How’s Your Elevator Pitch?
Whether you’re looking for a job or a promotion or just meeting someone at a restaurant, you’re selling yourself all the time.
So how’s your elevator pitch?
They say the most effective listening takes place within the first 30 – 60 seconds of a conversation. That’s pretty quick. After that, your listener may have already you tuned out. Even before that, experts suggest that as soon as someone lays eyes on you – they’ve already made an opinion about you.
Oh well. So much for unbiased opinions! It’s up to you to make a great first impression – quickly.
This natural phenomenon has startling implications for the job seeker unprepared for an interview, the new co-worker making introductions, or the employee late for work and rattling off excuses to upper-management.
But here’s where the basic tenets of the elevator pitch can help.
The traditional “elevator pitch” is a carefully-crafted (and concise!) sales technique used to sell a product or service. The theory behind it can be used just as well to sell yourself during an interview or casual conversation. With elements of the elevator pitch thrown in, anyone can answer the simple yet complicated question: “Tell me about yourself.”
Some basic elevator pitch rules to follow:
1) Be Clear: Don’t mumble, speak up, measure the tone and flow of your sentences.
2) Be Brief: Simplify. Less is more.
3) Be Evocative: Bold words! Transform your message with powerful statements.
4) Be Targeted: Know your audience. Don’t say anything inappropriate. Think about who you’re talking to and their status position relative to yours.
5) Be positive: It should go without saying. No one wants hear your depressing drivel.
It should be noted that this list also functions as a complementary set of rules that can be used throughout one’s career, or even life. If life is sales, then sales is one elevator pitch after another. Start selling.