Assignment - Develop an Elevator Speech

Opportunities surround us in which we can make a connection with someone who may become a potential customer, colleague, investor, or even employer. Having a tool to immediately and quickly explain your idea, product, or abilities in a focused and concise manner is an essential item in our professional tool chest. A typical Elevator Speech is about 20-30 seconds (or about the time it takes for an elevator to get to the next stop). Different circumstances may call for an Elevator Speech that is longer or shorter, but the basic idea is to get your information across FAST. A kick-ass elevator speech is as essential as a résumé, and you will often need several versions that can serve different purposes (such as a profiles statement for LinkedIn or as a headline on you résumé).

Why is Having an Elevator Speech so Important?

In today's world of distractions confronting us everywhere we turn, it is harder and harder to get the attention of the people we need to impress. Our average attention span is roughly 20-30 seconds before our minds start to get bored. Some say, it's as short as 8 seconds. Ever notice how tv commercials have grown shorter and shorter? The bottom line is: Don't bore me. Another reason is people have less time today, so don't waste yours or theirs. Time is money. You need to grab your audience's attention quickly and sustain it, or you will risk losing them forever.

Elements of an Elevator Speech

A good Elevator Speech has 4 fairly distinct parts that flow smoothly to provide a concise and organized statement.

1. What is your "Professional Label" - Start with your professional label. Saying "I am an Accountant" labels you with a profession. Using the label is much faster and more compelling than saying "I am currently working as an Accountant" which labels you as "working." You have an extremely short time to deliver the speech, so every word must count.

2. What you are Doing Now - After you say your professional label, say what you are doing now. A sentence about the work you are doing now will provide a context for your audience.

3. How did you get to this point - Tell a story about how you got into your current situation, or explain what you have done that has allowed you to pursue this career path. At this point, you're already 8-10 seconds into the speech and your audience's attention may start to wander. Say something like "I love what I do." The mere mention of a strong emotional word, such as "love" will automatically pull the attention back to you.

4. What is your goal - End your speech with some kind of goal statement? For example, in a year or so tafter graduating, what do you hope to be or to be doing?

Worksheet to Develop a Branding Speech -

After you have written your Elevator Speech, you can use it as a springboard for the bradning speech, which is an "enhanced" version of your elevator speech. It's important to know, however, that they are not the same thing. Your speech will use your career and experience to demonstrate your talents and skills and market yourself as an expert about some specific area for which your skills benefit some particular group (position + target). You want gain enough interest from your audience for us to want to know more. Your speech needs to be easy to understand and very compelling.

Here are 5 steps for you to construct your personal branding speech.

1. Start by writing down the top 6-7 words that describe you.

If you can't think of words to describe you, ask a coworker, colleague, or a friend how they see you?

2. Develop a theme around each word.

Look at the words you chose for step 1 and see if there is a theme. Do your chosen words center on specific ideas or traits or expertise or style of performance? For example, are you "resourceful"-the person who is assigned troubled projects? Are you "trustworthy" or "passionate"? Are you the go-to "expert" for some task or skill?

3. Now write a paragraph that how you fit the description for each of the chosen words?

Remember to keep the writing conversational. Focus on showing the challenge/situation and what resulted from your action. For example: "When our team project to develop a mock company looked like it was going to miss its deadline, I'm the business plan subject matter expert who put it back on track."

4. Rank each Item In order their Impact In describing your talent and showcasing results.

Remember that you might want to have multiple pitches so you may have different ranks for different themes.

5. Now put it all together.

Start by stating your theme and then give one to three short statements that prove it. Your final speech should be very conversational and engaging and show enthusiasm.

Attachment:- Assignment File.rar