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By Brian Cubarney, Founder and CEO, ClearBrands, Inc.

Many women entrepreneurs arrive at prospective customer or client meetings armed with portfolios, charts, graphs, samples or loads of other marketing materials. And then they make their presentation, and leave their prospect with a smattering of information in the form of sales brochures, white papers or work samples.

Mistakenly, a woman entrepreneur may think, the more they leave behind, the better. This is actually counter-productive. The more information you leave (or give), the less likely a potential customer or client is to read or retain it. They are already overwhelmed by information, deadlines, and tasks. At best, they put your contact information in a database, and your papers go in a pile. Not exactly the kind of impression you want to “leave behind.”

The best thing you can give a prospective client is a sheet containing short, bulleted information that states exactly what you do (and most importantly, what they GET). Tell them your story, as succinctly as possible, in compelling words, numbers and pictures. On one page.

I call them Foglifters. They are 1-page “leave-behinds” that summarize your unique process, core services, or the unique deliverable you offer. They lift the fog in an easy-to-understand way, and crisply communicate the step-by-step actions you take to create value for your customer.  In this way they are more important than the sales brochures and marketing materials you have left behind in the past.

It’s getting it all on one page that’s the tricky part. Most people, business owners included, have trouble with brevity – they want to talk about all their services and offerings. But we have to remember decision-makers rarely have the time or energy for more than one page. And we’d be selling our business short if we wasted time (and money) belaboring the parity points and creature comforts of  services they can get from competitors.

It’s also important to illustrate what your customers get – not just what you do. This is critical. If you can concisely describe the steps you take customers through, prospective clients will know exactly what they can expect when working with you. But don’t stop there. Tell them what they actually get with each step – the deliverables you provide. And then tell them the results they can look forward to – at the end of the day, this is what you really do for people. So you’re not describing your job. You’re describing the activities you perform that create value.

And perhaps the most important part of a Foglifter is the way you package it. Got a great process that increases profitability by 20% in just one quarter? Great! Name it! Putting a name to things – your professional stamp – will create tremendous value for you, and also for your clients. It means you have the experience, intellectual capital and skill to claim something in your market with confidence. We believe that if you’ve got it, flaunt it by presenting and leaving behind a marketing message that’s a clear and compelling reason why to do business with you—a Foglifter.  
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