You Need This When You Meet People!
Transcript:
Hi! I’m Sherri Wilson, a strategist, educator, and introverted entrepreneur. I love entrepreneurs and I love helping you, my introverted friends, build a life and business true to who you are.
Today I want to talk about one of the most important but also seemingly difficult tools every entrepreneur needs to have—your verbal business card a.k.a. elevator speech, which is a 30-60 second summary of what you do. Unfortunately, most elevator speeches are boring and fail to stick out so people even remember!
I originally taught this at a lunch and learn at our local Chamber of Commerce and thought it’d be beneficial you guys as well. The reason I feel it’s so important to work on it now and practice it beforehand is because introverts don’t always do the best “on the spot” or “on the fly.” Some of you might but overall it can help to have a general idea or it even memorized beforehand. But don’t sound like a robot!
Key Thought
“A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship.”
Ok. So here’s the KEY THOUGHT: Think of your elevator speech as your verbal business card. The key to an effective elevator speech is crafting it in such a way that you become a splinter in the mind of your potential client.
There are TWO KEY PARTS of your elevator speech that can help you stand out among ALL THE OTHER people who do what you do.
Your fizz. REMEMBER THIS STATEMENT: People NEVER buy products. People buy BENEFITS.
Neurons that fire together wire together.
Are You A Purple Cow?
First, let’s discuss the fizz. The fizz is what makes you a PURPLE COW in the midst of all the other cows. Better is no longer better. DIFFERENT is better. There’s simply too many in the marketplace with the Internet that do what you do. And I find that your fizz is the EXTRA TOUCH only you can bring because of your personality, gift sets, talents, how you see life, etc. I’ve done an entire training you can listen to or read on this topic on my blog.
Ask yourself these questions and really think about them:
What do your clients really desire from you (it goes beyond your product)?
What problems do you solve for your clients?
What experience do you create for your clients?
What do your clients get with you they can’t get elsewhere?
Neurons That Fire Together Wire Together
“The greatest ability in business is to get along with others and to influence their actions.”
Now this is my favorite: neurons that fire together wire together. This is the science of using intensity to create deeper neural wiring in your potential client’s brain using emotion or curiosity or both. Intense, prolonged, or repeated mental firing leaves deeper neural wiring. Using emotion and/or curiosity, you can do this in seconds!
Use emotion TO TAP INTO THE UNSPOKEN DESIRE OF YOUR POTENTIAL CLIENT and use curiosity to PROVOKE QUESTIONS and a conversation so you can build rapport then and there.
Using both is great because you get the conversation going but also PEOPLE BUY OUT OF EMOTION NOT LOGIC IN SPITE OF WHAT THE LOGICAL TELL YOU. Lol!
Listen to these examples:
“Hi, I’m Lauren with Providence Garden. We are a nursery and landscaping company, a one-stop shop for all your outdoor needs.”
This creates the emotion of…”I can go and get all I need there.” Plus you will get a more local, small town feel instead of a chain store feel.
“Hi, I’m Sherri. I train professionals to persuade without saying a word to increase sales and closings.”
The persuade without a word sparks curiosity. Or…
“Hi, I’m Sherri. I train and empower introverted entrepreneurs in the art of persuasion and influence to increase sales, customer satisfaction, and customer retention.”
And a great example from a realtor…
“Hi, I’m Michelle. Have you ever driven by a house and wished you lived there? I can make that happen.”
Here she taps into the desire to buy a desired home with the assurance that she can do it inspiring confidence.
One other thing I’ve done in the past is offer a useful, quality tip with my elevator speech. No one does this or at least any I’ve ever heard. Valuable information is a big commodity today! If you can do that, you’ll for sure stand out.
Remember short, concise with emotion and/or curiosity and you’re golden.
Well, that’s it. I hope this training was beneficial. And I’ll upload the worksheets I handed out at my lunch and learn so you can use them to create your digital biz card. I recommend practicing it with a smile and hand gestures about 25 times (no joke) and then in front of others or even vice versa so they can help you create it. In fact, getting with a small group of business friends and doing this together is a great idea to accelerate the process and make sure it hooks others.
Don’t forget there’s more training on my blog at sherriannewilson.com. Sherri with an “I” and Anne with an “e.” I want to highlight, “What’s Your Fizz?” blog post because it’s reinforce what you learned today. Until next time, build the business and life you love true to who you are.