A trade fair in Chicago. A sales manager from a German engineering firm stands at her stand. A visitor stops and asks the simplest question there is: “So, what does your company do?”
She answers. Founded in 1987. 240 employees. Three product lines. Certified to ISO 9001. Customers in 30 countries.
Every fact is true. After 40 seconds the visitor is looking at the next stand.
Facts are not a story
A list of facts has no direction. Each fact adds to the last one, and none of them tells the listener why to care. The listener has to do the work of finding the point, and at a busy stand nobody does.
The facts are not the problem. The order is.
The move that makes people listen
A company story that works has three parts. First, what is normal in your customers’ world. Then, what goes wrong there. Finally, what you do about it.
Here is the same company again, in about 60 words:
“Food factories clean their production lines every night with hot chemicals. But standard pump seals can’t take that — they wear out within months, and the line stops. So we build pumps with seals designed for daily cleaning. Our customers stop their lines for planned maintenance, not for breakdowns.”
The visitor now knows who the company is for, what problem it solves and why it matters. The founding year and the ISO certificate can come later, as proof.
Where it goes wrong
The first version most people write is too long. They find one problem, then add a second and a third, because all of them are real. The story turns back into a list.
Keep one problem. The one your best customers would name first. The others are for the follow-up meeting.
A language tip for German speakers
In speech, use but and so, not however and therefore. However at the start of a spoken sentence sounds like a report. But sounds like a person. For the result, so or that’s why sound natural: “That’s why we build…”
Try it yourself
- Write one sentence about what is normal in your customers’ world.
- Write one sentence, starting with But, about what goes wrong.
- Write one sentence, starting with So, about what you do. Read all three aloud and time them.
For the vocabulary of positioning a company, try the free Brand Positioning exercise — a reading text, key terms and a short case study.
The next step
A company story is something a whole team should be able to tell, in the same way, in English. We train teams online and in person.
Need English training for your team? Get in touch.