HOW DO YOU WRITE A PROFESSOR-TYPE ELEVATOR SPEECH?

Given that the concept of the elevator speech originated in the fields of business and marketing, my approach has been to extract “best practices” from those fields and spin their practices for academicians. The concept is transferable to different applications.

ACADEMIC ACTIVE INGREDIENTS
Obviously, anyone can read your formal name, title, and institution off your boldface printed plastic badge. That’s a starting point. But you haven’t said a word yet.

Here are 3 ingredients to consider:

1.HOOK (What are your first words?): Please do not repeat the obvious. What’s NOT on your badge? Think of something new that breaks the ice or smashes it? Maybe a nickname, word play, or humor. Try to avoid trite and boring.

Use a statement to grab the attention of your contact; one that will pique the his or her interest. (WARNING: No, it’s not a lame pick-up line. Don’t even think about it.) Choose your words carefully.

Example 1: "Hi, I'm Clarissa, but you can call me Rissa. I think inside the box, because I teach TV production." (Note formal first name to nickname intro and wordplay on popular expression with humor linked to job.)
Example 2: “Hi, I’m Bucko. I do research on cheating.” (Note nickname and simple attention-grabbing topic. Most sins and crimes work well.)

2. BENEFIT (What service or benefit do you provide?): What do you do that can help the contact or contribute to what he or she does? What problem can you solve—cheating, low test scores, poor attendance, high drop-out rate, PC/iPhone distractions in class, losing football team, or burglaries? What benefits could your contact derive from what you do?

Example 1: “I also work with IT staff on campuses to help them connect with their faculty on media techniques in the classroom.” (Note benefit for IT staff.)
Example 2: “I present a dozen techniques for faculty to use to detect and eliminate cheating in their classrooms.” (Note benefit for faculty.)

I will continue with the third ingredient tomorrow with examples. Can you guess what it is? It’s probably the one most often overlooked, but critical to relationships. See you then.

COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC