Mini-Speeches Elevate Our Mini-Storage Industry


	Words That Elevate the Mini-Storage Industry by Craig Harrison


	From the July, 2001 edition of the Mini Storage MessengerMagazine

As facility managers you have ample opportunities to promote your business in your daily interactions. Developing a powerful ‘elevator speech’ is one way to effectively showcase your facility and the services you provide. Through these introductory remarks you can emphasize the benefits you offer and the solutions you deliver to your customers. Elevator speeches also help you project a professional image, establish trust and convey confidence in your facility and its operation.

What is an Elevator Speech?

Elevator speeches are mini-speeches that you can deliver in the average time spent with a stranger in an elevator…sixteen seconds. Ironically, elevator speeches are best delivered outside of elevators, and they're best delivered conversationally, so they're not perceived as speeches. Nevertheless, these ‘sixteen second sound bites’ are ideal tools for word-of-mouth marketing whenever you meet a stranger who asks what you do or where you work. Elevator speeches can be delivered at networking events, conferences and conventions, on sidewalks and in hallways. They even work on escalators!

Elevator speeches explain your occupation in terms that will show listeners what your services and products can do for them. Here's an example I might deliver in response to a stranger asking me what my company does:

"We can help you think inside the box. We're self-storage experts providing you with space to store your commercial or personal property. I'm Craig Harrison, manager of Your Company Store in Denver. Could you benefit from off-site property storage?"

This elevator speech is designed to be thought provoking and informative, eliciting a response from my listener. Delivered conversationally, my elevator speech is purposely short, to invite dialog.

What Makes Elevator Speeches Effective?

In a society in which we have been trained to process information in short sound bites, elevator speeches succinctly communicate the basics to people about how our services and products can help them. The best ones convey our information in style. They communicate facts while showcasing our professionalism, playing up our uniqueness. They're memorable too. Here's another sample:

"I tell people where to put it! (smile and pause) I'm Bob Arnold, manager of Store You here in Tampa. If you've got 'stuff' we've got your storage space. As a full service storage site we offer a variety of ways to store you! Won't you come see how our store is your store?"

The Anatomy of an Elevator Speech

The brilliance of elevator speeches is their simplicity. They are concise in their description of your occupation and designed to speak to your listeners' needs. When you tell people what you do (otherwise known as the features you offer), they must translate them into what those features can do for them—in other words, how will they benefit from them.

Elevator speeches are created and delivered with your listeners in mind, showcasing the benefits you offer (as underlined below):

"We're your attic without cobwebs and your basement without termites. We're More Store, your self-storage specialists. With four metropolitan locations to choose from, we offer a variety of self-storage units to solve your storage problems. Our storage options make your life easier and your own space less cluttered. Let us help you store and save."

Each elevator speech emphasizes the following:

A description of the company and the services/products offered
A discussion of features and/or benefits
The name of the person or company being discussed

In the following elevator speech an analogy is made to capture attention and emphasize the vastness of space available:

"We're the NASA of inner space. We provide storage space here on earth for all your worldly possessions. We're Storage Space Specialists. Houston, we've got a property!"

The aforementioned elevator speech builds on a theme, space, with allusions to outer space. Just as NASA makes outer space accessible, so do Storage Space Specialists make storage space available locally.

Here's an elevator speech that states the listener's benefit up front:

"Our space gives you breathing space. We're Room-For-Growth Storage Incorporated, a self-storage business catering to residential clients. Using our space liberates your place. (pause for rhyme to sink in.) We're here to help."

The Power of Questions

It's recommended you include questions in your elevator speech, as an invitation to your listener to respond. Your questions yield valuable information you can use to help them. Some questions may be answered "yes" or "no." These may determine whether your listener has ever used self-storage before or if they expect theirs to be an "in once/out once" type of use.

When you ask open-ended questions you learn more:

How might you be using our space?
What sorts of items would you like to store?
What special needs do your items require?

Building Your Elevator Speech

As you develop your elevator speech, identify two or three benefits you offer. Also, focus on any unique selling propositions. What do you offer that others don't? Location? Security? Storage options? Skilled staff? Special grounds? As you mull over what you offer potential customers, replay past interactions with customers. What appealed to them? How can you push their buttons in ways that makes their life easier, solves their problems or increases their productivity?

When creating your elevator speech, write it down using conversational language. Usually shorter sentences work best. You should include:

Salutation

Introduction of company name

What you do

What it does for others

What's unique or special about it

Then ask a question to engage your listener

Now experiment with the order of your responses to see which way it sounds best. Perhaps the company name will work best as the last element and telling what’s unique about it has more impact when it's the opening line. In other words, your script order may end up as 1-5-3-4-2-6. Scripting your elevator speech gives you practice focusing on what you wish to say. Through repetition, you will become fluent in expressing the sentiment of your elevator speech, even if it comes out a little differently each time.

We Deliver Too!

One of the keys to effective elevator speeches is how they're delivered. When they are recited like the reading of a script, they fall on deaf ears. Delivered conversationally, they appear more natural. Nobody likes to be read to or treated to a recitation. Your goal is to engender a discussion, not just issue a commercial message.

Those skills you learned in speech class are still in effect. Good eye contact helps you connect and convey your sincerity. A smile makes you accessible and demonstrates your friendliness. Although your goal is to deliver your initial message in sixteen seconds, you shouldn't rush your words.

Elevator speeches are ultimately spoken, not read. While you write yours conversationally, what looks good in print may not sound conversational or natural. Once you've identified the order of yours, practice it with friends, family members and even yourself! Call your work or home message center and leave your elevator speech on your machine. Play it back and analyze where you sound confident and where you lack poise; which words flow off you tongue and which get stuck in your throat? Can you simplify it so it is both easy to speak and easy to understand? For your final exam, deliver yours in an elevator!

Push the Right Buttons

As you craft your elevator speech, here are some thoughts to keep in mind:

Listeners are naturally drawn to alliteration. A teacher of etiquette tells explains in her elevator speech how "manners make money" and "politeness produces profits." Alliteration is pleasing to the ear and memorable too.

Tantalize or intrigue your listener with your opening line for immediate attention. Your elevator speech can ask a question or make a provocative statement to engage your listener.

A nutritionist asks, "Would you like to eat less and enjoy it more?" (Not only is this a question but it's one with a benefit in it!)

A self-storage owner asks a riddle: "When is less more? When less clutter leads to more floor space. Store with us and rediscover your floor space."

Humor makes listeners more receptive to your message. The IRS agent who introduces himself as a "government fundraiser" is suddenly more likeable and accessible too.

Visual pictures vividly impact listeners. A management consultant described her occupation as follows: "I keep your company out of Dilbert's comic strip. I'm Alyson Abrams and I'm a management consultant specializing in change.” Immediately people tap into a set of shared understandings about Dilbert and the modern work world.

- Your elevator speech should be both an extension and an expression of who you are: your style, your self-image, your sense of humor. If you are shy and quiet, don't create an elevator speech that's over the top. If your sense of humor is dry, showcase it, rather than project an image that isn't truly yours.

Don't succumb to pressure to tell your listener information you can give them through a business card, brochure, embossed pen or postcard.

See your elevator speech as an opportunity to begin a new professional relationship.

Convey stability, professionalism and a customer service orientation with your elevator speech. Your questioning and listening skills may ultimately be more important than the actual words of your elevator speech.

In your elevator speech you can showcase your facility and its benefits for businesses and individuals. Develop multiple versions to showcase the services and products you provide, and ways they help the public solve their problems, serve their needs and create new possibilities too. Stay upbeat, confident and personable and you'll push all the right buttons with your elevator speech!

To schedule an engagement, contact Craig by email: craig@craigspeaks.com
or by phone: (888) 450-0664.