
You tell someone you’re a doctor or a lawyer and they know what you do.
You tell them everything you just told me, and they still have no idea
what you do.” “Okay,” I said after thinking it over for a minute. “Tell
Jenna to tell the principal I rescue failing companies and optimize
under-performing companies.”

There is was; clear, succinct, easy to understand, and simple to
explain. And I think more important than what it did for my daughter,
it did a world of good for me. I began to think of my company in that
way. I began to make decisions based on that view of my company. I
began to focus more tightly on what I was really about. And the results
of that increased focus was increased business and increased income.

When you have difficulty explaining who you are in just a few words,
it often means your business doesn’t have a clear focus. Even worse, if
you can’t articulate who you are, it’s a cinch your employees can’t
either. If they don’t have a clear vision of who they are, they can’t
possibly have a clear vision of what they’re trying to accomplish. At
the end of the day, that lack of focus on everyone’s part translates to
lost opportunity and reduced income.

Start today to sharpen your focus by determining who you are, and
then make sure you can explain it in just a few words. Follow up with
your employees by ensuring they can tell you who your company is (in
the very same words) and watch how things change.