There we were, deep in the forest, exhausted from our hike through the deep, fluffy snow. As we paused on a ridge, gulping the frosty winter air, my dear friend, Brian Craig, rolled onto his back, lifted his snowshoes into the air, and yelled, "Let's go!" With that, he launched himself over the side, sliding on his back wildly to the bottom of the valley. I had to follow him.
I've followed Brian several times throughout my life. Every journey has been excellent. Remind me to tell you about the moped stuck in a deep Irish ditch at midnight in a torrential downpour.
Today, Brian led me on another "journey", this time a bit more sedate. He shared an article regarding elevator speeches. While the author focused primarily on the typical, "What line of work are you in?"-type of answer, my mind launched itself over the ridge, forcing me to follow. Here is what I came up with.
As business to business practitioners, we need elevator speeches for many things, including:
- our company
- our products (each of them)
- our staff members
- ourself
- our goals
- etc.
Our varied target audiences are interested, caring, and passionate - but only about the specific topics that they are focused on. And their lives are equally as full, jumbled, and demanding as ours. To help them determine if they should give us more resources (time, energy, network, money, etc.) we need to break through the clutter. Grabbing them by the emotions with a riveting elevator speech on the key individual they MUST meet is helpful. Igniting their passion with a concise product review can pique their interest and solicit an inquiry.
If identifying and creating key CONTACT moments is your assignment, then build a stable of elevator speeches for everything that matters to you, your company, and your target audience. And don't do it alone. Take a lesson from Brian and lead your colleagues over the edge by helping them develop elevator speeches for their critical elements of concern.
A follow-on post on elevator speeches appears here.