When you’re crystal clear on what you bring to the table for your clients–and how you’re different from all their other options–marketing becomes much easier and more effective. So take some time to really think about and answer the following questions:

1. Who are you? As Carlton said after my first attempt at this exercise, “You are much more than your name and business name.” What did you do before starting your business? When did you start it and how did you arrive at the point you are today? All of that influences where you are today.

2. What do you sell? And who do you sell it to? Pretend you’re explaining what you sell to a sixth grader and you’ll avoid getting that polite glassy-eyed nod while the listener thinks, “What the heck does that mean?” Believe me, we’re all so close to what we do that you’re probably getting that reaction far more than we know.

A perfect example is the AFLAC commercials with the squawking duck. You never hear the phrase “disability insurance.” They say AFLAC sells insurance that protects and pays you when you’re too sick or injured to work. Not only will a sixth grader get what it is they sell, they’ll also get why someone would want it.

3. Why are you in this business? Something led you to go this route, what was it?

This one was actually tough for me because I had other intentions for my business when I first started. So I felt guilty–like this was more of my fall-back plan. I could have “fallen-back” into a lot of things though. But I went this direction because I was tired of seeing the entrepreneurs and solo professionals I was networking with turning off their prospects with bad copy and getting sucked into spending a lot of money on things they didn’t really need to market their business.

4. What do you do for your customers? What pains are you solving for them? What benefits do they get from working with you or buying your product? Why do they care if your product or service is any good?

Even if you’re selling a B2B widget, make sure to tie it back to what it does for the buyer personally. Because no matter what you’re selling, a human is doing the buying. For example, he can rest assured that the widget will integrate into his system perfectly, so he won’t be stuck there all night trying to debug the installation. Or he’ll impress his boss by how much money it saves over the course of a year.

5. What makes you different from others in your business that your customers would care about? Do they get insider info no one else can provide? Do you do it totally different from what conventional wisdom says? Have you done it for more people–or do you work exclusively in their industry?

For example, I’m working on a project right now where several other guides exist in my client’s topic area. A few come from other nurses but none of them tell readers the current research-proven best practices they should be getting.

Once you answer these questions, you’ve got the makings of a powerful new elevator speech or core marketing message. Just keep paring it down to the bare essentials!