Does your elevator speech project your interest in your prospects and their needs? Or does it project your interest in yourself?
During networking situations, your conversation partners may be wondering “What’s in this for me?” Here are three basic steps to help you focus on what your prospects care about most – which should become what you care about most!
Step 1:
Identify the benefits that your products and services have for your listeners and their organizations. It’s all about the benefits:
Increasing profits
Improving productivity
Reducing the cost of doing business
Enhancing their competitive edge
Mention the benefits that are of greatest interest to your listeners at that moment.
Step 2:
Edit your content to be as concise as possible – 30 seconds is a good length. One way to hook listeners is to identify a problem that you can solve: a problem that makes them think, “I have that problem, too, and I really want a solution!”
Step 3:
Use phrases that help you sound authentic and conversational: language that is “mouth and ear friendly”: easy for you to speak and easy for your listeners to hear and repeat. Your elevator speech should be memorable.
To summarize:
Focus on the benefits that your listeners care about most
Mention a problem that you can solve: one that they want solved!
Make it conversational, brief, and easy for listeners to repeat
Create an elevator speech that demonstrates your ability to address the needs of your prospects, and they will be interested!
When you speak with clients and prospects, would you like to build trust faster? You can do this by projecting warmth and a spirit of caring with a technique that actors have been using successfully for decades. It’s called “Endowment”.
The Endowment technique involves the process of endowing your conversation partners and business audiences with qualities that will help you treat them in a way that builds trust. Rehearse with the Endowment technique with the notes that you have for any business talk. This will help you feel and project warmth spontaneously, even with challenging prospects and clients.
Here are three steps for rehearsing with the Endowment Technique:
Step 1: Think of a person from your life in whose presence you feel cared for, trusted, admired, and respected. This person might be male, female; any age; alive or not.
Step 2: Use the power of imagination before you begin rehearsing aloud. Choose a spot on the wall to place your focus, and in your mind’s eye, “see” that person, right there in front of you. Most importantly, take time to become flooded with positive feelings that you have about this person.
Step 3: As you speak your content aloud, imagine that the person is right there with you, and speak as if you were talking directly to that individual.
Rehearsing with the Endowment technique will have a very positive effect on the tone of voice that you use. The more you practice it, the easier it will be for you to project warmth and spirit of caring. Rehearse with the Endowment technique, and build trust faster.
Do your prospects believe that you will be a true business partner for them? To help you achieve this goal, I shared with you in my last video the first three steps of active listening. Today, I’ll share the final 2 steps.
I shared Step 1 for active listening: Blend; Step 2: Backtrack; and Step 3: Clarify.
Now, here are the final two steps:
Step 4: Summarize
Here, your goal is to show that you have listened and understood. Paraphrase what your partners have just said. Say something like, “So, if I understand you correctly…xyz. Paraphrase their meaning as accurately and concisely as you can.
Step 5: Confirm
Here, your objective is to be sure that your conversation partner feels satisfied. Ask: “Do you feel understood? Is there anything else?”
When you use the five steps of active listening (Blending, Backtracking, Clarifying, Summarizing and Confirming), you’ll be better able to convince your prospects that you’ll be a true business partner for them.
That’s a strategy for building relationships and generating business.
When you’re in the middle of a challenging business conversation, and you’re certain that your tone of voice has been “above reproach”, what else can you do to increase harmony?
I recently talked with you about the importance of monitoring your tone of voice to increase harmony in challenging conversations. Here are three more strategies to help guarantee your success:
#1: Give positive reinforcement.
We often need to continue having business conversations with people whom we have already experienced to be difficult. Be on the lookout for their positive behavior, and acknowledge it verbally. Whenever you witness behavior that you would like to see repeated, you can say something like, “That’s one of the things I admire about you: your ability to ___”. Identify the positive behavior; praise it.
#2: Interrupt people tactfully when they are shouting, dominating a conversation or meeting, or complaining with increasing negativity.
Calmly repeat the person’s name over and over again. When the person stops speaking, state or restate your own intention in the conversation.
#3: Respond to criticism strategically.
Thank people when they criticize you. When we defend ourselves, it often appears to be an admission of guilt. Instead, you can say something like, “Thank you for telling me how you feel”, or “Thank you for being honest”, or just “Thank you.” “Thank you” is a complete sentence!
When you monitor your communication in these three ways, you’ll help bring out the best in people, increase harmony, and set the stage for greater success in challenging business conversations.
In my last few blogs, I have described the value of applying acting objectives when you prepare to speak for business. Here are some additional benefits that you will experience when you use this technique. Pursuing acting objectives
#1: gives you laser-beam focus and simplifies the process, because it gives you just one thing to think about: what you are doing with your words as you speak
#2: galvanizes your energy toward your listeners; it’s the quickest and most powerful way to project energy, commitment, passion, and poise.
#3: provides a completely organic way to make your voice and physical demeanor support your content. It turns your voice, body language, and content into one seamless, unified message.
When you are speaking in business conversation or making a presentation, this gives you maximum power and delivers to your listeners maximum impact.
Would you like your business listeners to trust you more? Would your business improve if you could convince prospects that you will be a true business partner for them? Would you like to generate more new business and keep more the business you already have?
If you’re answer is YES, you won’t want to miss my exciting program called “Enhance Your Leadership Presence with Acting Improvisation.” You’ll learn how to enhance your leadership presence by using acting improvisation, storytelling techniques, and the “yes and” mindset to transform your communication skills. You’ll learn how to generate business by deepening interpersonal connections, speaking with authenticity, building trust, and engaging your listeners. And you’ll learn how to address the changing needs of your existing clients by expanding your creativity and spontaneity.
I describe this work as “serious fun”. You’ll be engaged in playful, interactive activities: acting improvisation, theater and imagination games, and mind, body, and voice techniques that will help you project a spirit of collaboration and convince your prospects that you can (and will) help them solve their business problems.
Let me tell you how acting improvisation will enhance your leadership presence:
#1: Whenever you speak for business, your listeners have one over-riding concern: they want to know what’s in it for them. Acting improvisation addresses this concern. Early in their training, actors learn that the audience is always asking the question, “Why are you telling me this?” Acting improvisation teaches that you must answer this question, and answer it in a way that is compelling for your listeners. This is a skill that every business leader needs! If you’re not answering this question in a way that is compelling for your listeners, you’re losing business.
#2: To generate new business and keep the business you already have, you need to engage your listeners. Acting improvisation teaches what a message is made of, what needs to happen; it teaches you how to discern when the beginning should be over, when your listeners have had enough of the middle, when it’s time to move on to the ending, and how long that should last, etc. Leaders who use this knowledge and the timing that it develops become truly engaging: become masters of engagement. And they have a measurable competitive edge!
You, too, can become a master of engagement. Acting improvisation will teach you how! Don’t miss the opportunity to experience this innovative program: you’ll take away powerful techniques to transform your leadership presence.
Discover how play will enhance the way you work. And get ready for some serious fun! I look forward to working with you.
Would you like your business listeners to be drawn IN when you speak? Would you like them to feel eager to hear what you’re going to say next?
If your answer is YES, you need the power of the pause. Successful business speakers, like good actors, always consider pacing when they are going to speak. The tempo of your spoken word has a strong impact on your listeners and directly influences their level of engagement and influences the way you are perceived. Your pauses are key.
Even the smartest and best listeners need a moment to process a spoken idea. When you listeners can see you, they need time to interpret meaning from a broad palette: your visual delivery, as well as vocal delivery. Your pauses can give them the time they need.
A University of Michigan study revealed that when speakers never paused, they had the lowest success rate in getting listeners to do what they wanted them to do. And the great British actor, Sir John Gielgud, famously said that, when acting Shakespeare, the pauses are the most important moments of the speech! He knew that pauses can be captivating.
Help your business listeners receive the full impact of your message by giving them the gift of time. Pause briefly after each complete thought, to let it “land”. Don’t be in a rush to go on to your next idea. Another benefit of the pause is that it gives you time to get a reading on your listener’s understanding and engagement level. During the pause, breathe deeply and maintain eye contact.
During the pause, your listeners will usually be wondering why you’ve paused and wondering what you’re going to say next. So, your pauses increase listener curiosity and engagement level, and they make you more compelling.
Without the pauses, your listeners may feel overwhelmed by an unmanageable amount of input. They may lose some of your meaning; they may even tune you out.
When you give your listeners time to process each thought, you are respecting their needs, communicating that your message has value, and drawing them IN.
Today, I’ll share more about how you can project spontaneity and authenticity in your elevator speech by rehearsing with the actor’s technique called “Endowment”. Here is a summary of the steps:
Step 1: Choose a person from your real life in who has qualities that help you feelliked, trusted, and respected when you speak with him or her.Step 2: Choose a spot to place your focus, and imagine your business listener, right there in front of you.Step 3: Endow your imaginary listener with these same qualities that help you feel liked, trusted, and respected. As you say your elevator speech aloud, speak AS IF you were in conversation with the person from your life.
Here are some additional guidelines for the Endowment process.
1. It’s very important to be flooded with positive feelings as you rehearse this, so choosing the “right” person to feed your imagination is key. Experiment with the technique of Endowment by imagining various people from your life, in order to discover which one person most effectively triggers your expression of warmth and relaxation when you are speaking.
2. Never tell anyone the identity of the person you have chosen to “use” for this process. Keeping it a secret will increase the power that the Endowment technique will have on your demeanor and delivery.
3. The technique of endowment may be challenging at first, so rehearse aloud as often as possible. Over time, rehearsal of the endowment process will help you focus your mind in a very useful way. It will help you create an emotional environment for yourself: to project authenticity and spontaneity when you’re networking and meeting with prospects and clients.
Using the Endowment technique has a secondary benefit: it will keep your mind so focused on the task at hand, that you’ll have very little emotional availability to be nervous or self-conscious.
This is a way to use rehearsal strategically: it will prepare your for a spontaneous and authentic presentation of yourself and your business message.
I recently read that Abraham Lincoln co-owned a general store for a short period of time and that his store failed because he “wasn’t a very good salesperson”; he was “frequently a little too honest about his products…”
I began thinking again about the qualities of a good salesperson, the relationship between honesty and successful selling, and why that story might be of interest to so many professionals.
Almost everyone in the world of work is a salesperson. Whether we are business owners, work for a corporation, or bring our talents to other professional areas, we are all involved (directly or indirectly) in selling ideas, products, or services.
Only the naïve believe that success in business is always accompanied by strict honesty at all times, but the old adage “honesty is the best policy” is usually a wise goal. We cannot be all things to all people and cannot be all things for all clients and prospects. We can certainly try our best, and if we cannot deliver, we can offer to clients and prospects alternative sources to find solutions.
Of course, some who are dedicated to enhancing/maintaining their professional image have been known to bend the truth quite a bit and often make a lot of money doing so. Many years ago, the adult grandson of a restaurant manager told me a true story that I have never forgotten. The restaurant was part of one of the biggest and most successful hotels located in the Catskill Mountains during the 1950’s. One night, when the restaurant was filled to capacity, a diner who was seated with a large group of people started screaming, because she found an enormous cockroach in her food. The manager rushed over to the table, saw the cockroach, and knew that the restaurant could now lose not only these customers, but the ones seated at the surrounding tables. With a grand gesture, he immediately grabbed a spoon, removed the cockroach from the woman’s plate, and popped the insect into his own mouth, chewing and swallowing with delight. Smiling broadly, he loudly proclaimed, “That was no cockroach, Madam. That was our most exotic mushroom, a true delicacy imported from Asia!”
How far would you go, to salvage your professional image and keep your sales moving forward?
In my last blog, I wrote about your use of pauses, to allow your ideas to land when you speak & engage your listeners.
Today, I’m going to talk about the power of the surprising pause. Successful business speakers, like good actors, use the surprising pause strategically to command attention and add depth to their message. The element of surprise is a key factor in capturing and keeping your listeners’ attention when you speak for business. Pausing at meaningful and surprising moments can be helpful to you in three ways:
1. It creates variety in your delivery: A moment of unexpected silence provides the greatest contrast to a stream of words.
2. It creates suspense: It teases your listeners for a moment, making them want to hear more.
3. It gives your listeners a window into your inner world: Listeners want to know what is “going on” with the speaker underneath the words. A surprising pause filled with meaning allows your listeners to observe a different quality in your expressiveness and gain additional perspectives.
In the video version of this blog, I demonstrate now just how effective a surprising pause can be. You may wish to view that now; simply click the thumbnail for the video.
If you prefer to continue reading:
I use the following sentence as an example of the use of the surprising pause. It’s a sentence about concept of supply and demand: an excerpt from a play called Other People’s Money, by Jerry Sterner; which was first produced Off Broadway and later made into a film with Richard Dreyfus. Here is the sentence:
“One day, when the dollar is weaker or the yen stronger, or when we finally begin to rebuild the roads, the bridges, the infrastructure of our country, demand will skyrocket.”
Logical but predictable moments to pause would be after the words, “day, stronger, and country”. A more interesting choice would be to add meaningful pauses after the words, “dollar, yen, and demand”. The surprise and suspense created in those moments leads to a more compelling delivery.
As you rehearse your business talk, consider why and when you will pause. Take logical, meaningful pauses at moments when those pauses might be most surprising.
Make your delivery truly compelling — and captivate your listeners!