The Flaws of the Elevator Speech
In my travels to various conferences throughout North America, invariably I come across speakers who present on why every entrepreneur should have an elevator speech.
The concept of having a brief, compact statement to make when someone inquires about what it is you do makes sense. However, the inherent flaw with virtually every elevator speech I’ve heard is that they are essentially a pitch. Everything you say to a client or prospective client is either a “me too” or “so what” to them. A pitch isn’t engaging and often is a compelling “me too”. Keep in mind, one of our core goals is to help entrepreneurs evolve from a mindset of salesmanship to that of stewardship and in the process increase their persuasive impact. Great things happen when you stop trying to impress people and instead start striving to impress upon them how your approach and philosophy is unique.
So here is my challenge, if you have created an elevator speech yourself, does it incorporate the fundamentals of scarcity, professionalism and the Law of Attraction or is it a data dumping “stop me when you hear something you like” spiel? Does it chase and make you look needy or does it attract?
As an example, not long ago we had a consulting client of ours – a very high caliber financial advisor - begin deploying our recommendation process to his best triple-a clients with incredible results. One of his best clients said in response, “You know, I didn’t realize you were accepting new clients. I’m going to a charitable function in a couple of days and I want you to come so that I can introduce you to some of my buddies.”
The advisor called us up frantically looking for help to refine his elevator speech so that when the friends of his client asked him the inevitable question “What do you do?” or “What’s your opinion on…?”, he would be prepared. “Once they realize I’m a financial advisor to their friend, they’re going to ask me about the markets, gold, oil and every other topical issue out there. I need to be ready.”
We told him to “86” his elevator speech and instead use a variation of the Advocate Referral Process from our curriculum. A couple weeks later we heard back from him. Sure enough, he got peppered with questions from his clients’ friends and the advisor replied as follows:
“You know, now is probably not the best time to get into this. But as your buddy probably told you, I do have a valued added process that I offer to friends of clients where I make myself available to act as a sounding board. I don’t want to claim miracles will occur but one of two things always happens during these meetings. Either I’ll validate that your current approach is solid or I’ll reveal a few minor flaws that can be adjusted and minor adjustments can often lead to major improvements. Either way, it will be a great investment of your time. Give me your card and my assistant will contact you and set a time to meet.”
Sure enough, the advisor went out for lunch with the friend of his high net worth client and the friend became a client himself after the initial meeting and the subsequent fit process.
As we often say, when you stop selling your persuasive impact with go through the roof. That is the difference between chasing and attracting.