Guess what? You’re an aspiring singer-songwriter. You have a killer demo in your pocket and Tommy Matola just stepped into the elevator with you. What do you do?
This is, of course, the prime situation for what is known as your “elevator speech.” An elevator speech is a fifteen to thirty second commercial about yourself. In those few short moments, you must sell yourself to whomever you have encountered.
My example is, admittedly, a bit far-fetched. But elevator speech situations really do happen often. Let’s say you are at work heading up to finance and the CFO jumps on the elevator with you. Currently you are stuck in the mailroom, but you have a finance degree and background. Now is your chance to get some real face time with someone who makes decisions.
The point here is that you should always be ready to effectively and quickly pitch you. Regardless of whether you are a painter or a car mechanic - or both - you never know when an opportunity could present itself.
In my case, I could tell fifteen people that I’m a business systems analyst and each of those fifteen people would walk away with a different idea of what I do. These days job titles are becoming less and less telling of what a person actually does that counts. Instead of offering up my job title - which is a great example because it is one of the most wide-ranging titles in IT right now - I ought to have a list of interesting bullet points prepared or a sentence that says what I really do.
For instance, “I make sure The Department employees have access to their information, know how to enter new information and can retrieve whatever information they need whenever they want it.” Yes, it’s a bit cheesy, but it makes it clear that I play a key role in the smooth operation and success of The Department. With my particular job - and a lot of other technical occupations - I have to be careful not to go into tech-speak with the wrong people. The CEO doesn’t care that I use a lot of CASE statements to make sure that there’s no duplicate data in my T-SQL queries. On the other hand, The CTO might.
This brings up the idea of having a flexible elevator speech that can be tailored based on your audience. This doesn’t need to be far-reaching by any means, you just need to make sure you are giving the right information to the right person for maximum impact.
Let’s use another example and say that I’m an admin assistant. I could say, “I answer phones and file paperwork.” Or, I could say, “I organize information and provide customer service to keep things running smoothly in the office.” While you are essentially saying the same thing, you have reworded it to show the benefits of your duties, rather than just an “I do this” statement. Adding a “because” factor to your elevator speech can greatly increase its interest and effectiveness.
Self-promotion is often not a comfortable suit for anyone to slip into, but we all must do it at one time or another. I say, instead of doing it just when you have to, be ready to use any opportunity you can (without being obnoxious or braggy about it, of course) to make business associates aware of problems you solve and the positive outcome your work creates.
And, remember, “elevator speech” is only a term. This type of self-promotional message can be used in any medium from email and IM to resumes and social networking profiles. If you are delivering in person, be clear and make eye contact. Whatever you do, make sure you don’t come off as timid or shy. If you don’t sell yourself effectively, who will?
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They say always have an elevator speech (we call them lifts). The idea can be used anywhere as long as it grabs the persons attention and makes them want to know more.
I think that there is no perfect speech. First, you have to make that person laugh and then introduce yourself. Jokes grab the attention therefore everybody should learn to be funny.
Self-promotion is very hard to do because I get really nervous, not only in the elevator as you just don’t know when you will meet the right person.
Elevated words in an elevator. Very nice. Thanks for the tips!
The flexibility part is very important. Unless you know the technology knowledge base of the listener, it seems best to start off with the more general description. If the person needs to know more detail, s/he can easily ask a question. Pay attention to what they ask, the vocabulary they use, and sculpt your reply to be appropriate for the level the listener has revealed to you.
This a good tips and yes, agree with you that everyone is best seller of his product. Thanks
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I get amazed when I go to networking meetings and how many people can’t even say what their business is about and fill up 30 sec. in time.I make sure I use every second.
It’s fascinating how many people talk about preparing and rehearsing their 30 second speeches, but when the push comes to shove, start mumbling and start running in circles.
Very interesting writing Sara, you inspired me to do some thinking on how I present myself in first impression type situations!
I have long said if you aren’t willing to promote yourself, then why should anyone else bother doing.
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Ya thats right that the idea can be used anywhere as long as it grabs the persons attention and makes them want to know more.
You guys bring up some excellent points. I think we all know we should have an elevator speech just like we all know we need to recycle or save money for a rainy day. But just like those things, not everyone follows through with what they need to do. Also, no matter how prepared they are, some people have social anxiety that prohibits them from opening or steering a conversation about themselves or their business.
Brad, I completely agree with you on that. You can’t expect people to just somehow figure out that they need your services. Word of mouth is great, but I think we need to participate in that as well. It can be uncomfortable to learn how to “sell yourself,” but, like you said, if you don’t do it then who will? If you have a small niche with good overall communication, your marketing can grow legs of its own eventually, but it has to start with you.
Sara
Self promotion is kinda hard. Thank’s for this because the idea helps me a lot. This is very intersting
HI !
that’s completely true. Your ideas are great. they helped me.
Thanks
Steel angles
self promotion is the hardest thing to do.Why I said that? because I experienced that. I was really nervous and felt a little bit pity for myself.
Self Promotion is hard but when you get use to it, .. It is pretty easy.
Hi Sara,
I can relate to this, when I first became a self-taught webmaster, when people asked what I do I would say “I have some websites”, but then I thought, DUH I am a WEBMASTER, how much better does THAT sound than I have some websites.
It’s funny but many times we don’t really see our own expertise and acknowledge that and the value of it, the fact that I scrambled around and learned piece by piece how to put together a site, I still did it and THAT really makes me a webmaster!
It is not easy to self promote. To give talks also kind of a challenging task. Elevator speach will help on that. The right skill for it will get a good results. Thanks for the post
Self promotion is not that easy! It is one of the hardest thing to do for me! Thank’s for the post it is very helpful.