Here is the test. Tell a friend what you do, once, over dinner. A week later, ask them to describe you to someone else. If they cannot repeat it, your positioning is not done. If they cannot repeat you at dinner, they cannot refer you on Monday.
This article covers steps 3, 4 and 5 of my book, Fail To Brand, Plan To Fail: find the one sentence people repeat, pass the dinner test, and say who you are not for.
Why does one sentence matter so much?
Because referrals travel as sentences. Nobody forwards your résumé to a friend. They say, "You should talk to Dana. She is the one who..." Whatever comes after "the one who" is your brand in the wild.
Executives and founders tend to have too much to say. Twenty years of results, five industries, three functions. All of it is true. None of it is repeatable. The market does not reward the most complete description. It rewards the one that survives being retold by someone who only half listened.
How do I write the one sentence?
Start with the wound you named in step 2: the problem you keep walking into and have paid to understand. Your sentence should connect that wound to the person who has it.
Then draft twenty versions. Not three. Twenty. Most will be fog. That is the point. The first ten are usually what you think you are supposed to say. The good ones show up after you are bored of sounding impressive.
A useful shape: "I help [specific person] who [specific situation] get [specific outcome]." Then cut every word that a competitor could also say with a straight face.
Keep going until one version makes the wrong people uncomfortable and the right people lean in. That reaction is the signal. A sentence everyone politely agrees with is a sentence nobody repeats.
What makes a sentence pass the dinner test?
From the drafts I have seen, the ones that pass share a few traits:
- Plain words. No "leveraging," no "synergies," no "end-to-end." If you would not say it to your neighbor, cut it.
- A specific person. "B2B founders after their first funding round" beats "businesses."
- A visible problem. Something the listener can picture, not an abstract capability.
- Short enough to repeat. If it needs a breath in the middle, it is too long.
How do I actually run the test?
Pick three people who are not in your industry. Say your sentence once, in normal conversation. Do not explain it or add context. A few days later, ask each of them: "How would you describe what I do to a friend?"
Write down their exact words. If two of the three repeat something close to your sentence, you passed. If they give you your old job title, or something vague like "consulting stuff," you have more drafting to do.
This feels small. It is not. You are testing whether your brand can travel without you.
Why do I need to say who I am not for?
Step 5 is the one people resist. Write your anti-sentence: the people, problems or projects you do not take on.
If you cannot name an out-group, you do not have a position. You have manners. A position always excludes someone. "I work with everyone" sounds generous, but buyers hear "not a specialist in my problem."
Saying who you are not for does three things:
- It makes your sentence more believable to the right buyer.
- It saves you from sales calls that were never going to close.
- It gives the people who refer you a filter, so they send you better fits.
What does an anti-sentence look like?
Keep it calm and specific. "I am not the right fit for companies looking for a logo refresh before they know what they stand for." Or: "I do not work with leaders who want to go viral without a point of view." You are not insulting anyone. You are drawing a line so the right people can see it.
Exercise: twenty, three and one
- Write twenty versions of your one sentence in a single sitting. Do not edit while you write.
- Circle the three that make you slightly nervous to say out loud.
- Run the dinner test on the best of those three with three people outside your industry.
- Write one anti-sentence that names who you are not for.
Put the winning sentence and the anti-sentence at the top of a document. Every profile, post and introduction you write after this should agree with both.
What comes next?
Once you have a sentence people can repeat, you need proof that it is true. That is steps 6 and 7: building a small museum of receipts and putting it where skeptics can touch it.
Get the plan
The dinner test is step 4 of 12. Get the free 12-Step Plan from Fail To Brand, Plan To Fail and run the full system in 30 days. If you would rather build your sentence with me, apply for coaching.