What the F*** do you DO, Tovarisch?

How often do you get this question from people you meet?



"So what do YOU do?"



How you answer can make a world of difference to how and whether the business relationship progresses.



Too often the relationship is killed stone dead precisely because we really do tell people WHAT we do, and worse, HOW we do it.



Yawn! I'm bored! Get me out of here!



My 2009 resolution is first to translate the question into another language - Russian.



"Chto vy mozhete delat' dlya menya, i chto plokhovo ya mogu poluchit' ot obshcheniya s vami?"



This helps a lot, as I proceed to answer in English.



The Russian reads - "What can you do for me? Is there any downside to doing business with you?"



Now I am answering the right question, as nobody gives a F**** WHAT I do!