Inventory vs. Capacity - What's in a word?

I attended a Geek Dinner tonight down in Salt Lake. I appreciate what the organizers of these dinners are trying to do in building a network among programmers. Having attended many of these type of networking dinners, the awkwardness of some attendees is apparent.

After the dinner I was talking to Nathan Nelson (Nimble's new mouthpiece) and one of the Junto crew, Ryan Coombs, and a programmer from Provo Labs, (J...?). We were talking about Nimble and I took the opportunity to launch into my elevator pitch. I always try to take advantage someone who's never heard of the company or offering.  I try to stick with what we use as 'sales copy' while I'm talking and then ask for feedback to gauge how effectively I'm communicating and the level of understanding they have. The idea is to build the briefest, most effective terminology to describe exactly what we do.

Tonight I gained feedback that I think will fundamentally change the way we present ourselves to business clients.

I have been describing Nimble as a way for any local business to, 'manage their unused or excess inventory in real time'.  Those are exactly the words I used tonight. Twice.

Immediately after the second turn of this phrase I was met with, 'unused capacity'. Bingo. That is exactly the term I've been searching for.

'Inventory' sounds like old chairs and supply chain management. "Unused capacity" elicits the impression that every possible revenue producing opportunity is being utilized. Inventory sounds like cost savings. 'Sell your unused capacity' sounds like it's generating revenue and cash flow. Just the kind thing you want as a small business owner.

Changing that one term in explaining our business model describes exactly what we're doing in the clearest and most succinct way. Thanks J.

Update on Sat, March 11, 2006 at 10:27 AM by Jeff Barson

I've since found out that the "J" to which I referred is Jordy from Provo Labs. Thanks Jordy.

Comments

[phil801]

J.... would be Jimmy Zimmerman: http://www.jimmyzimmerman.com/index.html

Glad you've been coming out to the dinners - I don't think I've met you yet, please introduce yourself to me next time! Unfortunately, I don't get much of a chance to meet everyone.