Your Elevator Speech

COC Business Education—4-15-09

The elevator speech—it’s that short speech, 10-30 seconds long speech you give on the elevator from the 10th floor to the lobby to explain your business to someone trapped in the elevator with you! Most of us are not doing business in tall buildings so we should rename it as our mall speech or waiting in the line speech.

I have always thought of the elevator speech as a qualifying speech. Based on my elevator speech, does the other person show any interest in my business? If so, I can go on; if not, I move on to a different subject.

The purpose of the elevator speech is to engage the other person, to check out to see if they have interest in your business. It is not a sales pitch.
The elevator speech consists of 100-150 words, short, sharp, engaging, easy to remember and usually with curiosity attached.

Three Step Format

I have found the best format to be a simple three step process. When someone asks what do you do?

The first step, “Well, do you know how—then identify a problem, a fact or a desire that most people have.

The second step, the person answers, “Yes.”

The third step, “Well, I--share what you do, with whom and benefits they receive.

My elevator speech goes like this,
What do you do?
Well, do you know how more people are buying products from the internet?
Yes,
Well, I show small business owners how to use the internet to get more of those customers to buy from
them.
Really, how do you do that?

Let’s look more closely at this structure. You start with a common problem, a fact or desire that the person can relate with. You are engaging them. You are building a common ground with them. You don’t want to use something like, “Well did you know that 67% of the people start their shopping by going to the internet?” People don’t know if that is true or untrue!

You want to solicit a “Yes response” indicating you have engaged them.

With the third step, you are telling them what you do with whom you work and what benefits you provide. If you start with the problem of people needing money to pay their energy bills, you might say, I want to say, I show them a way so they no longer need to worry about their energy bills. Problem—solved.

Typically, they say, “Wow, how do you do that?” I have left them with some curiosity and now they give me permission to talk more about my business.

Where to Use the Elevator Speech

Where can you use your elevator speech?

• Use it on your business card
• Use it as a tag line for your commercials
• Use is as part of your branding
• Use is on your website.

It captures your business in a nutshell.

Al Hanzal
www.successfulmarketingtools.com/wordpressblog