I’m sure all of my readers have developed at least one (or more) elevator speeches over their career, yes? That said, the questions become 1. how effective are they? 2. how often are they used? 3. how comfortable are you with using your elevator speech(es)? 4. how must customizing are you able to do, spot-on, to suit the ‘audience’/environment?
There are several schools of thought regarding the proper structure of an elevator speech. If requested, I will describe my favorites in a future post. But in the meantime, I recently heard a key question that I know would be perfect when exchanging elevator speeches and networking with new contacts in general.
My friend and AEC colleague Justin Roy does it again. This is not the first—and certainly won’t be the last—time that I’ve mentioned him as a source of brilliance.
This time, I was involved in a networking situation where my contacts were getting to know one another for the first time. After some introductions and conversation, Justin asked a prudent, pointed question of his newfound contact: “What pain points might I hear people say that should make me think of your firm?” Or, he may have said it more like this: “When I’m out networking, what might I hear from others that should make me think to suggest your firm?”
However it’s worded, its a great question for so many reasons.
There are times when we encounter someone in a networking situation. We like that person, but we have nothing to do with their industry, nor do we fully understand what their firm offers (even after it’s explained to us). But, if we were to recognize key expressions, words, pain points, bellyaches, etc. that should trigger the thought of another contact, then by all means it would be a great opportunity to connect good people with good people.
For example, if any of you were to hear the statement: “Our firm really needs outside expert business development and marketing advice” —-especially from an owner, principal, marketing/BD director, technical staff member, etc within an architectural, engineering, or construction firm, then obviously I hope you would think to suggest Scarlett Consulting.
But people rarely make blatant, direct statements as to the expertise they need. Instead, they are far more likely to be sharing goals, visions, concerns, challenges, obstacles, etc. relating to their firm.
So let’s say that you hear someone say: “We’re looking to position ourselves for the economic upturn”, or “Our firm wants to create a plan/approach for growth”, or “We’ve recently fallen short in our project interviews; something needs to improve”, or “We need to be more organized with our relationship-building/selling process and information sharing for team-selling”….all of those comments are excellent opportunities for you to say: “Hey, if you need some professional assistance, I’d like to connect you with Scarlett Consulting.”
So, that said, think about the things that your prospective clients might share with their colleagues/network. What comments might they make that are clearly opportunities for your firm to help? Write them down and keep them handy.
And equally important, in the spirit of helping others, make sure that you ask the same question of them. Whether they are in your business or not, this is a great way for you to log in your memory bank things to listen for on their behalf in the future.
