Testing An Elevator Speech -
Refine To Taste.

by omni
(Tahoe, CA)

Dozens of ideas floated onto my notebook. Days spent laboring over which elevator pitch to use (I was looking for my first sentence, the one that said it all), and finally it hit me. When I told my nearest friend, she instantly looked confused.

So I had to reconsider my original choice. And I did so only to find that again nobody understood. Even the target customers didn't understand. I was still speaking in shop talk.

Each time I say an elevator speech I'm paying close attention to how the person listening responds. Not only what they say or ask, but mostly their facial expression. Then I experiment around a bit with different ideas, and the phrasing that I find most understandable to the most amount of people become my most used elevator speech.
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Thanks for this comment Omni. I have to admit developing the perfect elevator speech is hard and from what people tell me I have come to wonder if being able to get the spoken word, word perfect, really IS so important.

When you connect with someone and tell them briefly the essence of what you do (without it sounding forced or rehearsed) they will, or will not resonate with what you are saying, express interest and ask some questions. You can take it from there.

However in written form there does need to be a concise, easily understood description on your business card, website, LinkedIn profile etc.

Back to a-great-elevator-speech.html for more hints on getting your message out there.

And visit How To Network for more ways to make your networking really work.