A lady walked up to me at a networking event recently and introduced herself. “Hi, I’m Heather Andrews,” she said with a smile. “I’m a financial planner.”
“Whoa, so sorry,” I joked. “We need to make you a little cardboard sign and get you to a street corner!”
“No, you don’t understand,” she responded. “I help people protect their savings, especially in this down economy.”
“Well, that sounds very valuable.” I replied. “Why didn’t you say that in the first place?”
When introducing yourself at a networking or business event, do you tell people what you do or about the services you provide? Most people, like Heather, simply provide job titles when making introductions. This is a mistake. A much more effective introduction in the business world is to create a perfect elevator speech that informs people about the specific services you provide and how you can help them. The right kind of introduction engages people to ask questions to find out more about what you do.
These five simple steps can help you create the perfect elevator speech:
Determine your true value. This can be a bit more difficult than you might imagine. Your true value is the ultimate benefit people receive when they make use of your product or service. Let’s assume you’re a financial planner like Heather. The benefit you provide is that you help people manage their investments and retirement funds. Helping people manage their investments is not, however, the ultimate benefit. Heather certainly manages her client’s investments, but the ultimate benefit she provides is protecting their savings from present market risks.
Develop an interesting introduction. Introduce yourself in a way that expresses your true value and engages people to want to ask, “How do you do that exactly?” Your introduction needs to be brief and to the point. No one cares what instrument you played in the 3rd-grade band. Make sure your introduction is a statement of the true value and ultimate benefit of your service, not something that makes people feel like you’re playing games with them. I once had a man say to me, “I make women happy!” It turned out he was a hair stylist, and while his was a true statement, I was very leery about asking him how he accomplished that. If Heather initially said to me, “I help people protect their savings from the present market risk.” I’m sure, given the economy, I would’ve asked her, “How do you do that?”
Develop a response to the question, “How do you do that?” You’ve introduced yourself using your value statement, but now you’re asked, “How do you do that?” Answer the question in a way that explains how you provide the specific value and prompts people to ask, “What are your qualifications?” Using Heather as an example, her response to, “How do you do that?” could be, “I do it by teaching people the practices of those who haven’t seen a decline in their savings.” I would then be inclined to ask more specific questions about her skill sets and strategies.
Establish yourself as an expert. This is the point in the conversation where you tell the person you’re talking with about the specifics of your business, your professional background and specific life experiences that make you an expert in your particular line of work. For example, Heather can begin to establish her credentials by saying, “I’m a certified financial planner with The Really Big Investment Company, and I’ve been in the financial planning industry for 15 years. …”
Exchange business cards so you can stay connected. Carry plenty of business cards with you and give one to everybody you meet. When you get back to your office, send out “Nice to have met you!” e-mails to each person you met and add their contact information to your database. Invite them to join your Linkedin, Plaxo, Twitter or Facebook network. It’s also a great idea to create a newsletter, a blog or use direct mail to keep them connected to you and your services.
Create that perfect elevator speech and begin telling people what value and services you provide and not just your title. Soon you’ll be the one being introduced to everyone at the next networking event. “Hey, have you met Bob? He’s the guy who makes women happy?”
Dan Norman is a sales performance expert, a professional speaker, a columnist and the author of Top Ten Selling – The Lumberjack Chronicles. He has hired and developed thousands of sales representatives and hundreds of sales managers. Throughout his career, Dan has made a science of understanding the fundamentals of what it takes to be the “best-of-the-best” in sales and management performance. To book Dan Norman to speak at your next event, visit www.toptenselling.com. © 2009 Dan Norman. All rights reserved.
