What Are You?

We are in the janitorial supply business. Now that that is out of the way, for the half dozen of you who didn't click to some other place after you read the word "janitorial", we'd like to spend a minute explaining what that means to us and, hopefully, our clients. We sometimes have to shiver at the inaccurate notion that, as a profession, we only sell stuff to people who work as janitors. We have been working with Scale Up Milwaukee and some really talented people from Babson College in Massachusetts, and we have had the opportunity to learn some really good stuff. For instance, as we have been making strides in recent months to position ourselves a bit more prominently in the marketplace, we've had to think a lot about who we we really are, and as a result, who our clients are. First, we've discovered, we are consultants. Why do we say that? Because we serve to formally train and advise over 200 independent contractors. We help them with getting new business and staying profitable. We do this every day. Second, we are in the Public Health sector. No, we don't work closely with either National Institute of Health or Center for Disease Control, but we carefully instruct people on the proper tools, cleaning agents and techniques that are of critical importance in sanitizing a public facility. Third, we are marketing professionals. We make a significant contribution to corporate identity. A clean, healthy-feeling and terrific-smelling office, lobby, or restroom says a lot about a business, its people and its values. And that is what our clients contribute. So, if one googled consultant, public health, or marketing, we wouldn't be found. And we're okay with that. But thinking of ourselves in those terms has really helped us reach out more effectively to our customers we call friends and new prospects who pass our way. In essence, that's who were are.

So, what are you? What is it that you really do? If you could eliminate the name of the industry sector you are in or product category you provide, what name would you think of? You may find that it will go a long way in how you appear to those you wish to attract.