But What Kind of Graphics Do You Do?

I was recently asked, “where do you work and what do you do?” I answered, “TKO Graphix.” The inquiring couple owns a small business and had some chal­lenges with web design and banner ads. They shared their problems and concerns, and asked if TKO could help with the web graphics. We don’t provide web graphics or web design, but this mis­un­der­stand­ing is a common occur­rence. I mean, what IS “graphics” anyway? Does it include all digitally created output, from logo creation and web design, to vehicle wraps and wall murals? What about typog­ra­phy, numbers, and icon creation? And the tra­di­tional arts like drawing, painting, etching, etc. — aren’t they con­sid­ered graphic arts? There are engi­neer­ing drawings, maps, charts, and graphs — let alone, info-graphics. Each type of graphic creation can be further sub-categorized. Print output can be offset, large format, or web fed, and substrate can range from vinyl or plastic to fine papers, metals or wood.

When a field is so diverse, it’s difficult to narrow down niches. For example, I inter­viewed a fellow the other day who had several years expe­ri­ence as a mechanic. In my mind, I pictured a uniformed worker under an auto­mo­bile, but that wasn’t his expe­ri­ence. He was a trailer mechanic. He main­tained those 53-foot cargo carriers traveling our highways. He had rebuilt, fab­ri­cated, and welded every part of a trailer. He had never worked in an auto­mo­bile repair shop. His niche was different from my expectations.

My point is this – had I narrowed what TKO’s niche is for these prospec­tive customers, I would’ve saved time and maybe directed their thoughts towards projects with which we could help. This is an important part of one’s elevator pitch — qual­i­fy­ing your prospec­tive customer, and being clear with your services or product. Instead of simply telling people we’re a graphics service provider, it might be better to explain, “we do vehicle graphics for large and small fleets, vehicle wraps, retail graphics, and signage for small and large busi­nesses. What kind of services do you offer?”

This gets the ball rolling and proposes an open-ended to the prospec­tive client for infor­ma­tion gathering on your part. So what kind of services DO you offer?