Your Elevator Speech – Have You Updated Yours Recently?

By Jean Hanson
Posted Thursday, January 20, 2005

Do you have an elevator speech? Does it get people’s attention? Do they ask you lots of questions when you tell them what you do?

Every great elevator speech needs to answer these key questions:

1. Who am I? (introduce yourself)

2. What business am I in?

3. What group of people do I service? (be specific – do you have a niche?)

4. What is my USP (Unique Selling Proposition)? What makes me different from the competition?

5. What benefits do my customers derive from my services?

Instead of saying this:

Hi - I'm Jean Hanson and I'm a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant is an off-site administrative assistant . . . (yawn)

Say this:

Hi - I'm Jean Hanson and I'm a virtual assistant. What I do is give my clients more time so that they can grow their business and make more money!

Here are some ways you can enhance your introduction:

-= A good elevator speech needs to be practiced so it rolls off your tongue and sounds perfectly natural. You may feel funny about doing this at first, but try practicing in front of a mirror. Also practice your speech in the car on the way to the event.

-= Project and speak clearly, but don’t drag. Talk with confidence, pride and enthusiasm. Display your passion for what you do.

-= Use clean and simple language your audience can understand. Don’t use a lot of technical jargon.

-= Have at least a couple versions of your speech. Many people belong to weekly networking groups, so having several different ways of talking about what you do keeps it interesting, so they don’t hear the same thing every week.

-= Personalize it. Use personal stories your audience can relate to.

-= Use descriptive words; paint a picture, using hearing and sight.

-= Tell them how you solve your customers’ problems. Give an example of how you recently solved a problem for one of your clients.

-= Talk about Benefits, not Features.

-= Answer their unspoken question – Why should I do business with you?

-= Eliminate the risk of doing business with you (maybe you could offer 2 free hours of service, or 100% money back guarantee).

-= And finally, answer this question for yourself: What exactly is the role of my business in the life of my customer?

About the Author
Jean Hanson is a Certified Professional Virtual Assistant. Discover how partnering with a virtual assistant will give you more time to do the things you love to do! Visit her at (http://www.vaofficesolution.com). Jean is also the author of the eBook, Virtualize Your Business - (http://www.virtualizeyourbiz.com)