Small Message, Big Impact: The Elevator Speech Effect
By Terri L. Sjodin
Adult Non-Fiction - Upper Level - 658.452 S

Here's a little light summer reading for all you wheelers and dealers! It is truly a small message (219 pages) with a big impact. There is so much good advice packed into this little tome; it is well worth your time to read it. Some key ideas include:

1. Craft a variety of elevator speeches or talking points and deliver the one that is most appropriate and relevant to the situation. For example, if you are at a work conference, you can introduce yourself to a session speaker using an elevator speech around the topic of the session.

2. The author gives advice for different presentation styles, but warns that ultimately you have to be you. You can try something really creative and kitschy, and that does work in the right situation, but you still have to be comfortable delivering it and it has to work for the audience.

3. This leads to the author's idea of being "scrappy." Find out about the person you want to add to your network and use that information to make connections. Do they like coffee? Bring them coffee and ask for three minutes of their time (the length of time it takes you to deliver your elevator speech).

4. The author also talks about how and when to be persuasive rather than informative and how to pass the “So what?” test. Superlatives like “best,” “largest,” “oldest," “newest,” and “most popular” are not helpful when you’re trying to be persuasive. You have to prove it. What makes you the best, largest, etc. and compared to what?  There are six general case arguments that work: How are you going to save them time, money, sanity, provide security, help them have fun, or make things easy?


Highly recommended!