Do you want people to remember meeting you? Of course you do. More than that, I’ll bet you want them to remember what you do so that if and when they need your services, you’re the first one they call.
At some point in time, we’re all asked what we do, and more often than not, our answer, also known as your elevator pitch, is not nearly as effective as it could be. Many of us either over-simplify or over complicate our answer and leave the person asking it bored or confused. See if you recognize (and if you’re guilty of) one of these examples:
Example question: So, Dave, what do you guys do?
Example answer #1: We’re a financial planning firm.
Example answer #2: We build assets for our clients by investing in high yield derivatives hedged against municipal bonds to offer tremendous capital gains and tax benefits at a low level of risk.
Example #1 pretty much ends the conversation or at least sends it in a different direction and example #2 isn’t much better since most people will have no idea what it meant and will forget it in 3 seconds anyway. Now, for an effective answer the question, follow these four steps:
- Keep it simple, but interesting. Tell them what you do and why you do it or how you do it differently.
- Speak in terms of the benefits to them. If you run an insurance firm, talk about how you specialize in helping protect your clients from unexpected circumstances, not about the insurance.
- Avoid clichés. If you tell your prospects that you’re better because you care, you might as well get yourself a plaid sports coat because you’ll sound like a used car salesman.
- Avoid technical terminology unless it’s absolutely necessary – and it’s usually not.
So, what do you do?
