Some call it the elevator speech, or even the 60 second infomercial, whatever you want to call it being able to make an impact on someone who will remember you afterwards is not that easy, or is it?
When I was a complete newbie many years ago after I started my first business, Motivational Steps, I had not even heard of the elevator speech, I just knew that when I met someone there was an opportunity for me to tell people who I was and what I did for a living. I will be honest and share that I live in Canada, but I was born in the UK, I do have a British accent, and even though I don't speak like the Queen, people do love my accent. My accent opens many doors for for me, but if a whole lot of rubbish comes out of my mouth, even with an accent people like, I will be dismissed like a nuisance fly,one swat and I would be gone!
Think of it like this, you want people to know what you do and remember you and you have been advised that by being able to share, in 30-60 seconds, the information about you and your business, you will impact the people you meet and your success is assured. Sounds simple but it's really not.
In my humble opinion the elevator speech works for some but not others and here are a few examples of why that is:
- Some people need to read what they want to say in 60 seconds, they manage to get away with that at networking events, just about, even though it does look kind of stupid. Why does it look stupid? Well, if you don't know who you are and what you do and why you do it well and you need to read it from a piece of paper it really does not offer a good impression and potential clients might think you don't know your own business well enough.
- Using the same elevator speech over and over again on every person you meet is easy, especially if you take time to memorize your script, but, shocker - not everyone likes to be sold to, individuals have different personality types and you can't sell to everyone, let alone sell to everyone in the same way. To some people you meet when you jump in with your elevator speech, you could sound like a robot, or someone who really does not care who they are, but just wants to say their piece and get on with it!
- I think that if you are a dedicated sales person and love your job,love what you do and you believe in the product or service you are selling, then this could be a good candidate for the 60 second elevator speech. The reason being if you are selling the same thing over and over again and know your target market you will target that demographic.
I am not saying that the 60 second informercial/elevator speech is of no use to anyone, but not every individual is good at doing it, so that's when a decision has to be made. If you take me as an example, I dislike saying the same thing over and over again, and I also caught on early in my speaking business that *most* men do not want to know about Health & Wellness, but how many more dollars they can make. This tipped me off to the fact that I should offer presentations on different topics such as Social Media, and many more, but then I instinctively knew I would market to certain demographics who had a need for certain topics, meaning I tailored my "elevator speech to the individuals needs". Knowing who my potential clients were meant, for me, offering a different elevator pitch to match the clients needs.
What works for me might not work for you but I do have a solid system now that has helped me build two businesses so I must be doing something right. First off I want to find out who I am talking to before I dive in with my 60 second infomercial, I am not in a big rush to sell, but to let the other person know I am interested in them, it's not about me. Obviously I start off with the polite "Hello, my name's LindaOJ". It depends on where the conversation is taking place, the time of day, and whether I have met the person before, but not had chance to share who I was in greater detail, before I can commence operation "60 Second to be Memorable".
But typically once I have shared my name, my smile, and of course my Brit accent, the person opens up and shares not only who they are but what they do, how they do it and, another shocker, they share their 60 second infomercial with me! This is quite magnificient, but I now know most of what I needed to know about them and what information I want to share with them. You might think that all is lost for me because after their 60 second infomercial they leave and I never get to see them again, but all is not lost.
It is because I made an impression on them by - listening to them, being interested in them, that they ask if they can contact me to meet for coffee and a chat. We swop business cards and heyho they email me and my plan worked. Notice they emailed me, not the other way around, why is this you may ask? I did not try to sell to them, I did not scare them away, I took away the fear factor and they felt comfortable with me. Also most people today, if they are clever enough and not too lazy to bother, will Google me ( and you) and once they find out I have credibilty, I have a successful business, I am well liked they want to know more about me. This is where building your foundations before you try and sell to others really comes in useful and saves a lot of wasted time, but that's for another article coming soon.
So, I believe we all want to be remembered and we all want to build relationships and we all want to sell to others, if you can successfully master the 60 Seconds Infomercial/Elevator speech and enjoy it, go for it, if not try different ways to be memorable, and always stay true to who you are.
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