Create An Irresistible Pick-Up Line For Clients

You must be tired. You’ve been running through my mind all day.

I couldn’t resist tossing out a bad pick-up line (or two). I’m not actually talking about that kind of pick-up line, but here are a few more just for the hell of it before we actually talk about something productive.

Do you believe in love at first sight? Or should I walk past again?

Are you religious? Because you’re the answer to all my prayers.

Feel my shirt. It’s made of boyfriend material.

Ok, ok…that’s enough. Let’s get back to something relevant.

Every month you probably meet a lot of people at parties, networking events, or just through the regular course of business. The standard question that inevitably comes up is,

“What do you do?”

For the last 14 years, I’ve just been answering by saying,

“I own a branding firm.”

This is a terrible answer. I realize now that I’ve been missing an opportunity every time I was asked that question.

My answer didn’t demand attention. Nothing about my response prompted curiosity or interest. There were no breadcrumbs leading the person down a path to inquire more about me or my business.

I was just stating a fact. As good as I was at telling my clients’ brand stories, I was terrible at telling my own.

Who knows how much money I’ve cost myself over the last 14 years. Every person I met could have been that mega client with limitless budgets, but I’ll never know because I bored their pants off with a terrible pick-up line.

I recently sold the previously mentioned branding firm, and I’m in the process of launching a new company. Part of launching a new company is finding office space. I’m asked the same question at every space I visit,

“What do you do?”

Ahhh…my chance for redemption

It was after the second office visit that it hit me, this is my chance for redemption. I can use these office visits to practice my pick-up line. And the quest to deliver the ultimate one liner (or pick-up line if you will) began.

The quest for redemption started out slow. My initial attempts were pretty bland. People didn’t seem intrigued or inspired.

Back to the drawing board I went. I conducted more deep research and came back to the plate with a new approach. Now I’m really starting to hit my stride.

There’s an art to answering this question well, and there are plenty of articles out there that document how to craft an elevator pitch, one liner, etc…

The following is a mashup of what I’ve found in these articles and a lot of trial and error on my part.

Tell A Story

Frame your pitch as a story to pull people in and prompt discussion. Let’s use a trademark attorney for example purposes. Don’t just say, “I’m a trademark attorney” because that’s boring and nobody likes being stuck with the boring guy.

This is also a pretty vague response that doesn’t really answer the question. Great….you’re a trademark attorney, but what do you actually do?

A story makes people want to listen. They won’t just be quietly thinking about what they’re having for dinner. You’ll get a real bonafide audience that may just be a customer one day.

Even if they aren’t a customer, they’ll remember you if one of their friends needs a trademark attorney. Stories get remembered.

Focus On Your Customer

Lead with a pain point that will grab your audience with an immediate hook. Don’t jump right out talking about yourself. Talking about yourself is usually the quickest way to lose someone’s interest.

We’re all selfish people. I’m not saying this in a bad way. It’s just a reality that we’re all selfish with our time and attention.

Let’s go back to our trademark attorney. They could say something like,

“You’ve probably heard stories about companies being sued for tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars over trademark issues.”

Now you’ve got my attention. Did you say hundreds of thousands of dollars?

Leading with a dynamic pain creates interest in what’s going to follow. The key is to make it sound natural and not forced. This is difficult and may take several attempts.

Don’t be frustrated if your hook doesn’t work on your first try. Rework it and come back again. Leading with a statement like this can be a little unnatural and takes time to perfect.

It’s really about learning how to tell a story. The better you get at telling stories, the better you’ll be at telling your story.

Cue The Hero Music

It’s time to explain how you solve that problem and make your ideal customer’s life better.

Here’s how our trademark attorney could transition over to the solution,

“What I do is help clients navigate the trademark process to avoid spending ridiculous amounts of time and money to protect their businesses.”

Wow, I like the idea of saving hundreds of thousands of dollars. You sound like a pretty fantastic choice if I ever have trademark work. Certainly better than the guy who answers,

“I’m a trademark attorney.”

I will remember the guy that told me about saving hundreds of thousands of dollars. I won’t remember the random “trademark attorney.”

Extra Credit

Toss in an example if you can for extra credit,

“I actually just finished up a pretty funny project where I saved a client billions and billions of dollars by avoiding a lawsuit and wasted money on branding, packaging, website, and advertising that would have had to be redone all because they named their Pig’s Feet snacks the wrong thing.”

Just be careful with using examples. Don’t force them. This is probably the most difficult of all the steps to make feel natural.

Done well, it can be a parlay into another story that pulls them even more into your web. Done wrong, it can derail a great pick-up line. All of a sudden you can jump the shark and go from compelling conversationalist to pushy salesman.

Let The Situation Guide You

All of the above lays out a proven approach to crafting a pick-up line. Now toss it all out the window.

Go back to Friday night with me for a second. I was at a party with a lot of people I didn’t really know.

I was sitting around talking with various folks. We were running through the standard chatter you’d expect when you just meet people.

I stepped onto the porch to grab another beer and ended up chatting with a nice (and talkative guy). I could tell he was pretty amped up to tell me about his work, so I let him lead the way. I stayed engaged and kept deflecting the conversation toward him.

He was passionate about their company and spent about five minutes explaining what they do. Five minutes is a pretty long time and it was fairly hard to follow everything he jammed into a 5 minute “elevator pitch.”

When he had finished, he finally asked me what I do. In this scenario, I threw out all of the above steps and used his answer to guide me. I simply answered,

“I help people like you that are passionate about their business simplify everything you just told me into a sentence.”

He was hooked.

The above is exactly what I said. It’s not as beautiful as my actual pick-up line, but it was much more effective in this case. I didn’t have to give him the hard sell or try to push how fantastic my company is. He was intrigued and immediately started asking questions. I didn’t have to push a business card card on him because he asked for one.

He offered to make introductions to the right people and follow up about working with my company.

I didn’t totally throw out the above framework. I did still use a story (his story) to grab him and then I simply told him how I can cure an issue he has (a complicated story).

It’s always better to ask first if possible. Doing so will allow you to know if the person you’re talking to fits your market. They may also tee up your expertise.

To Conclude

Stories trump statements.

People remember interesting.

Everyone is selfish.

Sometimes the situation is right for a full pick-up line and sometimes you need to think on the fly.

Always listen more than you speak.

Correlate your story to the audience whenever possible.

That’s it. I’ll just leave you with one more pick-up line for your enjoyment.

Did you invent the airplane? Because you seem Wright for me.

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