That’s why whenever I make speeches, I try to just have a rough outline of what I’m going to speak about and let the rest come naturally, from the heart. It makes for a much better speech and is more effective with my audiences.

Stanley Bronstein
MrAchievement
Attorney, CPA, Author & Speaker

I’m not saying you shouldn’t promote your services, because that’s absolutely necessary. But it’s all about being MORE than the script.

In social settings a 30 second tagline is great if it is – as you say – real, likable, and engaging. Unfortunately for many, their taglines are catchy but their personalities are not – because they’re too focused on earning business rather than being themselves.

You’ve got to be more than a pitch, you need to be a personality that people can relate to outside of your 30 second script.

GirlPie – I certainly did not mean you should “make friends” and hope they’ll hire you someday. The simple fact that you’re “hoping” to get hired means you’re labeling your new friends as prospects.

Every time I get a letter in the mail from a real-estate agent I met at a networking event I know it’s because they’re begging for my business. It doesn’t come across as genuine and certainly doesn’t make me want to buy. If they instead decided to toss their prospecting glasses to the side to talk with me as a regular person – one on one – I’d probably get to know them much better and they’d have a real chance of winning my business.

Discussing your passion and work will always be a way of relating with people – you’re right about that. But discussing with the view that they’re a prospect will never be as genuine as if you’re discussing it with a friend.

When people meet you, they don’t want to hear something you’ve memorized – they want to talk.

(maybe that is “adapting” the pitch? or repositioning it?)

Can agree with Dustin and Dennis, however.

Maybe this just goes for a certain industry in an infamous city (where “what do you do?” comes before “what’s your name?”). I’ve never been to a networking thingee where I wasn’t a speaker for it, but my experience has been that discussing business is THE way to get to know someone.

Most people have either a job, a career, or a passion (dream); some of us are lucky that they’re one in the same. Discussing ours, asking about theirs, IS who we are.

If you’ve taken the time to write and practice and MAKE ORGANIC your brief logline of who you are and what problem you solve, then you’re just expressing yourself honestly. Do it with humor if you can, and hold an honest interest in finding out about the person you’re meeting, and you’re prospecting even while possibly making a relationship. But your service or product certainly is right for a far wider ranger of people than a perfect-match friendship does. If not, rethink your business purpose, (and your idea of friendship; you may mean ‘acquaintance.’)

Not everyone can cleverly, compellingly, intriguingly state their purpose and benefits as well as they’d like. So crafting it carefully, learning it, then owning it and letting it flow however it does from your heart — as a way to connect with the person you’re speaking with — is good for business because it’s good for connecting.

My industry friends never ever hire me. It used to bug me but I’ve gotten used to it because I have a unique high-end consulting practice that doesn’t fit everyone. I’m either too costly for their budget, or they don’t know they need my help, or they’re embarrassed, or I make it look easy enough they think they can do it. Fine, whatever. But they’re friends, not leads. They refer or support or praise, but their business will never come. I don’t advertise, so meeting me in person (or finding me on the web) is the way my clients see that I AM my business — and the next step toward achieving their dream project.

I’m a huge believer in DIG YOUR WELL BEFORE YOU’RE THIRSTY (Harvey MacKay’s book), but marketing yourself in your business can not be left to “making friends” and hoping they’ll hire you someday. You DO need that 30-second-pitch, but it must be offered as organically and interactively as saying your name and asking theirs or whatever chat is appropriate to the circumstances. Don’t ditch it — adapt it. Good luck.

A lot of the advice I’ve read about elevator pitches reduces them to a tagline: “What do I do? I provide value by leveraging Internet assets such as social media blah blah blah.” It’s a commercial.

I think it’s important not to be stuck for an answer, but to focus more on being yourself than on memorizing a script. I saw Chad as responding to all that sort of advice, not as eschewing the idea of promoting yourself effectively altogether.

The 30 second description is fine – but it’s the mindset behind the elevator pitch that gets so many people into trouble.

Of course you need to know how to explain what you do in a way that intrigues people…but too many people toss this line out at inappropriate times and it certainly isn’t helping them get any clients.

It’s a horrid way to start a relationship, which is why “elevator speech” doesn’t make sense. You’re not going to win a client over in an elevator, you’re going to win them over through building a relationship that is not tied to your services.

I’m not saying to stand in the corner at social events, nor am I saying to bring your pitch with you…I’m saying to be yourself and leave your prospecting glasses at home.