If you’ve been to any formal networking event, I’m pretty sure you’ll have had the chance to do a ‘60-second commercial’ where you get one minute to tell everyone who you are, what you do and the kind of businesses you’d like to be introduced to.

And I’m also pretty sure that, like me, you’ve fallen into the age-old trap of focussing on your ‘what’ – the thing that your business does. But how does that differentiate you from any other business that does what you do? Is that alone a compelling enough reason for me to recommend you to my network?

But, if you’ve been in business for any length of time, I guess you know that just talking about your ‘what’ doesn’t always cut it. There needs to be more – another way of engaging me and helping me connect with what it is that makes you different.

And so this leads us neatly on the second element: your ‘why’. This is a really vital component of your business language and if you haven’t got to grips with understanding this then can I suggest that you take some time to do this. If you haven’t downloaded and used our free Core Purpose Framework, then click here to get it.

I’m sure you’ve heard of Simon Sinek and his Golden Circle concept. If not, I highly recommend watching this video – it’s exceptional. The heart of his talk is this: “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” And it’s so true. You want to win the right clients and hire the right people – people that are good for your business – and effectively communicating your ‘why’ can do this.

But I personally think that Simon has missed a vital component – and one we often miss: your ‘who’. Who is the right client for your business? Who is the right team member? If you really want to succeed in business, I believe that you need to completely understand who your services or products are really for and be utterly focused on delivering the very best you can to them.

Your ultimate goal is to create a community – a tribe – that love what you do and really connect with you the first time they experience your company for the first time. I could go on at great length about this, but here are a few things to consider:

1. It starts with your team.
Do your people love working for you and buy into the vision and values you have? Do they feel they are in the right place? Is everyone pulling in the same direction? How can you create a powerful recruitment process that attracts the right people that can carry the vision forward?

2. Who is your core customer?
To build a community of loyal and passionate customers, you need to get laser-focused on who these people are. Don’t look to sell to ‘everyone’ or ‘anyone’ but drill down into the specifics. Start with identifying who is most likely to buy from you for the maximum amount of profit. Then you can identify what challenges they have, what they need from you and how you can connect and engage with them.

Niche, niche and niche again.
The chances are that, once you’ve done that, you’ll probably discover that you only need to attract a small additional number of these core customers to have a dramatic impact on your business in a couple of years. That way you can tailor your approach to the needs of your niche rather than the average customer.

So, next time you go networking, don’t tell your audience what you do, or even why. But educate them as to who your high-value customers are and how you can help them.

Be compelling. Be specific. This is about being different and becoming the obvious choice for a small segment of the market.