It’s not unusual to stammer when someone asks you what you do. As common as that question is, it can lead to a moment where the deer is staring directly in the headlights!
The basic difference between an Elevator Speech and a Personal Brand WHY Story boils down to the difference between “what” you do and “why” you do it.
Both should create an emotional connection, but the Elevator Speech is a statement about what you do and who you serve, your Personal Brand WHY Story focuses on why you do it and who you serve. It digs deeper to the heart of the matter.
To give you an idea, here’s my Elevator Speech:
“You know how most business owners talk about what they do in technical and logical terms? Well, that’s a problem because their prospects and clients make decisions from emotion not from logic. So, I teach financial professionals and entrepreneurs how to get to the “YES!” quicker, by using communication strategies that appeal to the emotional side of the brain.”
With my example, if I was going to take this one step deeper, I might ask, “Can I share with you why I do this, because I believe that’s even more important than what I do.” And then I share my WHY story.
Crafting Your Elevator Pitch
You want your Elevator Pitch to be clear and concise and appeal to your ideal client. Here are three steps to crafting an effective pitch that will leave an impact on your target market.
- Choose a verb. Do you coach, help, train? How about guide, advise, manage? Find the right action word that describes what you do.
- Identify your target market and be as specific as possible. For example, do you target pre-retirees? Or do you target dentists who are five years from selling their practice and retiring? If you’re afraid you’ll exclude prospects by getting too specific, I get it. But I have found that the narrower my target market, the more business I get. You might want to craft a few different Elevator Speeches to use in various settings to attract a variety of prospects.
- Choose a few outcomes your clients will benefit from by working with you. And again, be specific and DO NOT use industry terms or jargon when describing the benefits! Use the words they would use when describing what they want or want to avoid. For example, “I advise dentists who are five years from retiring on how to sell their business in a way that sets them up for life.”
Your Elevator Speech won’t appeal to everyone, and frankly, that’s the point. It can help you weed out prospects who aren’t a good fit. However, if your pitch resonates with the person you’re talking to, they will think, “That’s me!” and respond to you with, “Tell me more!”
As for the Personal Brand WHY Story, I’ve written many blogs on this subject, so to dig deeper on this, click the links to learn how it can persuade and influence and how your WHY Story can do what your credentials cannot.
If you’d like my template for creating your Personal Brand WHY Story, please fill out the form on our popup box at https://crazygoodtalks.com/ or shoot us an email!
AND if you don’t want to DIY your Personal Brand WHY Story. We’d love to help! Book some time and start a conversation!
