You’ve just met a business prospect or potential referral source. Maybe you’re meeting with an existing client, sitting in a leads group meeting or attending a business mixer. These situations present a great opportunity to introduce yourself and offer some information about what you provide.

What do you do? If you’re like many business owners, consultants or marketing or sales specialists, you go through the entire list of products, services or benefits you provide.

Then what happens? The very person or persons you try to impress roll their eyes and back away with some vague excuse about being late to wash their trucks.

What went wrong? You’re just trying to demonstrate you could be a valuable resource.

Social media offers an apt term for what you just did: TMI. Too much information. You sent the person into information overload and turned them off like a tap.

Most people will only remember two to four things off a list unless you’re talking to someone with your expertise or background. But why would you do that? You might as well talk to yourself.

Instead, hone your message or pitch into a list of three things — OK, you might occasionally need four things. Perhaps you need different lists of three things to present to different prospects or clients.

My rule and approach: Please don’t tell me more than three things — three types of insurance or three features of the car I’m considering buying. When you start on the fourth item on the list, I forget the first item.

Consider, for example, the friendly financial specialist in a leads group. When her turn comes to present a 60-second pitch, she stuffs everything into that short span. “Hi. I’m Susie Money. I specialize in helping people become financially secure and plan for retirement. I provide them with life, accident, health, disability, long-term care, auto, boat, motorcycle, renter’s and homeowner’s insurance as well as such investment products as mutual funds, stocks, bonds, annuities, retirement accounts, investment advice and financial allocation services on a commission or fee basis.”

If a quiz were to follow this exhausting list, what would you remember about Susie’s products or services? Likely either the three things of greatest interest to you or the last three things she mentioned. What if nothing caught your interest — including the last three things? How likely would it be to do business with her? Would you refer others to her? Would you have confidence she’s competent enough to trust with the needs of your clients, friends or family? Or, do you suspect she’s a struggling generalist throwing products and services against the proverbial wall in the hope something sticks?

When you talk with a potential referral source or center of influence, you count on them to represent your business to potential clients. If you own an automotive repair shop and talk with the owner of an insurance agency, you don’t want to give them your entire services and products list. Provide just enough information to make them comfortable to recommend you to clients. The top three services you find are most often needed by the agent’s clients are enough. Anything more is TMI.

The three things rule applies as well to your brief presentations — an “elevator pitch,” so named because it’s short enough to make during an elevator ride. This could be your only chance to make a good first impression, so ensure your pitch is concise, focused and simple. See? Those three things make my point.

Your pitch should be easy to remember — for you as well as the people with whom you just spoke.