Toronto – Canada
The day of the door to door salesmen has largely disappeared, and with it, so has the classic foot in the door shtick. However not all the classic sales tactics have disappeared. Thankfully for those who have not been hitting the gym, elevators are still around-giving enterprising individuals a chance to get their “foot in the door”. Of course I am speaking about the elevator speech. Classically the elevator speech is meant for the time when you happen to hop into the elevator with a VIP and you only have 30 seconds to convince them to meet you again.
You after closing the deal
There is a lot of chatter about whether it is worthwhile to practice this speech. There are mainly two schools of thought one of which insists that it is unlikely you will meet someone that is important enough to get you a job and willing to listen to you, while the second school perceives the elevator speech to be a form of shameless self promotion. But the elevator speech, if done properly, can be an effective tool to communicate your value and career goals. To achieve this the elevator speech should be short, concise, focused on value that you can offer- rather than self serving and long.
It is conceivable that one day you will run into someone that works for your dream company and you will want to show them you would be a great fit. How do you do this if you don’t know what your strengths are, or what you could add to that company? How would you answer the question: “Of all the qualified people, why should I hire you?” Even just jotting some ideas of how to answer these questions can go a long way. Even if you are not looking for a job having an elevator speech will help you answer the timeless question “So, what do you do?” without umm, ahhs, and stutters.
As for the shameless self promotion critique, it is only shameless self promotion if you are shamelessly promoting yourself. The goal is to try and get beyond your 30 second speech to set up another appointment by showing you have done your research on your abilities and strengths, the needs of the company and how you will be an integral part of the way they make money. Giving yourself a pat on the back in front of someone will not get you second appointment.
For me it was an effective exercise in narrowing down the strengths I wanted to emphasize to potential employers. It made me think about the jobs I was searching for and how I could communicate value through quantifiable attributes rather than just character traits such as, “highly motivated, team player etc.” A great deal of it is about delivery rather than straight up content, here is what I came up with:
I am currently studying International Marketing at Humber with the goal of working in account management at an advertising agency. I have experience in journalism and the legal field an edge in media and communications with a track record for working under pressure to meet deadlines. I would like to leverage my experience in these fields to help your company meet client needs through the use of new media and technology. Would it be possible to get your contact information so I could forward you my resume and some of more of the ideas I think would benefit your company and clients?
imarketyoumarket 