I hate my elevator speech

And I probably hate yours too! Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing personal against you, or the way you sound, or even your profession. Most elevator speeches are dull because someone told the speaker to cram everything they do in to the time it would an elevator to travel a couple of floors. By definition it becomes generic and banal. There is a better way.

The “SPIKEY” example

At a recent business networking event I attended one of the attendees ignored the usual request to give us his elevator speech. Instead, he told us an example of how he had recently helped a customer. He supplies backup computer systems to busy professionals, and one of his clients lost their laptop on the way to presenting at a conference in San Francisco. The client called from the airport, and before they had even landed the consultant had configured a laptop with a mirror image of the lost hard drive, couriered it to the client’s hotel, and locked out the old laptop’s configurations so a thief couldn’t use it to access sensitive data.

I remembered that much better than I remembered almost any elevator speech I’ve heard. It was SPIKEY.

• Simple: It took a couple moments to tell.
• Powerful: Everything worked; nothing was left out.
• Interesting: My curiosity was aroused. You can create a mirror image of a laptop that quickly?
• unexpeKted: Locking out the lost laptop was a novel twist I didn’t expect.
• Emotional: People respond to emotions. I felt for the client boarding a plane without a presentation to give at the other end.
• Yes stories: You want your examples to stick because they are successful.

Create a SPIKEY example and use it to replace your elevator speech. It won’t tell prospects everything about you, but it will make you memorable, and it may interest them enough to ask.

Download a version to print or share here.

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