Everyone has an elevator speech. When you are a small business owner you will be asked about your business and what you do. Unless you are not going to say anything, you will give an answer and that, like it or not, is your elevator speech. It will create an impression, and you want that to be attention grabbing for the right reason, which brings us to elevator speech humor.

People are attracted to humor, of that there is no doubt. There is a place for it though, and “being funny” is a skill that not everyone possesses to the same extent. It can seem as though an elevator speech is an ideal place for humorous delivery, but there are several reasons to treat this thought with great care:

1. Time – there is a reason the elevator speech is sometimes called a 30 second introduction. You don’t have long. There isn’t time to tell a long story or anecdote. You will lose your listener.

2. Humor is very personal. Something you find incredibly funny will leave others cold. If you are talking to an ideal prospect, and they don’t find your elevator speech amusing, they are likely to be confused or worse…..

3. The risk of giving offense – an elevator speech that upsets someone certainly grabs attention, but not in a good way! You can’t assume that a clever play on words that is perfectly innocent from your perspective, is equally inoffensive to everyone. It is a risk you don’t need to take

4. Pressure – coming up with a great elevator speech takes focused effort and practice. Looking for an amusing spin on that puts a lot of pressure on you that you don’t need.

5. Irrelevance – it is easy to come up with an amusing elevator speech that doesn’t actually help your prospect understand that they might want to learn more about you. They MAY remember your speech, but not actually what you do.

So, there are many reasons to be cautious with your elevator speech when it comes to humor. It CAN be effective, but there biggest risk is assuming that amusing is always good – sometimes being clever actually causes confusion, and a confused mind goes away, rather than engaging with you.

The good news is that humor is not essential. You will get great results when you develop an elevator speech that addresses the issues and challenges faced by your target market. They will engage with that and want to find out more about you – you have grabbed their attention even if you didn’t leave them laughing!

For a step by step how to guide to giving your elevator speech real purpose, visit www.30secondelevatorspeech.com

One way to think of an elevator speech is in terms of your response to the age-old question, “What do you do?” It just might be the most asked question you ever hear. It comes up in formal networking settings, at social events, job fairs, or even just meeting other parents at your kids’ school.

It’s particularly relevant in a variety of situations for small business owners, independent professionals, and job seekers.

An elevator speech should be a clear, concise, and compelling bit of communication to get across the essence of who you are and what you can do for someone. It’s also commonly referred to as a 30-second introduction, an elevator pitch, or a 30-second commercial.

What you call it isn’t as important as having a clear purpose for what you want to get accomplished with your elevator speech. The key is delivering a message that is relevant to your intended audience.

As it relates to small businesses and independent professionals, it’s about grabbing attention from your best prospects. And, it’s also important for gaining attention from business contacts, referral sources, and centers of influence that can lead you to potential clients.

In terms of job search, an effective elevator speech communicates who you are, what you’re looking for and how you could benefit a company or organization. It’s about highlighting what you bring to the table.

Your 30-second introduction, or elevator speech, should answer the question, “Why should I pay attention to you?” In other words, for the listener you’re answering the un-asked question, “What’s in it for me?”

When you can grab that kind of attention from your prospects or intended audience, it opens things up to begin a conversation. That’s when you can explore if a relationship will develop.

So here’s the important lesson here. Don’t make your elevator speech about all about you and who you are and what your experiences are. You purpose should be to grab attention from your prospects. And you stand a better chance of doing that by focusing on what they might need help with from you.

Do you wish you knew how to grab more attention with your 30-second introduction or elevator speech?

Then I invite you to check out http://www.30SecondElevatorSpeech.com for a step-by-step interactive how-to program. And when you do, I’m going to give you a FREE bonus. It’s a powerful one hour audio recording from a TeleSeminar we conducted called Fearless Networking, Secrets of the Highly Successful.

Who ever said small business marketing has to be hard?

I’m constantly amazed at just how powerful some of the simplest concepts are. There are many small business marketing ideas that cost next to nothing and really require little to no additional extra work to begin bringing in more business every month.

Unfortunately, the problem with simple marketing ideas is that many small businesses are so quick to excuse them. Intelligent small business owners and independent professionals just like you mistakenly believe a marketing idea has to be sophisticated and intricate to be really valuable.

WRONG! In fact, it’s completely the opposite that’s true. The more complicated the idea, the less chance you have of making it work. Simple doesn’t mean well thought out. It just means not complicated.

One of the simplest small business marketing ideas I’ve ever come across is also one of the most powerful. Many successful professionals have shared that this one technique has been primarily responsible for completely filling their business pipeline.

Even though most people know about this powerful method, it’s surprising how few people actually use it consistently. Perhaps because it’s just too simple and small business owners are always looking for fresh, new, and more sophisticated (i.e., perceived to be higher value) marketing ideas.

After all, if the simple, easy ideas really worked then wouldn’t everyone be using them? Well you would think, but even the simple solutions take some work on your part to be successful. And too often, people want the results without having to do the work.

Simple does not mean you don’t have to do the work. It just means not complicated.

So what is this simple yet incredibly powerful idea that can help you generate significantly more business?
Commit to sending out personal hand-written notes – Thank You notes or Cards.

The reasons to send personal notes including “thank you” notes are practically endless.

* When you make a new contact at a networking event
* When you get a new clients
* When a client takes your advice
* When a client recommends you
* When a business contact recommends a new resource.

Taking time to hand write notes is a lost art in the world of business anymore. Even though personal attention is always more effective, email and voice mail are just so much quicker and therefore make it ineffective in some peoples’ minds.

Consider How To Put This Small Business Marketing Idea To Work For Your Business…

Effective small business marketing is more than just a bunch of ideas and tips. Follow a step-by-step approach to plan your small business marketing strategy. Visit http://www.GetMoreGreatClients.com to learn more.

Whether you call it your 30 second introduction, elevator speech or elevator pitch, it is one of the most important tools in your small business marketing tool kit.

Perhaps the most commonly asked question in the business world is “So, What do you do?” Being able to answer that question in a way that really grabs their attention is the first step.

However you get one chance at it! You need to ensure that you connect in those 30 seconds and to do that, you need to stand out from the crowd.

How do you do that?

Most elevator speeches sound similar. They are primarily a combination of a sales message, perhaps with a tag line or company message, and a list of services. Often there will also be some factual information about the company itself – where their office is located, how long they’ve been in business, years business experience and so on.

There are three main drawbacks to this approach:

1. It sounds the same as most others
2. It is primarily about YOU – and why should your prospect care at this point?
3. You are selling

Most people are going about their business thinking primarily about themselves, not about you. They are looking for solutions to challenges and problems with which they are dealing, they are looking for help.

When you list what you do you are asking them to relate their issues to your services but more importantly, you are not speaking to them on a channel they are listening to – in other words you are talking about yourself and what is important to YOU.

When your message also sounds like numerous examples they have heard before, there is even less chance you will stand out and grab attention.

How do you change this?

1. Define your ideal client in as much detail as you can. Who is your business set up to serve?
2. What problems, issues or challenges is your business set up to solve
3. Stop talking about yourself – when asked what you do, tell them who you help and the problems they are dealing with.

This will sound so different from a standard answer, you will break the pattern they are used to. They will relate to what you say and even if they are not a prospect, they may know someone who is.

In short, you will stand out, and grab their attention.

Do you want to grab more attention with your 30 second introduction or elevator speech? If so I invite you to check out http://www.30SecondIntroduction.com for a step-by-step interactive program.

The business is Amazon. For reasons that are unimportant in their details, suffice it to say it wasn’t Amazon’s fault in any way, a gift for delivery in time for Christmas failed to arrive at all. It was returned to Amazon. On contacting them they got back to me quickly with an apology, a full refund and an offer to waive the shipping cost to ship the items to a different address.

It’s a good recovery, and it’s above what was really required. Remember this isn’t their fault, but they are acting as though it was and making amends accordingly. This is from a large organization, one that you may think wasn’t too bothered by a small order like mine.

The lesson here is that it is never too late to make a good impression. Amazon’s business model is set up to be automated, but of course, things can always go wrong – human error for example. At these times a great opportunity arises to fix it, and actually create a better impression in the minds of your customers and, guess what? They will tell others about it. How are you fixed to create this impression with your clients?

At this time it is worth taking stock of what you have achieved in your marketing efforts this year. It is a good time to reflect on what you have learned, what you know now that you didn’t when you set out on this year’s marketing journey.

Perhaps you have met someone who influenced your efforts positively. Maybe it was a book that gave you particular insight, a new way forward or possibly you had one or more “marketing ah-ha” moments when you made a quantum leap forward.

Whatever it was, developing a mindset of getting better will certainly have thrown you some opportunities of which you took advantage. So take some time to take stock of what those things are (they are always there!) before looking forward to next year, which will be the subject we discuss next week!

Happy Holidays!

This is perhaps an area small businesses can excel. It is not uncommon for “customer service” to be cited as a benefit of using a small business and you, as the owner, have ultimate control over the delivery of your service of course. It is also an area where lessons can be learned when corporate organizations do it well.

Recently I came across an example from one of the ultimate corporate bodies, Starbucks. It is east to critique this organization for delivering the same experience the world over, and the fact that the coffee can be pricey. However there is no denying the quality of that consistency and success of the brand in delivering what it sets out to do.

This success sometimes leads to a busy store of course. The other day I was waiting in line while the staff rushed to complete everyone’s order quickly and correctly. I did have to wait, but not for long. The longest wait was to pay, so much so that my coffee was ready before I was first in line to pay.
I was handed the coffee and told it was “on the house”. What is my feeling towards Starbucks as a result? Hugely positive. All the more so because it is unexpected. There is an assumption (at least there was for me) that this didn’t happen here. The cost to the organization was minimal in overall terms. It isn’t something that happens all the time and isn’t giving away huge amounts of profit. The goodwill generated however is priceless.

This happened many months ago and I still tell people about it. This is outstanding customer service, truly give to get even if I never go back to that particular coffee shop. What can you do in your small business to generate such good feelings in your prospects and clients?

For some businesses, this is critical information. When you are a retailer, or a salon for example, it is very important people know where to find you. However, let’s be honest, for a great many endeavours, where they are physically located isn’t that important. Even when location is a major factor, it probably isn’t of sufficient relevance to be the first thing you tell others.

Why? There are a few reasons this isn’t where you should start:

• It isn’t very relevant – your office is administrative, so where it lies doesn’t affect the service you provide
• It is about YOU – it’s your stuff. Making your message about the issues and challenges faced by your target market is all important. Your location doesn’t tick that box
• Everyone says it – as mentioned above, it is a common tactic. It is safe, certainly not likely to offend, but therefore bland as well. When everyone says the same thing, it loses a huge amount of impact
• It wastes time – you don’t have long to grab attention!

Eliminating this approach will give you time to focus on a more attractive message. That message is much more effective when based in the problems, issues and challenged your target market is dealing with. Unless your location addresses those issues, best to leave it out!

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It’s not going to do you a whole lot of good if you produce a bunch of great marketing material but nobody ever views, reads or hears it. And, it’s pretty hard to keep the ball rolling if someone hears about you once and then you disappear after that.

Lots of small businesses are “getting the word out there.” You’re working hard to get that all important first visibility through networking, doing presentations, handing out business cards, and even getting a visit to the web site. But too often, there’s no way to maintain the contact.

The best way I’ve found to maintain this kind of visibility is with a “stay in-touch” strategy. A stay in-touch strategy is designed to keep you top of mind with clients and potential prospects.

Keep in touch with your clients and prospects over time, and you’ll build more mutually beneficial relationships.

And, the key to making this work – ignored by virtually all small businesses – is to focus on providing information of value. Simply calling every four to six weeks just to “check in” and “see how things are going” won’t get it done. You want to stay visible, you just don’t want to become a pest.

It’s Easier Than You Think.

• Start a blog,
• Start a newsletter,
• Start an email eZine,
• Start a YouTube channel,
• Or start sharing hints and tips with your clients and prospects.

You can get started today!

You don’t even necessarily have to be the creator of all that valuable information. You could simply be the provider to stay top of mind with your clients, prospects, referral sources, and alliance partners.

Stay in touch to stay visible in your small business marketing.

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You also need to be in charge of your marketing. This can cause some introspective thought. As much as you may accept this situation and demand on your time, it may still be uncomfortable – after all, you are not a marketer right? You dodn’t get into this business to market, correct?

Those are mindset barriers to achieving the success you deserve. That is the bad news. The good news is you can push through it, develop the marketing plans and strategies you need to be successful, and really drive your small business or independent practice forward. Ulitmately there are several key points to consider:

1. It’s your business – you get to chose how to run it. That is one of the great attractions of being a business owner after all. With that comes significant responsibility. To any enployees you may have to be sure, but equally important to yourself and to your life goals. As far as marketing goes, it is down to you. That is a simple point and statement of this fact hardly seems necessary, but it can get lost in the hurly-burly of business and underlies everything else
2. You don’t have to do it PERSONALLY – responsibility doesn’t imply you have to do it all yourself. There are plenty of resources available to help you define your marketing strategies and plans and many more to help you implement those plans. You still set the overall business plan and drive the marketing, but you don’t have to be the one who actually DOES everything.
3. Commit, measure, change as necessary, improve – part of taking that responsibility is setting the commitment. However you feel about marketing generally, or how it applies to you specifically, you need to commit to a) devoting energy to it and b) selecting appropriate tools for your message and market. Once in action, you need to measure the results, take action where necessary to adjust to your goals, and make continual improvements.

You have what it takes. Marketing is a key part of any small business – without a consistently applied plan and strategy, consistently attracting quality clients to the business will prove elusive. You drive that and there is plenty of help available to get you there, to develop the skills and implement the things you don’t really want to do. However, as obvious as it may seem, you never lose overall oversight and control – after all, it is your business!

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