About your elevator speech – How’s it working for you?

I saw the following question on one of the forums I belong to and thought you’d find it interesting:

Q. Tell me About Your Elevator Speech… do you have one?

I live in an area where Virtual Assistant has yet to become a household word. I am interested to see what others in my field tell folks when they ask with a quizzical expression… O, what is that?

It is easy for me to come up with examples of what I do but unless it addresses the individual’s “pain points,” I am still not doing the job of educating them and properaly promoting myself – I usually turn it around and ask them how they run their business and try to find out how they might utilize a VA’s service. Either that or I just explain how using a VA can actually help them increase their income potential by allowing them more time to do what makes them money and how they can do it without the usual costs associated with hiring an employee.

I am interested to hear some ideas from this wonderful group about how you handle this issue.

R.A.

A. Great question Rose-Anne!

As you have found, many people haven’t a clue what a Virtual Assistant is and when you mention the word, you may be faced with the “deer in headlights” look.

What works best is to NOT label yourself as a Virtual Assistant. To be honest, those two words don’t mean anything. What you REALLY offer as a VA is that you are a problem solver. A solutions provider.

No one you speak to is losing sleep at night thinking “If I only had a Virtual Assistant in my life…things would be SO much better!” But what they could be losing sleep over is the fact that they have 10 voicemail messages waiting to be returned (to people who are ideal prospects and ready to buy their products/services), that they’re email box is out of control, they feel scattered and disorganized and that their billing is a mess. THOSE are things that keep small business owners up at night. And THIS is why they need to work with a trusty Virtual Assistant. One who will help them manage they day-to-day operations of their business so they can focus on running the company, doing the work that they love and making more money in the process.

So, when you are talking about what you do, try this formula instead:

I help [TARGET MARKET] + [CREATE SPECIFIC BENEFITS/RESULTS]

For instance, you could say:

“I help small business owners create more time in their day so they can make more money in their business”.

So how different that sounds? You’ve just positioned yourself as THE resource for the two things entrepreneurs want more than anything else: MORE time and MORE money.

I guarantee you the person you speak to is going to be interested in that. And by saying this, you’ve opened the door to further conversation. THEN you can explain that you work virtually and use technology to …… (your description of Virtual Assistance).

You see, the person you are talking to doesn’t care about the name of your business. They don’t even care that you are a Virtual Assistant (they don’t even know what it is! 🙂. What they do care about is “What’s in it for me?” It’s the “radio” station we are all tuned into …. WIIFM. They are REALLY only interested in finding out if you offer something they need. And fortunately for them …. you do! So, tell them what that is. Tell them specifically how you can help them. Tell them about the benefits and results other clients have enjoyed in working with you. And let the conversation naturally evolve.

Doing so will make it SO much easier for you to talk about what you do. You’ll feel more comfortable, more confident and more focused, all of which will make you more client attractive.

Give it a try the next time you have a chance to talk to someone about what you do and then come back here and let me know how you made out.

I look forward to hearing from you!