Red Leaf Professionals

Have you gotten your ‘elevator speech’ all memorized? Or even figured out? Well, according a real estate agent whose opinions I appreciate, you should be getting ready to ‘get ridda’ that speech. As late as November, 2012, you can find new cues and keys to perfecting your message as noted in this article entitled, How to Craft the Perfect Elevator Speech.”

How cool is that? Throw YOURSELF out of the networking equation and enjoy every meeting that you attend from this moment forward! Don’t go away from your family or other things that you enjoy for any encounter that doesn’t interest you.

Karri Flatta, Realtor in Alberta, Canada wrote that she’s setting an intention to have no elevator speech and to not be ‘pitchy’ in any encounter. Rather, she may give someone her business card if they ask and she remembered to put cards in her purse as she mentions in her post Why This Lethbridge Real Estate Agent Has No Elevator Pitch.

Flatta points out that practicing the elevator speech to be sure it is embedded in your mind is pushing the envelope too far. Asking for feedback about how well the speech delivery is polished is akin to acting. She says her business isn’t acting, it is REAL estate.

Your decorative concrete business isn’t acting school either. It is very REAL and very about meeting the needs of people who have cracks they want fixed or some other rock-hard issue troubling them.

This isn’t as easy as it sounds, but if you can come away from a meeting knowing much more about the other people there and their needs than they have heard from you (maybe know about you), you’ve done the best marketing. Your business is in the place because of your customers. If you don’t have a customer, you have no need to be out there messing with concrete in all kinds of weather. You coulda been playing golf!

In his book, Endless Referrals, Bob Burg recommends that you don’t take YOUR business cards with you at all, but that you gather other people’s cards and stories. Then, you can send them a note later, solidifying the connection. Then give them a call to tell them you’re glad you met them.

Where does the proverbial elevator speech have a place in your business life? I can promise you that when you have worked out your speech, you don’t have to spout it out everywhere to be confident in who you are. The speech strengthens your self-understanding. You will have a better experience at networking events or when meeting other people when you’ve gotten past the tentative feelings about the value of what you have to offer. That tentativeness is certainly something to talk yourself out of. Dumping it on anyone who has the misfortune to be standing still near you is just being ‘pitchy.’