A lot of blood, sweat, and tears goes into crafting your elevator speech (I hate that term). Youve probably agonized over it, striving to catch just the right tone and wording. Finally, youre (hopefully) finished.

For the final blessing, you turn to your friends and colleagues, and test it out. They respond:

Thats great! I love it. Go for it.

Theyve just killed you with kindness.

Are they lying? No, they arent. They sincerely like it. The problem is, they arent your clients. Or, worse yet, they might be potentially clients, even if they are friends or colleagues, but youd never know it.

So, whats going on?

The true purpose of the so-called elevator speech.

Your 30-second shpiel is not meant to win you a client or a contract. Its not meant to sell your t-shirts, or anything else you sell.

The only thing your marketing tagline if you will is supposed to do is help the person who hears it decide if they want to walk into your store or not. Its just a window display that helps them decide: Is this something Im interested in, or do I know someone who might be?

Thats it. It doesnt have to do such heavy lifting. In fact, 30 seconds is way too long. One or two sentences is plenty. Because once youve spoken them, theyll know immediately if they have the response or not.

The only response that counts.

The only response that counts is if someone can either say, Thats me! or if immediately, without having to think about it or be prompted in any way, faces or names of people they know jump into their mind.

I help women who are struggling with chronic illness and still want to contribute in the world. Immediately, Im seeing the faces of women I know who fit this.

We help people in business for themselves, who got into business to make a difference, but really, really need to make a profit. You do? My buddy Tim needs to talk to you.

When a client of ours landed on the right message, she tested it out on friends, and they didnt say: Oh, I like that. They said: Wow, I didnt know thats what you were doing. Can you help me?

THATs the response youre looking for.

Oh, there might be one other response.

The other response: Thats nice.

Sheer indifference will be what comes up for people who arent interested, and who dont know anyone else who is. Which is absolutely fine.

You can walk past an automotive speciality shop, and if youre into cars, you get drawn towards the open door like a magnet. But if youre not, you might not even notice that store is there.

Its not necessary that your message wow people, or even be that remarkable. It just needs to be clear enough to call someones name, so the right people can say: Thats me- I want to talk to you about this.

The Who-Who-What

I dont call this message a tagline or an elevator speech. I call it the Who-Who-What after the three elements that make it up. Once you have these three elements right, youll be calling your best clients names, and theyll respond, with interest.

Let me explain these three to you.

Keys to Calling Your Clients Name

Posted: September 12th, 2008 under spidermanmtv.com.
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