Got Your Elevator Speech Ready?
If you're starting or buying your own business and aren't quite sure what an elevator speech is - or why you'd even want one - let me explain.
The term "elevator speech" - which has many other uses - is based on the assumption that as you walk into an elevator you run smack dab into someone you haven't seen in years.
You push the button for 22, he or she the one for 18.
While you're waiting for the door to close, you exchange a few pleasantries, then, as the elevator starts upward, he or she says, "Wataya doin' these days? It's time for your "elevator speech," a way for you to summarize in 60 seconds or less the work do, for whom, and why you love it so much.
Can you do it?Actually, can you do it in a way that makes sense, that's impressive, and that contains everything you consider worth knowing about you and your work? Many can't.
And that's nothing to be ashamed of.
Actually, most of us who now can once couldn't.
At least not without a whole lot of fumbling and mumbling, without trying time and again.
And, after the person we wanted to impress had left, remembering some earth-shattering factoid that would have wowed him or her.
So let me suggest an easier way.
Start with a pen or pencil and a blank piece of paper.
No, you're not going to write a speech you'll have to memorize.
There's nothing worse than a "canned" elevator speech you can't complete when the person you're taking with interrupts you.
There you'll sit, brain dead, living proof that CRS - Can't Remember Stuff - is a real mental condition.
What you want to jot down on that paper is just the important stuff, words and phrases, not sentences.
Your job title, or instead maybe a quick description of what you do.
The name of your company.
The kinds of problems you and your company solve for clients or customers.
Maybe the fact that all your clients are multi-nationals, or perhaps you've targeted start-ups instead.
How you truly do enjoy what you're going.
Whatever's important to you, important about you, weave those things into a brief but interesting free flowing story you feel comfortable telling - whether in an elevator, when meeting someone for the first time at a seminar, or even at one of those "After 5" socials sponsored by your Chamber or the Rotary.
Keep in mind that however you decide to tell your story - about how you help people or companies solve their problems - your elevator speech is also a great tool for creating new business.
The term "elevator speech" - which has many other uses - is based on the assumption that as you walk into an elevator you run smack dab into someone you haven't seen in years.
You push the button for 22, he or she the one for 18.
While you're waiting for the door to close, you exchange a few pleasantries, then, as the elevator starts upward, he or she says, "Wataya doin' these days? It's time for your "elevator speech," a way for you to summarize in 60 seconds or less the work do, for whom, and why you love it so much.
Can you do it?Actually, can you do it in a way that makes sense, that's impressive, and that contains everything you consider worth knowing about you and your work? Many can't.
And that's nothing to be ashamed of.
Actually, most of us who now can once couldn't.
At least not without a whole lot of fumbling and mumbling, without trying time and again.
And, after the person we wanted to impress had left, remembering some earth-shattering factoid that would have wowed him or her.
So let me suggest an easier way.
Start with a pen or pencil and a blank piece of paper.
No, you're not going to write a speech you'll have to memorize.
There's nothing worse than a "canned" elevator speech you can't complete when the person you're taking with interrupts you.
There you'll sit, brain dead, living proof that CRS - Can't Remember Stuff - is a real mental condition.
What you want to jot down on that paper is just the important stuff, words and phrases, not sentences.
Your job title, or instead maybe a quick description of what you do.
The name of your company.
The kinds of problems you and your company solve for clients or customers.
Maybe the fact that all your clients are multi-nationals, or perhaps you've targeted start-ups instead.
How you truly do enjoy what you're going.
Whatever's important to you, important about you, weave those things into a brief but interesting free flowing story you feel comfortable telling - whether in an elevator, when meeting someone for the first time at a seminar, or even at one of those "After 5" socials sponsored by your Chamber or the Rotary.
Keep in mind that however you decide to tell your story - about how you help people or companies solve their problems - your elevator speech is also a great tool for creating new business.
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