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
Ivory tower-wise, what is an elevator speech? Let’s first examine its purposes in higher education and then its salient characteristics.
ACADEMIC PURPOSES
In higher education, professors are not selling a product. Instead, they are promoting, to some degree, themselves as teachers, researchers, or clinicians, their scholarship, and their institutions. They’re selling their professionalism.
As an academician, the primary purposes of the elevator speech are to build professional relationships in:
1. your teaching strategies or discipline
2. your research area
3. your clinical specialty
4. anything I forgot
Got it? Certainly, those of you who are in recruit mode may use that opportunity to entice faculty, administrators, or students to your institutional lair.
WHAT IS AN ELEVATOR SPEECH?
So what is this speech all about compared to what you’re already doing?
DEFINITION: It is a concise, carefully-crafted, and well-rehearsed description about “Who you are” and “What you can do for the contact” that your mother would understand, delivered in the time it would take to ride up or down to your hotel floor in an elevator. (Note: If your room is on a low level floor, you’ll have to talk really fast.)
It shifts the emphasis away from you and your credentials, which are already visible on your nametag, to what you can do for the person to whom you’re talking. Rather than promoting you and describing what you do, it’s about spinning what you do for the benefit of that person. And, certainly, who is in a better position to write and deliver that speech than you? Well, maybe your mommy.
CHARACTERISTICS: It’s just a short, mini-spiel, sound-bite of 30–60 seconds to succinctly and memorably introduce you to people or livestock you don’t know. Granted, for professors to speak less than a minute can be an excruciatingly painful, restrictive, and nearly impossible task, especially when they’re talking about their fave subject. It’s like a 100-word abstract (5–8 sentences) of YOU to spotlight your uniqueness and how you can help the contact. Is there any characteristic worth mentioning that distinguishes you from the rest of the pack?
What is the role of the elevator as well other modes of transportation? What constitutes an appropriate elevator speech? What are the key ingredients that will make a lasting first impression and showcase you as a professional? Stay tuned.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
