I’ve met so many small business owners who make the fatal mistake of answering the question, "What do you do?" with their job title instead of drawing customers in with a clear brand message.

That's why I'm excited to introduce you to a three-step framework for creating a killer one-liner statement. First, we'll identify the problem your business solves. Then, we'll present the solution you provide. And finally, we'll describe the result your customers can expect.

👉 Listen to the first episode right here!

Your one-liner statement should be concise and hook your listener, drawing them into the story of how you can make their lives better.

Throughout this episode, I'll be sharing examples of one-liner statements across multiple industries. Plus, I'll guide you on where and how to integrate them into your marketing strategy for maximum impact.

What You’ll Learn:

• Craft a one-liner statement that clearly articulates the problem your business solves, the solution you provide, and the result customers will get.

• Use the one-liner statement in your email signature, on your website, in print materials, and in social media bios.

• When someone asks what you do, use the three-step framework to answer with a statement that connects with the problem, solution, and result.

• Avoid using job titles and focus on the problems your customers face and how your business can solve them.

• Create multiple versions of your one-liner statement for different products or services within your business.

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EPISODE 3 TRANSCRIPTION

INTRODUCTION

[00:00] Sean Garner: 

Are you tired of watching potential customers slip through the cracks? Or do you sound just like everyone else in your industry? Well, in today's episode, we are going to tackle a common but fatal mistake small business owners make. A confusing brand message. And we're going to show you how just one statement can take your business from obscurity to domination, coming up on the Marketing Domination podcast.

What's up guys? My name is Sean Garner and welcome back to the Marketing Domination podcast on this first series of episodes that we're doing. This is episode number three, where we are still talking about building a sales funnel. If you go back and remember episode one, we're talking about the three steps that we believe that it takes for complete marketing domination.

The first thing is we've got to build a sales funnel. The second thing we have to do is fill a sales funnel. And the third one is we need to optimize our sales funnel. And on our current series of building a sales funnel, what we're going to talk about today is something that is called a one liner statement.

[01:06] Sean Garner: 

You may have also heard this be an elevator pitch, your 30-second story, whatever you want to call it. We as StoryBrand certified guides use the term “one liner statement”. And oftentimes in the business world, business owners are making a huge mistake right here because what they're doing is whenever they are asked what they do, they answer it with a job title instead of a way that invites customers into an engaging story and helps them see how your business can solve their problem.

So why this is important and why you need this as a small business owner is because there are potential customers out there that have preconceived ideas about what it is you do. So me, I came from the fitness industry, like I've shared with you guys before. And if I just told everybody that I was a personal trainer, well, everybody has their version of what they think a personal trainer means or is or does, certifications, experience, cost, all of those things.

[02:05] Sean Garner: 

So whenever people ask me, or you as a small business owner, what it is you do when you respond with a job title. People instantly will start lumping you in with a past experience that they've had with that job title in the past. 

What we want to do in order to dominate our market and part of our building a sales funnel is we want to craft a statement that has a three step framework that invites customers in to show them what it is we do for them and how we help them solve a problem. So they connect us with solving a problem instead of a job title. And the framework that we use is from Building A StoryBrand from Donald Miller. As certified story brand guides, we’re obviously huge StoryBrand fans.

We use what's called a one liner statement. It follows these three parts. Number one is the problem. Every good story starts with a problem that's going to hook people in because people are always scanning the environment for solutions to their problems. They're not looking for your job title.

[03:11] Sean Garner: 

They're not looking for your products or services. They are looking for solutions to problems. The second thing that we have in our one liner statement is the solution or our solution or our product or service. Then the third thing we do, and we talk about in this one liner statement is the result that customers get from doing business with us.

Now we're going to go through how to create your one liner statement today. I'm going to give you tons of examples of other ones. And then also we're going to show you where you should be using this and why you actually need two variations of this. So let's dive into it. So the first thing, whenever we're creating this one liner statement, and honestly, I think that this is a good foundation for all brand messaging or marketing messaging. We always want to start with the problem. 

[04:00] Sean Garner: 

I think a big mistake that small business owners make when it comes to their brand messaging is they often will focus on the service or service they provide or the product they sell instead of the problem the customer is facing. 

So, for example, using an accountant as an example, too often you will see accounting firms use all about, “Hey, look at me. I'm an accountant. I can do your taxes”, and they are putting that message out there when that's not really the problem that those potential customers are dealing with. The problem is I'm paying too much in taxes. I want to make sure that I have a good tax strategist to make sure that I'm not paying too much in taxes and I'm keeping more of my hard earned money. 

That's the problem they have. And accounting services help solve that problem. So if I could give you one “Aha!” moment that I just want to shake small business owners and let them realize all the time, stop talking about your product and services and start talking about the problems that your customers solve.

THE PROBLEM-SOLUTION-RESULT FRAMEWORK

[04:59] Sean Garner: 

A one liner statement is a great way to start that conversation because the first part of it is the problem. So the first thing that you want to do when crafting your one liner statement here is you want to identify the problem that your business solves. Now we talked about this in the last episode about the story brand brand script, and that problem is broken down into three different levels.

The external problem, which is the main thing they're dealing with. The internal problem, which is how dealing with that problem makes them feel, and the philosophical problem, which is why it is just morally wrong that they have to deal with that problem. When we are talking about this one liner statement, we're typically just focusing on the external and the internal problem.

So talking about a problem that they have and how it's probably making them feel that is, to me, is a really great way to kind of hook this and get this one liner statement started so understanding that is huge with just connecting with your audience and starting to hook them into this one liner statement.

[06:04] Sean Garner: 

Now, one thing before we go into the rest of this that I should have kind of started off with this, the one liner statement, even though it's called that. It doesn't mean that it is one line. It's not even one sentence. I like to think about it as one statement. It shouldn't definitely be paragraphs and like an essay on this.

It should be a quick, catchy statement. And like I said, there's going to be two different variations of this, but I do want you to think that as you're starting to craft this and create this and think about your own, don't think about how can I make this into one sentence? Or this is going to be like a rambling sentence. No, no, no. 

It's going to be a statement that you say, but we don't want it to be a paragraph. So that's a little side note on that. So the first thing when creating our one liner statement is we have to identify the problem. The second thing that we need to do when creating our one liner statement is we want to present the solution.

[06:56] Sean Garner: 

This is where we want to talk about our new and better way of doing this, solving this problem. This is where we want to try to use our brand name or our product name in this section. So after we've hooked them with the problem and we got their ears to kind of perk up and they say, “Ooh, yeah, I deal with that, or I know somebody that's dealing with that”.

The second thing that we want to do is we want to present them with a solution to getting that problem solved. This is like, we will again try to include, you don't have to force function it in there, but it's a really good idea if you can add your product or service name in here and you want to present your new and better way of doing this, this should be the shortest part.

So for us, for example, it is Sean Garner Consulting, our marketing agency. That's what we do. That's our solution. That's our product. That's our service. So that's honestly the easiest part of this whole thing is number one of the problem, number two is the solution. And that leads us to number three, which is we want to describe the result.

[07:54] Sean Garner: 

What's the happily ever after that these customers will get once they solve their problem. With our product, we want to talk to them and tell them the tangible things, the things that they are going to feel/experience once they get this problem solved and they do business with us. This is where we want to not talk about features as much as benefits of what we provide.

So we want them to see how their life will benefit, how their business will benefit after they work with us. Now, when you're doing this, don't get lost in the features. Don't start thinking of all the deliverables that you're going to give somebody. You want to think about the result that they will get from having those.

Cause remember, we don't want to sell our job title. We want to sell solutions to problems that we provide. So how does this all look when we put these three things together? So when crafting this one liner statement, how does it all look together? So I'm going to give you the Sean Garner Consulting one liner statement.

SEAN GARNER CONSULTING ONE LINER STATEMENT

[08:58] Sean Garner:

And then I'm going to break it apart and then I'm going to show you examples from about three or four other industries as well. So our business that we have, our main one is our marketing agency. It's called Sean Garner Consulting, and this is our one liner statement that we use in written form.

“Most small business owners are overwhelmed and confused about how to market their business so that it grows and stands out from the competition. At Sean Garner Consulting, our marketing agency builds, fills, and optimizes sales funnels to get you more customers and leads online and to be seen as the clear leader in your industry.”

So let me break that down. You can see that that was not just one sentence, it wasn't a paragraph. It was one statement that clearly articulates what problem I solve, how I do it, and how your life's going to be better. So instantly, if somebody is dealing with those or knows somebody that's dealing with those problems, their ears are going to perk up because they're going to now start to associate our business, Sean Garner Consulting, with solving a specific problem, not just a marketing agency.

[09:59] Sean Garner: 

Because even think about that, right? The marketing agency, you can do a ton of different things. You could do just paid ads. You could do social media marketing. You could do website design. You could do just like a CMO type work. There's a lot of different things that fit in that bubble of marketing agencies.

And so, because we don't want to be associated or lumped into industry preconceived ideas people have, we want to stand out by solving a problem, positioning our product as a solution to the problem and showing how their life is going to be better. So let's break this down, knowing that we have those three parts, looking at this one liner statement.

So number one, the problem. The main problem that we try to focus on with our agency is that most small business owners are overwhelmed and confused about how to market their business so that it grows and stands out from the competition. The type of clients that we like to work with, they are, you know, they probably tried a bunch of different things.

[10:56] Sean Garner: 

They tried creating content on social media, probably had somebody try to build a website for them at one time. They do have a website but they just, I've been doing all this stuff and nothing seems to be working because they seem. 

So with our business, our problem we focus on is clarity because people are confused, ease because they're overwhelmed and we want to give them a result of standing out from the competition and growing your business. 

So on these parts of the one liner statement, you also will see how you want to make sure that it's a congruent, cohesive story. So we're not talking about problems they're dealing with and connecting a different result to the end of it.

We want to make sure that those three parts tell a cohesive story. So that's the first thing, it’s the problem we solve. The second thing is, what is our solution? What is our product or service? That's kind of easy and it's short. Sean Garner Consulting, our marketing agency. That's what it is.

[11:54] Sean Garner: 

That's what we do, right? Because they could be dealing with that. And there's a bunch of different solutions that we could use to probably solve that. It could be a course. It could be a book. It could be a series. It could be a podcast, right? We could use that exact same one liner statement and just swap out the solution based upon what we're selling.

So for the company, obviously we're selling the agency. So the third one is how is their life going to be better? Well, we build, fill and optimize sales funnels so you can get more customers and leads online and be seen as the clear leader in your industry. So remember they needed a plan, our customers, because they were confused and overwhelmed.

So we show them what our plan is about building, filling, and optimizing sales funnels and how we do it. And then after we do that, how your life is better is you get more customers and leads from online. Because that's what we are a digital marketing agency. And what's the benefit you also will receive from that? Your business is going to grow and you're going to be seen as the clear leader in your industry. 

So, let me give you guys four other examples from four other industries, from accounting firms, home inspect, real estate, home inspectors, medical spa, and a business coach. So this is someone that my team and I, we just whip these together real quick.

EXAMPLES OF ONE LINER STATEMENTS

[13:08] Sean Garner: 

These are all fictional companies from industries that we've worked with in the past, uh, just to kind of show other ways. Of how this comes together. So for the accounting firm:

“Many small businesses struggle to manage their finances effectively, leading to unnecessary stress and potential losses.” That's the problem. 

“At Precision Accounting” that's their solution. The result is “we provide finance, expert financial management and tax services tailored to your business needs. So you can focus on growth and profitability without fiscal headaches.” Awesome. Sounds great. Let's hire, what was their name? Precision Accounting, right?

Very clearly. They're not just a regular accounting firm. That's going to be doing taxes, right? No, they focus on small businesses that are struggling to manage their finances and are paying too much in taxes. Man, those are my people right there. 

[14:00] Sean Garner: 

All right, the next one is a real estate home inspector. This is starting with the problem “Buying a home can be daunting with potential hidden issues that could cost thousands in repairs”. That's the initial problem you're hooking with somebody. They're in the position of purchasing a house or selling a house, you know, that's instantly going to make them perk up. Like I don't want to have unexpected thousands of dollars of repairs.

“At Eagle Eye Inspections, we offer thorough and reliable home inspections, giving you peace of mind and helping you make an informed purchase decision”. So again, the problem is there could be hidden potential issues when I'm trying to buy my home. It could cost me thousands. The solution is Eagle Eye Inspections, home inspection service.

And then the result is “peace of mind to help me make a better informed purchase decision”. Sounds awesome. So much better than just a normal home inspector that you might find coming across Google or a paid ad. 

[15:04] Sean Garner: 

Next is a medical spa. So feeling confident and we created this one as a medical spa that specializes in skincare and Botox.

“So feeling confident in your skin is challenging when facing issues like wrinkles or acne”. That's the problem, right? It's really hard to feel confident in your skin if you've got tons of wrinkles, those things right there, or acne. 

“At Radiant Glow Med Spa”, that's their solution, “we utilize the latest skin care and Botox treatments to rejuvenate your appearance, ensuring you look as vibrant and youthful as you feel”. Man, that sounds awesome. Maybe I need to go see these people. 

[15:47] Sean Garner: 

The last example here, guys, is a business coach. So this, again, starts with a problem, solution, and result. “So many entrepreneurs feel overwhelmed by the challenges of growing their business”. That's a problem, that sounds like real talk right there.

“With Strategic Growth Coaching”, that's the solution. The result is “you gain access to proven strategies and personalized guidance, empowering you to overcome obstacles and achieve sustainable success”. So with all of these, you can see they follow that same three step framework, problem, solution result. 

So I wanted to give you guys several examples on this episode, because with everything that we do with this podcast, with Marketing Domination, I truly want to equip small business owners. So everything in here is actionable and you can take something and go apply it to your own business. So I always want to give, when possible, a lot of different examples for everything that we teach in these episodes.

WHERE TO USE YOUR ONE LINER STATEMENT

[16:33] Sean Garner: 

So now that you know what a one liner statement is, and why you need it, so you can stand out. Now I'm going to show you where you should actually be using this in your marketing. So, like I said, you need to have two different versions of your one liner statement. So why we create this whole one liner statement is because we're trying to invite customers into a story that clearly articulates and shows them the problem we solve and positions our product and services as a solution to that problem.

We want to humanize this though, because if somebody just came up to me and said, “Sean, what do you do? And I said, “well, you know how most small business owners are overwhelmingly confused about how to market their business so that it grows and stands out from the…etc” 

It's automatically going to sound super sales pitchy. And it's not going to connect and resonate with people. Everybody's good as soon as you start saying things like, “Oh, here we go, the marketing guys are going to try and sell us here”. So we want to have two different versions of this.

[17:32] Sean Garner: 

Whenever we do have this. So one, we want to have what we just created here, which is the written version. This is going to be used everywhere you can. So the one that kind of, for me, the non negotiable places I tell everybody to use it is in one, use it in the signature of your email. So open up your Gmail, you know, office 365, whatever you're using and make this one liner statement be the signature.

So for me, for example, I'm having an awesome day. If you've listened to this, you know me, I say, “have an awesome day” probably a little too much, but it's: 

Have an awesome day, 

Sean Garner. 

And then it's the business phone number. It's the business website address. And then it is my one liner statement in print.

And then we also will talk about this in the future. I also include a little blurb about getting your free guide here. I also include my lead generator, but that's going to be in a future episode. So I have that in the bottom of my email signature. Another place that I have it is on all of my website, right?

[18:29] Sean Garner: 

So we're going to get to a website in the coming future episodes, but we want to make sure that we have that statement on our website. Another great place to have this is in your print material. So if you have one, the back of a business card would be a great place to put it. 

It would be great to put it on brochures, any type of print material that you have inside of your facility or your office, whatever you have at that one liner statement, because if it's written correctly, It should be a very condensed version that showcases what it is you do, which when you're creating any type of marketing collateral or print material, that's the whole purpose of it, you show what you do, problems that you solve and how you're going to make people's lives better. 

This one statement does all of those things. The other place that this can and should be used, but you might have to shorten it based upon the platform is social media bios. So for social media platforms, for the business and then even for your personal account, if it's a personal like business hybrid, kind of like what I have with the consulting business, use a shortened version of this in your bio.

ONE LINER STATEMENT SPOKEN VERSION

[19:27] Sean Garner: 

So I know that most platforms have character account limits and stuff on it. So you might have to condense this down, but the framework should be the same. Problem, solution, result as you're creating this statement for social media. So that's the first version. 

The second version that you're going to have is the spoken version. So I use this exact same framework. For whenever people ask what I do, because I love frameworks and you're going to realize in this podcast, I teach lots of frameworks, but we want to have frameworks for everything that we do. So I'm not going to have a script memorized based upon this one liner statement that I use.

I think some people do that and it sounds super cheesy. And it’s just not my cup of tea. What I do want to do is whenever somebody asks me what I do, I do follow that framework and based upon context and the conversation is kind of what I do. So if somebody said, let’s say we're out at a party or dinner party, something like that, me and my wife and somebody says, “So Sean, tell me a little bit about what it is your business does”.

[20:33] Sean Garner: 

I would say something like, “man, so many small business owners I found are just overwhelmed with marketing their business because they're so busy running it day-to-day. So what our business does is we have a marketing agency that does all of the marketing for business owners. We build out their whole system for them so that they can get leads on there without even having to think about it and they can just focus on running their business”.

That would be a more conversational version of me just saying, “Oh, I own a marketing agency”, right. So instantly, because we talked about that before people are gonna have preconceived ideas based upon job titles and industry norms. So by me talking about it that way, it sounds a little bit more unique. So that way people start associating me with problems.

So now, instead of thinking about, “Oh, Sean owns a marketing agency”. Now, hopefully it's like, “Oh man, Sean helps the business owners that are overwhelmed with their business. That they just want to focus on the business. They don't even really want to touch the marketing stuff. They want to trust that source is going to do them all for them”.

[21:27] Sean Garner: 

That's what we want to think about where this really got me, where I really started using this one liner statement is whenever I was in the fitness industry, because when I was in the fitness industry, a personal trainer can be anything from “I like working out, and so I'm going to start teaching you how to work out” all the way to, you know, PhD in exercise science, and you've written thesis on research papers and all of these different things about the latest in exercise science.

So, because it is so diverse and also a low barrier to entry, I always wanted to have something like this to make myself sound unique. So I wasn't just another personal trainer or just wasn't another gym owner. I wanted to make sure that I stood out and I think people were starting to connect me with problems versus industries.

MAIN TAKEAWAY OF THE EPISODE

[22:18] Sean Garner: 

So, on this episode today, guys, the big takeaways that I want you to see is that you need to have this one liner statement, your elevator pitch, whatever you want to call it, call it what you want, but make sure it follows this proven framework. When somebody asks you the question, what do you do? 

Start with the problem you solve. Position your product or services, the solution to that, and then tell them about how much better their life's going to be once they solve that problem. Because like I said in the last episode, most people don't think life can get much better, and they also don't think that it's going to get much worse.

They live in this state of mediocrity, and by having this statement, it's going to start to resonate with people, connect them, draw them into a story and show them how your product or service can help change their life and solve their problems. 

ACTION STEP OF THE WEEK

[23:00] Sean Garner: 

So the action step today is, what I want you to do is I want you to take about 15 to 30 minutes, and I want you to start writing down those three parts. The second part's kind of a gimme, so it should be pretty easy. Write down a list of all the problems that your business solves and that you want to be known for. 

Second, write out what it is you actually do, what's the name of your product or service, your company. And again, side note also on this, you might have several versions of the one liner if you have a variety of different skews where you'll have one where it is a big corporate statement. 

And then you might also have one liner statements for each division of the company. Because again, these are frameworks and guess what? These can be used everywhere. Whenever you're doing sales conversations, social media content, the same exact framework should apply to everything. 

The third thing I want you to do is I want you to make a list of all of the success results, happily ever afters your customers will get once they do business with you and they get this problem solved.

[24:05] Sean Garner: 

After you do that, put it all together in a statement and then just practice saying it to people. Ask them if it connects and resonates with your customers that you're working with and see if it helps them to very clearly understand what problem it is that your business solves. 

Then once you get this thing kind of fine tuned and honed down a little bit, put it everywhere, put it in social media, bios in your email signatures, have your staff and your team start using it whenever you're talking to potential customers. So that way you can, with one statement, stand out online and be the clear person industry leader. 

[24:32] Sean Garner: 

Hopefully this episode added tons of value to you guys. You have something you can do today to make your business grow and dominate. And we will see you in the next episode where we continue down our framework of building your sales funnel. Have an awesome day.