FREE Tips

____________________________________________

Speak Your Business in 30 Seconds or Less!

Written by Ann Convery

"Hello, it's nice to meet you. What do you do?"

I've just met you. In these first eight seconds, I've looked you over and decided your age, your income, your success level, your background, and your heritage. I don't really care what you do — I'm too busy wondering if my boss will give me a raise and whether I should have another piece of dessert. But I'm polite, so I'll pretend to be interested. However, like many Americans, I have a 14-second or less attention span, so make it quick.

Have you ever told someone what you do and gotten the famous glazed-eyeball response? You know what I mean:

"I'm a designer."
"Oh, really? Wow. How interesting."

Those four little words, "what do you do?," can strike terror into the heart of many business people who are excellent at what they do but just can't seem to get it across.

Do you think you can't possibly explain everything you do; you have to demonstrate it? Are you afraid of sounding like you're trying to push a sale?

Do you think, "I'm so good at what I do, why don't people get it?" Have you ever watched the interest drain from someone's eyes as you begin to talk?

Do you assume everyone understands what you do? Do you conclude your job is pretty boring, because no one ever asks you about it?

If you answered yes to any of those questions — would you like to attract more business whenever you speak?

If you answered "Yes!" you will need to learn to Speak Your Business in 30 Seconds or Less™ using verbs, numbers and P.R. techniques to widen your marketplace, establish you as an expert, and escape from the world of glazed eyeballs and polite disinterest. Turn listeners into potential prospects, change an ordinary elevator pitch into a subliminal smart bomb, target the hidden needs of your listeners, and link your product or service to their unspoken desires — in 30 seconds!

The following is a brief glimpse into the formula that I have used to teach thousands of professionals, from all walks of life and from all over the world, to create an irresistible 30-second message to promote their business, without "selling," in any professional or social setting.

YOUR VERBAL BUSINESS CARD

Your "verbal business card" is your response to the question, What do you do?

We exchange thousands of business cards, yet we use our verbal business card 22 more times than our paper card. How much blood, sweat, and tears went into designing that paper card? How much time have you spent designing what you say to people in the first 30 seconds, which has an infinitely greater selling power? If you lose someone's attention in those first few seconds, it takes three times as long to get it back. Control your message or it will control you. Your introduction should work as hard as you do.

WHAT IS IN IT FOR ME?

The American attention span is shrinking as we speak. We are bombarded with over 80,000 messages and up to 500 requests for our attention a day. Most of us are mentally tuned in to our favorite channel — WIIFM —What's In It For Me? We don't listen so much as scan for useful bits of information.

Suppose I was in front of you right now, talking about this. Chances are you wouldn't be listening all that hard. You'd be thinking, "I wonder how much she makes? When is she going to get to the point? I wonder if the dog's eaten the rug again?" The point at which you will tune in to what I'm saying is when I start talking about how I can solve one of your problems.

Our attention span drifts in and out of the conversation about every seven seconds, which is a normal process. Furthermore, we are all wary of being sold. That's why you need a subliminal smart bomb of a message. Your information needs to contain an emotional trigger that will go under the intellectual radar of your listener. If your message contains emotion, it will trigger a different part of the brain, the limbic system, create a different type of memory, and stay there longer. That's how you stay top-of-mind in your prospective listener. Emotion sells. Data doesn't.

Your 30-second message is a hook, not a description — it's about the results you can produce for them. Its sole purpose is to provoke a call to action. When done correctly, it makes people want to do something — ask for your card, question you more closely, call you up.

Here's an example of a 30-second message before and after the formula.

Before: "I am a mortgage broker. I help people build their dream homes."

After: "I teach people five secrets of equity and finance so that they can leverage other people's money and hang on to more of their own."

There are four big differences between these two sentences. They are as follows:

BROADEN YOUR MARKET

In the first statement, if you don't need a dream home, you don't need him. He's just labeled himself right off your radar. Remember, your listener is looking for an excuse not to listen to you so you won't cost him money. If you use the verb "am," you are helping him silently think, "I already have a mortgage broker. I don't need you." Your listener has just wrapped you up in a nice little package and tossed it out. It doesn't matter if you're an attorney, a dentist, a realtor, or a web designer. If you use the verb "am," you will help to close off the conversation. You will also allow your listener to silently define you, and dismiss you. Notice how the second statement widens the marketplace? It uncovers a huge market excluded from the first — everyone who's interested in money. Do you have a sleeping market you could be targeting?

POWER VERBS

The second statement also leverages a much more powerful verb, teach, and teachers are perceived as experts. We tend to identify each other with our verbs. People who help are helpers. People who assist are assistants. You want to be perceived as a colleague, a peer, an expert they can trust — not a helper. Think of verbs like teach, create, design, reorganize, manage, develop, establish, boost, generate. Use one of these verbs to describe what you do. It makes you more of an innovator and an expert in your profession.

NUMBERS HOOK

Another difference between the two messages is that he has five secrets designed to create curiosity. Numbers are a great way to hook attention. People love numbers because numbers sound like statistics, and statistics are real. Numbers carry a remarkable credibility that descriptive words don't. Numbers also generate a little anxiety, because we judge ourselves by numbers all our lives. Age, weight, income — we're all either on the right or the wrong side of 30. Most of us are on the "wrong" side of a million dollars, or perfect SAT scores. Most women are on the "wrong" side of size two, a fact which magazines capitalize on daily.

If you have five secrets about money and your audience doesn't, it sets up a kind of irresistible urge to know what those secrets are. Numbers create urgency, and urgency prompts action. Everyone has a number of techniques, formats, methods, secrets, tips, formulas that they can refer to.

SOLVE A DEEP NEED

The last difference between the two messages is that the second sentence directly addresses a deep need in everyone who hears it — he or she can help you hang on to your money. This is the most important part of the 30-second message. This is where you speak of the value you offer your clients. Tie that value to the deepest needs people have — more money, better relationships, or better health. If you're a graphic artist, don't just tell me you do excellent graphics for people. Tell me how your clients increased their customer referral rate or bottom line because of your designs. If you don't have these figures, get them. And believe me, if you've been in business long enough to secure three or more clients you have these figures to leverage. Tell me your greatest success stories.

• If you keep your conversation solely on your clients and in the third person, you will not sound "salesy" but confident.

• Pick a verb that sets you apart from the competition.

• Use numbers to raise curiosity.

• Figure out which deep need your business satisfies in your clients and describe how you answer that need.

• When they ask you for more information, resist the urge to tell your story. Keep hooking your listeners with headlines about your business such as a brief testimonial, a range of your results, or a one sentence success story. It's perfectly all right to say, "My clients have been thrilled. It's very gratifying." This does not make you sound like a blowhard, and it's a great testimonial

Above all, make sure your 30-second message is not about you but about the results you can produce for them.

____________________________________________

Ann Convery, M.A., is a speaker, seminar leader, coach and author who has worked with former Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan and top professionals in the fields of politics, medicine, law, business, health and beauty.

Ann created "Speak Your Business in 30 Seconds or Less", for independent professionals and offers private training and seminars on Easy Sales, Presentation Power, Networking, Portable PR, and Platform Selling.

She has prepared clients for presentations, positioned their brand in the marketplace and prepared many of them for for interviews in all major media such as CNN, 60 Minutes, ABC's 20/20, Fox News, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Vogue, USA Today, People, Self, and other outlets.

____________________________________________

Did you find this article valuable? If so, don't miss attending Ann's seminar on June 26 at IKEA.