The elevator speech: taking it from “needy” to “you need me”
An elevator speech is a brief statement about yourself, prepped and ready to be reeled off at a moment’s notice if you’re lucky enough to experience an elevator ride (or other momentary chance encounter) with a person of influence. Whether you’re hoping to impress a CEO, an angel investor, or a client, an elevator speech is generally regarded as A Good Thing to have in your arsenal of communications tools. But there’s another side to them, and Laurie Ruettimann from Punk Rock HR had some pretty harsh words for the elevator speech recently.
Do you have a personal elevator speech? Honest to god, I hope you don’t. Elevator speeches are needy, and as we’ve established before, no one wants to hire a needy person.
Ruettimann’s rules for impressing someone in a chance meeting are 1) to be able to describe yourself in a clear and concise way and 2) to understand your strengths and weaknesses. Sounds good! Where she diverges from other HR advisors is on her last point:
Don’t do business with anyone who will only give you 27 seconds to talk… You don’t want to work for someone — either an employer or a client — who wants you to distill your existence into a soundbite.
This is good advice. It departs from the conventional advice about elevator speeches, and delves into the deeper issues of what it really means to have an audience with someone. What may be necessary in Hollywood (the ability to pitch a movie in 12 seconds to jaded millionaires) is not necessarily going to work with your highly personal and meaningful career search. Punk Rock HR has given us all something to think about here.
Nonetheless, I still think it’s valuable to keep an elevator speech in your back pocket (figuratively, that is). It is extraordinarily useful to have given some thought to the correct way to respond to the inevitable quick question from strangers: “So, what do you do?” Executive Coach Dale Kurow is a huge advocate of the elevator speech, and here’s her take on it:
An elevator speech is a short (15-30 second, 150 word) sound bite that succinctly and memorably introduces you. It spotlights your uniqueness. It focuses on the benefits you provide. And it is delivered effortlessly.
Kurow’s top advice is to keep your speech from being a yawn by framing what you do in terms of benefit to the listener. For instance, she suggests changing, “Hi, my name is Stanley Manly, and I’m a public relations executive with 20 years of experience,” to “Hi, my name is Stanley Manly, and I help inventors tell the world about their inventions,” and “Hi, I’m Sally Hopeful, and I’m an executive recruiter,” to “Hi, I’m Sally Hopeful. I partner with companies that need to find talented people to help their business growth and become more profitable.”
To write your own elevator speech that will help get people interested in what you do, here is what Kurow suggests:
- Write down your deliverables.
- Craft a great opening line to go in front of them.
- Make sure to leave your listener wanting more.
- Practice the speech until it rolls off your tongue with ease.
Ultimately, I think it’s a good idea to follow these guidelines to put together an elevator speech, because you never know when you will have a few moments with an influencer. But to Laurie’s point, I would caution you not to seem too needy. Position your speech to give your listener the idea that they need you — and then let them come to this conclusion themselves.
