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Brand Yourself: Part 3

Create a Strong Elevator Response

A strong brand:

• Inspires your market
• Sets you apart from the competition
• Guides your market’s perception of your business
• Keeps your name and your value "top of mind"
• Ultimately gives your market a reason to use your business

The Basic Branding Formula:

1. Build your expertise.
2. Get people to recognize it.

You get people to recognize your expertise by raising their curiosity so that they want to hear more about what you do and how you do it.

A strong elevator headline raises the curiosity of your audience. Here's how it works: You're at a networking event or a party, someone asks, "What do you do?" And your answer is your new attention-grabbing elevator headline, for example, "I help overworked business owners who have little time for marketing find clients in their sleep." (See last week's SuddenlyInSite Marketing Tip on creating a great elevator headline.)

Your listener, as you hoped, asks the question that is the goal of a good elevator headline: "How do you do that?"

Your answer to this question is your elevator response. Your elevator speech has bought you 30-60 seconds of your listener’s curiosity and attention. This is the time you have to give a good elevator response. Use this time well and you will end up with a new client, or at the least, a new enthusiastic supporter and referral source.

To ensure a powerful, memorable elevator response, put it in the form of a story. Why a story? Because stories are the containers your audience use to take home and remember your what you said. Without a story, your audience has no container and your message will soon be forgotten.

To create your elevator followup:

1. Gather the content
2. Focus on one great example
3. Create your story

1) Gather the content:

List the most significant projects you have worked on. Consider your current and past positions and work: Dollars saved, skills mastered, specific benefits you brought to your clients (solutions that worked).

Ask yourself:

• What are my strengths?
• What am I already known for?
• What am I passionate about?

Organize Your List: Separate your skills and abilities into categories. Make the category headings name benefits to your clients. For example:

• Sales Increased: List all cases where sales increased because of your input
• Dollars Saved
• Skills Mastered and Applied
• Projects Headed and Beneficial Results

2) Focus on one great example: Think in terms of people you have helped. Who are your best prospects?

Ask yourself:

• What are the criteria for being a "best prospect"?
  • Income level?
  • Profession?
  • Education?
  • Age?
  • Need?
  • Personality (fun to work with)?
  • Understand the value of your service?
• Who best fits this criteria?

As you think of someone who fits the above criteria, think of a story describing the value you provided for this person.

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