Marketing and Management Update

So…What Do You Do? August 8, 2006

Posted by Tim Raines in: business, marketing , trackback

Marketing and Management Update You’re standing in an elevator and someone asks what it is that you do. How do you respond? For starters, according to Brad Isaac, you have your “elevator speech” planned out.

The idea behind an elevator speech is that if you are stepping onto an elevator and someone asks what you do for a living what do you say? You’ve got 10 floors to convice this person you are someone to get to know - someone to do business with. It is an opportunity to sell yourself or if you don’t have one, you might answer in a way where the person yawns and never gives you a second thought.

Plan your speech ahead and you might just win a new customer. Here are Brad’s tips for getting your speech ready:

Broaden Your Market - Rather than telling your new prospect that you’re a brain surgeon, start with the “healthcare industry”. In most forms of communication with prospects, specific, targeted niche marketing is the way to go. But this is someone you’ve just met. This, however, is an unqualified prospect.
Power Verbs - Don’t use passive language. Don’t use a lot of nouns. Building on the previous example, saying you’re in the healthcare industry is not nearly as interesting as “I work in the healthcare industry, saving patients lives and working to ensure their successful long-term recovery.”
Numbers Hook - Again, with the previous example, have you saved lives or have you saved over 100 lives this year alone? The second sounds much better.
Solve a Deep Need - The examples above might not solve a deep need for everyone, but if you had a brain tumor or knew of someone who had head trauma, I’m sure you’d be extremely interested.

The bottom line is that brain surgery probably is more interesting than your job. Using these tips, however, in your first brief meetings with people (and all your marketing efforts, for that matter), just might gain you a few more prospects than you’re getting now.