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"Please introduce yourself." The love-hate moment of every entrepreneur.
Sep 22, 2026 — John Way
"Please introduce yourself." The love-hate moment of every entrepreneur.
At some conference somewhere, this scene is playing out:
Hi, I'm [NAME] and I help companies build “world-class teams”
Listeners: (oh I see, you're a recruiter).
Our clients love working with us because
Listeners: (ok, tell me)...
We're an "award winning," "customer-oriented," "strategic partner,"...
Listeners: (mentally checks out)
Why does this happen? Because, most buyers are experienced. They probably bought similar services to yours in the past.
And if they haven't, they've seen people talking about it on their social feeds.
How do I know this? We asked 100+ buyers in Atlanta: 71% of buyers said they have 3-8+ vendors in mind when they START looking.
Here's what that means for your intros: If you know that 3 out of 4 people listening can instantly name a handful of your competitors, how would you introduce yourself DIFFERENTLY?
Explaining what you do, like you would to a novice? They've heard it before.
Using corporate mumbo-jumbo? They're not interested.
And, here's the part that nobody tells you:
Buyers don't listen because they *already have* their list of vendors.
Buyer: Oh you're a recruiter? I know lots of recruiters. (mentally checks out)
If you want a conversation, you need to crack your buyer's list. And to do that, you have to lean into how you're different.
For example, if you're a Hubspot Partner, how are you different from the other popular Hubspot Partners in your city?
… Do you offer better support? Explain. Ex: You can call and talk to a human.
… Do you specialize in a specific niche? What niche? Ex: We specialize in home services companies.
… Do you have faster turnaround times? How fast? Ex: We can get you set up in under 4 weeks.
Differentiation is how you can crack the list and get to the top.
My rule-of-thumb: 3/4ths of your intro should be on how you're different.
Lisa McGuire, Ed.S., Katie Lantukh, and I had a really insightful discussion about this on Lisa's podcast. Check out the clip below.