Company wide elevator campaign

What if all the employees of your company tells everyone they meet about how the company can help them? What if they felt good about telling the world what they and the company does? This gorilla marketing tactic is inexpensive and effective. In essence, you are increasing your sales force by the number of total employees you have. Think of all the contacts, leads and increased business this could bring.

How? At the next company event, bring in a specialist. When I do these, I offer a keynote followed by a workshop. The keynote is an entertaining, funny way to get buy-in. The workshop is where every employee discovers his/her own way to publicly own what the company does. At mortgage brokerages, utility companies, and small businesses alike,  this program has worked. Contact me if you'd like to hear more about my consulting.

See it; say it!

What are the communication rules associated with meeting someone in a business casual setting in the U.S.? It starts with nonverbals and then sometimes progresses to verbal interactions.
First, we attempt to open a channel of interaction by making eye contact. Edward T. Hall, famous Anthropologist, notes that in the U.S., if you sustain eye contact with someone for longer than 3 seconds, you are either going to kill them or make love to them. So typically we make shorter attempts at eye contact, say around 1-2 seconds.
If eyes are met, we offer a look of interest, typically involving raised eyebrows, a questioning expression, and often a smile or friendly overall disposition. And we close in. That is, we either step toward them or lean in a bit. A split second later, we say something to begin the conversation.
It is a dance or a parade, as I have called it in previous posts, that if done right, can lead to successful interactions with people out there who need to know you and what you offer them. And it also allows them to reach out to you with what they do. Now that you have been told explicitly what you have always known implicitly, go put your two-step into motion. The more you practice, the smoother you'll become.

Power of the Card

How can an elevator speech help me prospect for my business? Simple, at the end of the conversation, tell your name and offer your card. Remember the rule of reciprocity? They will offer their card in return, unless they don't have one. When it is not offered in return, ask for it. Most times, you'll hear the"I just ran out" excuse, but then they will tell you or you can ask for their Facebook, gmail, twitter, LinkedIn or similar online identifier.

Capture contact information and details about the conversation and person immediately after. Consider an app on your phone that allows you to dictate such things to.  Later, you are primed for the next step: follow-ups.

As soon as you can, send a follow-up email out to your new acquaintance. Oftentimes, a simple message like "It was nice to meet you today at ____" is enough. Now you are in contact with someone that you have already warmed up to and who knows what you can do for them. Congratulations, you moved someone from stranger to your network.

Care for a Danish, anyone?

A few groups of Danish students have visited my college, and for each group, I was asked to provide some business communication coaching. Great experience. What surprised me most was their reactions to the elevator speech. It was a novel idea to them. And they loved it.

We began by observing that each culture has its own secret nonverbal rules, such as shaking hands versus bowing when greeting someone. In the U.S. (I am not an expert in international business comm.), we initiate conversations in a very specific way. It's a dance, and if you misstep, you are not going to get positive feedback from your dance partner. 

What's interesting is if you falter on the nonverbal part of the dance, the response you will get is surely going to be a negative nonverbal reaction. If you are not from the U.S., and you don't understand the dance, you may be left wondering why Americans are so rude, unfriendly, etc. Truth is, we are trying to teach the dance. Through rewards and reinforcement, cultural norms are passed along across generations. Once the Danish business students understood this, and were overtly (verbally) taught the nonverbal rules to engagement here, they began to see that Americans are not unfriendly at all. Then those Danes could dance.

The shortest distance between two people

Victor Borge said laughter is the shortest distance between two people. I think a light-hearted smile is the kindest thing to offer a stranger. A smile signals all is well and you are not a threat. It invites a reciprocal smile. Smiles open the door for greetings, meetings, and laughs. Laughs open doors beyond your grasp, if you make the most of them.

Today's tip: Smile at strangers! If all that happens is the person looks down and keeps walking, you have still made a positive impact. It is a no-lose proposition. Their spirits are lifted and yours are too. Think of it as paying it forward. You are setting others up to have a more positive interaction with the next, unsuspecting person. So, c'mon. Show the world your pearly whites (battleship grays or corn yellows).

Life is a Series of Presentations!

This is the title of a book by Tony Geary. It is also a philosophy to live by. One way to think about who you are is to consider who you present to the world. You present yourself all day everyday. Granted most of these are informal presentations, like ordering lunch or saying hello to a colleague in the elevator; rarely do we have the chance to formally present ourselves.

If you buy my premise, then think about this: all else being equal, nature and the market favor the prepared. If you and a clone of you both moved through your days, but you took time to think about and prepare for all the informal presentations you make, and your dim clone did not. At the end of the day, you will have racked up many more contacts, prospects for future communication, and favorable presentations.

Once you decide you will make the best informal presentation, you can begin planning how. One great way to fast-track your ability to make a favorable impression is to join a speed networking or speed dating event.

I spoke to the Austin Chamber of Commerce several years ago about using an elevator speech to increase sales. The idea was well received. I want to use this blog to share what I know that can help let the world know what you are doing, why you are doing it, and how to reach you when they need you. One of my principles is it must be real: no phony, gimmicky, greasy, cheesy, shticks allowed. Your elevator speech should and will be something you are proud of. I think my first tip is exactly that: make it your own. What might work for some may not work for you.

But let me back up a bit. What is an elevator speech? The idea is having something planned to say when someone says:"so, what do you do?" Once you get good at it, you may find you want to initiate the question to others. It is fun to see whether and how colleagues and competitors respond. And typically, conversations follow the rule of reciprocity. So, by asking what someone else does, you will surely be able to talk about what you do too.

So my charge is to share with you the what, how, and why of elevator speaking. My goal is to help you discover what a useful, comfortable, and profitable tool it can be. Once people understand this, they learn to love the elevator speech.