Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Writing an Elevator Speech

By Lori Buenavista


An elevator speech is a brief, succinct explanation of the goal of your small business, its services or products and the exclusive factors which make it desirable. You should be able to provide the message in less time than it takes for an elevator to travel several floors-around 60 seconds or so. It's essential to have a well-written elevator speech; here's the way to write one.

Brainstorm

Get paper and pen and make 4 columns: Business Basics, Product/Services, Unique Value Proposition and Goals. Reply to the basic inquiries first. Under "Business Basics," list all the primary details about your small business. Below are a few questions to answer: Precisely what industry does your business fall under? Where are you located? Now when was the business established? Who owns the organization? What services or products does the firm offer? What awards or honors has your business received?

Now write about your company's products or services. Listed below are some inquiries to answer in this column: How many products/services do you really offer? Do other companies offer the same goods and services? Did your organization invent or develop the products/services? What components are utilized in your items? What do the services you provide include? How do people use your services or products?

Note down your distinct value propositions. Exactly what makes your company stand out amongst the competition? You might have just 1 unique value, or you could have several. Below are some possibilities: Lowest price, Largest selection, Exclusivity (Clients can't get your product or service somewhere else), Best quality, Domestically produced, Produced somewhere impressive (Italian watches, Persian rugs), Awards/Industry accolades, Longevity, Famous owner or advocate.

There are many other possible unique value propositions. Take into consideration what truly separates your business from the group. Jot down your results in column three. Lastly, note down your purpose. What's your own purpose for actually talking to people? Are you looking for sales? Investors? Just spreading the word about your business?

Put it all together. If you've created long lists in every column, you need to narrow it down a bit to be able to fit in the entire elevator speech within just 60 seconds or so. Move through each column and note down what's there. Here's an example: "XYZ Company is an important player in the healthcare industry. Since we initially opened our Salt Lake City, Utah exploration lab in 2008, our unnatural kidneys have saved the lives of countless patients.

Our initiator, John Smith believes that that our state-of-the art flexi-plastic is the perfect possible material for artificial kidneys, and the best physicians in the country agreed: XYZ Company has won the Surgeon's Choice honor for prosthetic internal organs for the last 4 years. In reality, we're recommended by the Surgeon General of the United States.

We concentrate on only 1 product: artificial kidneys, and we're the sole maker in the United States.




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