Regular readers know I write … and rant … a lot about Elevator Speeches, the simple answer to the often-asked networking question ‘What do you do?’ Sometimes maligned and often done poorly, Elevator Speeches are still a fact of life when you network.
But, here’s a clever new spin on that concept. My colleague, veteran marketing expert Larry Mattes, of M A Marketing Communications, is the self-proclaimed originator of the ‘Escalator Speech’ concept.
Here’s how it works – assume you’re going down on the escalator as someone passes by you going up on the other one. You only have a few seconds to communicate. So, your Escalator Speech is an even more concise version of your Elevator Speech.
Mine is ‘I empower business leaders to communicate confidently’. Short, simple and likely to generate some questions when the other person turns around and follows me back down.
Crafting something that concise is a lot of work, I admit. But, it’s well worth the time and effort if you want to make the Varsity Networking Team.
Thanks for the great idea, Larry. I’ll attribute it to you the next four or fives times I make reference to it. Then, I’ll forget where I first heard it and eventually claim it as my idea. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.