The 15 Second Elevator Speech

You go to any networking event these days and you'll probably have 15 seconds or less to make a strong impression on someone, especially when you're going around the room making your introductions. I'm Jim Bouchard, the guy who teaches you how to think like a black belt, and we're gonna give you a one-two punch to develop a 15-second elevator speech that's gonna knock the socks off everyone in the room. You know, when I first got into business some 20, 30 years ago, it was pretty typical to have up to a minute to introduce yourself at networking events. Now, standard operating procedure, you get about 15 seconds usually. In 15 seconds or less, you've got to communicate who you are, what you're gonna do, and where people can find you. When I say, "What are you going to do for me?" I'm playing the role of the customer. It's not important— you know, you may think it's important what you do and all the features and benefits of your product or service, but what's really important is what all that's going to do for the customer. Don't think about what you think is important. Think about what the customer thinks is important. Let me give you my 15-second elevator speech, and if you time me, it's probably less than 15 seconds. When I'm going to a networking event or I have to introduce myself, here's how I do it: I'm Jim Bouchard, the guy who teaches you how to think like a black belt. If you want to know more about that, I'll be over at the donut table at the end of the meeting. And I'm the best-looking bald man in this room. That's all there is to it. In 15 seconds or less. Now the cool thing is that, and again, it took us a long time to get to this, but by using that symbolism of the black belt, I'm causing people to ask a question in their mind. All I'm hoping is that they'll come over to that donut table afterwards and ask me, "What the heck does it mean to think like a black belt?" And that starts the conversation. One of the biggest questions I get when I'm talking about this elevator speech technique is the "How are you going to find me?" thing. And a lot of people want to put your phone number, your website in there, and that may be appropriate. I'm not saying it isn't. But just be careful. Phone numbers are difficult to remember. Websites are better if your website is short. And I'll tell you what, I sneak it in sometimes. If I think I need to direct people to the website, I'll start my speech this way. I'll say, "I'm JimBouchard.org. I'm the guy who teaches you how to think like a black belt." So you see, I kind of sneak that in there. But make sure that it's short and easily memorable. Now, the key to getting people to respond to you in a networking situation anyway is to make sure you have some contact information. So if people are interested, or I'm interested in that person, rather than giving them the business cards with all that other information, I ask them for the business cards. All your elevator speech is really intended to do is to get people to pay attention and make sure they remember you. You have to do the rest of the work afterwards. You've got a simple worksheet to help you through this process. You're going to ask yourself those 3 questions: Who am I? What am I going to do for you? And where can you find me? Try to get that down to about 15 seconds, and you're going to have a very effective elevator speech. As we wrap things up, I want to answer a question that a lot of people ask me about this elevator speech, and that has to do with the amount of time. Don't try to get all the information in. As we just said, all you're trying to do is attract some attention and get people interested in you. If you go long, people will go to sleep. If they give you more time, 30 seconds, whatever, think about this. If you just sat through 20, 30, 40, or 50 elevator speeches where people are going 30 seconds or longer, just blah, blah, blah about hulalala, you know what I'm talking about. Who are they going to remember? The buh buh buh buh buh buh? Or the guy that got up there and in 10, 15 seconds said everything? I guarantee you They're going to remember you if you took less time rather than the guy who tried to do War and Peace in his elevator speech. There you have it, 15-second elevator speech. Don't make it any more complicated than that. Be sure to connect with me on Facebook or LinkedIn. We're going to be doing some live online sessions, and we'll help you hone and polish this even more. Till next time, thank you. I'm Jim Bouchard, the guy who teaches you how to think like a black belt. ¡Gracias!