Marketing Action Club BLOG

What is the purpose of an elevator speech? What are you trying to get accomplished with a 30-second introduction?

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.

Have you ever noticed how many times the simplest small business marketing ideas end up working the best?

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.

I have heard the lines at the returns counter are longest right after Christmas. This is when all the unwanted or incorrectly thought out gifts are returned of course. I came across a great example of how this provides you with a way to market your core values to your customers or clients at this time – it’s an online example and, whilst not a small business, provides a great lesson.

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?

As hard as it is to believe that we are closing in on the end of 2009, it is indeed close to year end. Before that, many business are taking a well earned break for the festivities over the next few days.

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!