Category: Elevator Speech

Last week we looked at how to go about creating a bang up elevator speech.  There were four points you were to contemplate and come up with a response.  If you don’t remember them, go back and check last week’s blog. Using the Probate Attorney illustration, we have already defined the target market as “middle to high end worth clients who need probate planning”   Now what kind of words would inspire the listener to continue to be interested in what you have to say.  How about ” I have found that people who die without the proper planning are putting their families in jeopardy every day”.  That should get both a lay person and an attorney to continue to listen to you. Next area is what can you do for your clients.  This might go something like ” I give my clients security in knowing that their final wishes and  needs have been uncovered and the best possible plan is in place to insure long term benefit to both the client and their beneficiaries”.

Last, you want to let the person know what they can do for you.  This might be viewed as the closer for your elevator speech.  For the Attorney:   ” Whatever service I can be to you and your clients in this area, I would be happy to accommodate.  Just give me a ring.” For the lay-person:  “If I can ever be of service to you or your friends or family, I will be happy to discuss any questions or concerns, they or you might have.  Just give me a ring.”  Always end with giving them a business card and a piece of wrapped chocolate candy.  “Oh, just found this in my pocket” If you feel just giving the candy is too flashy……remember, sweet items always helps to implant memories. So this week, you are going to get together your own whiz bank elevator speech and practice it before the mirror at least 10 times.  Memorize it, use it, change it. Because I know you are all terribly curious about my elevator speech…..it goes something like this:  “Did you know that attorneys are one of the most dissatisfied group of people on earth? Many are in good jobs but still unhappy.  Others can’t find a suitable job in this market and still others are not even sure they should be lawyers.  I can help with that.  I’m a professional legal coach who coaches attorneys at all levels of their career to insure that they are attaining their highest selves.  If you are interested or know of an attorney who needs me, please call or go to my website.  I have short free open coaching hours on Monday and Wednesday to get a taste of coaching ”  AND A BUSINESS CARD AND BIG PIECE OF CHOCOLATE for a dynamic finish. It would be great if you would send me your proposed elevator speech.  I would like to see what you are coming up with.  All my best.

Click here to see a Amy Cuddy give a Ted Talk on Body Language. It’s Great!

Sorry folks this click is going to take you to Ted Talks and not Amy’s talk.  Apparently some problem with their site (not mine). Just click into Ted Talks and then go to her talk on Body Language. It’s fun!

Ok, I’m back and ready to rock and roll.  I spent one day at the California State Bar in San Francisco and then two days giving a talk in El Centro at the Imperial County Bar Association.  The members were wonderful and really appreciated having an outsider give an MCLE ethics program on Social Networking.  If you have a County  Bar Association that would like a State Bar MCLE program, give me an email and I will see what I can do.

In the meantime, we are going to start to look at getting your act together for a whiz bang up elevator speech.  The first thing a person who is meeting you for the first time sees is your carriage, what you are wearing and your body language.  The second thing is your one minute elevator speech.  This is where you either win or lose the contact.

So what is an elevator speech?  It is a response to “What type of law do you practice?” or “What do you do for a living?” You may want one speech for an attorney and one for a lay person.  Please, Please never ever say you do LITIGATION for  your area of practice.  Lay people have no idea what that is and each lawyer has their own idea about what a litigating attorney does.  Do you only do trials?  Do you do only  discovery and never go to trial? At what point do you take the case?  You can see that trying to reduce this down to one minute is not easy…..but is necessary.

First thing to do is to identify your target market.  You may have already done this in your Mission Statement.  Try to narrow your target market down as much as possible.  Such as:  My clients are middle class to high net worth individuals and families who need wealth management advice and probate planning.  Rather than:  I do wills and trusts.

Once you have the target market identified, then you need to start to wrestle with several concepts.  Start off with asking yourself “Why should someone want to hire me?”  “What value can I give my clients?” “How is my service unique?”

When you have those ideas identified, write them down.  You might even want to ask some of your old clients how they think you are unique.  Why did they pick you.  You don’t want to be burdensome or ask embarrassing questions but whatever information you can get from old clients is invaluable for your elevator speech.

So let’s start by breaking the elevator speech down into segments:

1. What specific clients are you looking for?

2. What are the words that would inspire your listener to continue hearing you?

3. What can you do for your clients?

4. What do you want the listener to do after the talk?

So do this first.  Start asking yourself the right questions and gathering information.  Next week we will talk about what you can do with this information to form the greatest elevator speech known to mankind.