A sale, an audience, or a web site visitor is to begin your interaction with them by recounting either your experience or the history of your business. Recounting old news first ignores the, “what’s in it for me,” an audience requires up front and lacks any form of attention grabbing punch. Last week I worked with a client who has a long and successful history working with writers. Recently, he launched a new business that guides novelists through their creative process, then aids them in finding publishing deals. Prior to our meeting, his business story focused on his years of experience in the literary field and his skills at editing. I had a problem figuring out why anyone would hire him instead of a competitor with comparable credentials, as did prospective clients. Five minutes after we started working together, I understood why prospective clients should be lining up for his services. Besides his encyclopedic knowledge of the traditional publishing world, this gentleman is bursting with passion for ebook’s. His eyes glimmer when he talks about this new world and how it affords writers opportunities to get their foot in the door and make money in a way that the old publishing world never did. He is a gold mine of information about how to write books for this new field, how to sell to the gatekeepers, and how to make them creatively and monetarily successful. Once my client was able to see that his unique value lay not in his years of experience, but in his warehouse of knowledge about the intersection of new technology and old- fashioned good writing, it became easy for him to craft a brief story that could be tailored to fit sales and messaging opportunities. “The barriers to getting your book published have come crashing down. I will guide you through the new world of self publishing, ebooks and the good old fashioned world of big house publishing, with the same attention to the creative process as I’ve employed with writers for the last thirty years. My work begins with aiding you in crafting the words and ends with fans paying to read them. “ “What’s in it,” for an audience of would be novelists dying to get their work published, is up front. His guidance , which is the benefit, is tied to his experience.The statement ends with both a call to action, and another “what’s in it,” for the audience… fans buying their books. Best of all it differentiates my client from his competitors who spend all of their time touting their history instead of their relevance to today’s world. Have you looked at your positioning lately? Does it start with a grabber “what’s in it for me, “ and end with a call to action? Does it show the audience how you are different from your competitors? If not, you’ve got some work to do. So, get to it.