Do You Know Your Three Words For 2027?

Shrink what you do to 3 words or fewer

If you weren’t in the room, but your best client was there and they heard someone say, “I need someone who can help with X.” Would they say your name?

That’s the cocktail party test from this week’s podcast guest, Nora DiNuzzo. You can check out her episode below.

If one of your goals in 2027 is to increase referrals, brand awareness or just be able to talk about your business in a more succinct way, check this out.

Nora’s fix is to boil your whole offer down to one, two or three words.

Here’s how to find your three words this week:

1. 🎤 Ask 5 clients to describe you in one sentence.
A quick text or the last two minutes of a call works. Ask, “If a friend asked what we do, what would you say?”

2. 🔍 Circle the words that repeat.
Your clients’ language beats your tagline. If three of five say “fast,” that’s a sign.

3. ✍️ Write your best version first, then let AI challenge it.
Nora says to draft the strongest line you can on your own, then hand Claude or ChatGPT all the context and ask, “Can you beat this?” You keep ownership of the thinking and still get a gut check.

4. ✂️ Cut it to 3 words or fewer.
Test it out loud. Could a client say it to a stranger at a bar without adding “...so basically what they do is”? If not, keep cutting.

5. 📍 Put it everywhere in the same week.
Homepage hero, LinkedIn headlines for your whole team, email signatures, and the first line of every intro call. Repetition is what makes it stick.

6. 🔁 Check if it’s working in 30 days.
Ask every new lead, “What did you hear about us?” If they echo your words back, you passed.

Hear more about this in Nora’s episode below.

How do you grow a service business when everyone is competing for the same clients? Chris and John sit down with Nora DiNuzzo of Blood Sweat & Tears and Pitcher to talk about it. Her pitching and growth work has helped businesses bring in over $200 million and she is an expert in all things agency growth. Tune in.

Lyssna

You found your three words. Now find out if anyone else gets them.

Lyssna is a user research platform that lets you put your homepage, ads or messaging in front of real people and see what sticks. It brings usability testing, surveys, interviews and recruitment together in one place.

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• 💬 Test your positioning directly. See how people react to your language, value proposition and differentiation.

• 🧰 Pick the right test for the job. Five second tests, preference tests, surveys, prototype tests and live website testing are all in the toolkit.

• 📋 Skip the blank page. Ready-made templates cover common marketing questions, including one for finding email subject lines that lift open rates and click-throughs.

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