You're at a networking event. Someone asks what you do. You have about eight seconds before their eyes start looking for the next person to talk to.

This used to be called the elevator pitch. Memorize a 30-second script, deliver it smoothly, and hope it lands. The problem is, almost every elevator pitch sounds like a pitch — and the moment someone feels pitched to, they stop listening.

The One Liner is the modern, sharper version of that same idea. Author Donald Miller, in his book Building a StoryBrand, identified why old-style pitches fail: people don't remember businesses that describe themselves. They remember businesses that name a problem — specifically, the listener's problem. Miller's formula builds a short, clear statement around three things: the problem your customer has, what you offer to solve it, and the result they get. Done well, it doesn't sound like a pitch at all. It sounds like you understand them. We cannot teach the one-liner better than Don Miller can, so we suggest you watch a video of him teaching it.

This is where the One Liner becomes the how-to for last week's lesson. The Red Dot taught us that you have to stand out from the herd — but standing out means nothing if you don't know what to say once people are looking at you. The One Liner is the actual script for the Red Dot. It's not an elevator pitch. It's a "you've got my attention, now what" pitch.

This is Lesson #2 in the enfohub Businesses Partnering Group series. At our meetings, as a group, we help businesses identify their Red Dot and then how to say it.

Select the Video- One Liner button to watch the video and see Donald Miller break down the One Liner formula himself.

Not sure why this video starts at the 7-minute mark, we suggest you watch from the beginning.