When I work with business professionals to enhance their Elevator Speech, I remind them of the major similarities between it and a typical workplace presentation:
- Audience-Centric focused – aimed at the listeners with a high level of interest for them.
- Easy to understand – no confusing acronyms, terms or buzz words.
- Benefits rich – emphasizing who benefits rather than listing a string of facts or feature statements.
- Interactive – helping to create a dialogue rather than a monologue by encouraging and responding to questions.
- Concise – short enough to maintain interest and still accomplish its objective.
- Physical energy – focused eye contact, appropriate gestures and a smile on your face.
- Vocally enthusiastic – delivered with strong volume and inflection, yet at a pace comfortable for the listeners.
- Confident – projecting that you believe in what you’re saying and want them to as well, but never sounding cocky.
- Practiced – but not memorized, so it sounds spontaneous and natural.
Because your Elevator Speech is still a speech, strive to embrace the ‘3 Es’:
- Effective – saying the right things to the right people for the right reasons
- Efficient – saying those right things in the right way, with vocal and physical energy.
- Engaging – making the message compelling, interesting and memorable.
So, the next time someone at a networking event asks you what you do, deliver your Elevator SPEECH answer with credibility, competence … and confidence.