Your Personal Elevator Speech
First assignment is to introduce your selves to the class.
I would like you to introduce yourselves twice.
A. Informally, short brief, little planning (First Day-Today)
B. Then create as professional, as you can speech, we are calling “Your elevator Speech”
(For our Second Meeting).
C. You will probably want three practiced speeches
a. Personal
b. Professional – INFORMATIONAL (For next meeting)
c. Professional – MARKETING –
i. Should not be used until you know the listener’s hot button!
ii. With call to Action
d. The goal of the introductory speech is to get the listener to ask a question or at
least remember you for the next two years!
The need to introduce yourselves to people is becoming more frequent and more important!
Introducing yourself to the class to your prospective new client, what do they need to know
about you? (Your class mates are potentially new friends & clients.) Each of us needs to be able
to introduce ourselves in 120 seconds or less. The goal of the speech is that the listener wants to
know more about us at the end of our “elevator”, (introductory) speech.
When your speech works, you will know, the listener will ask a question about what
you said.
Please introduce yourself in 90 to 120 seconds to night and next week. You will find longer
speeches are easier. During your editing process, practice
1.
2.
3.
4.
In front of the bathroom mirror several times,
Then to us and
Then graduate to giving the speech to a friend,
Then finally to a stranger.
This may be the most “profitable” assignment you ever do! 
What is an elevator speech, a short introductory speech about you that creates the desire in the
listener to want to talk with you more, (plus the goal of remembering you for two years).
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Why organize your personal introduction? What is in it for you?
o
o
o
o
You will need to introduce yourself often
Please practice on us.
This is an important skill, please think about it first.
My wife’s two biggest sales >$$$ Several Years average income each, have started in
the checkout line of a grocery store. They started with her elevator speech.
Answer the following questions: (You can use the following questions to start your
outline.)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Who are you?
Why is what you are telling the potential friend or prospect important to them?
Why should the listener think of you as an expert?
Your speech will evolve, please let it.
You will need three speeches, two for business and one for personal. If possible,
please start with your business Informational speech. (No selling please)
6. What are your key strengths? (Energetic, Diligent, Honest, …) [list]
7. What adjectives come to mind to describe you? [list]
8. What is it you are trying to ʹsellʹ or let others know about you? [list]
9. Why should your listener be interested in you, your company or your industry?
[list]
Sales Pitch
1) What are the main contributions you can make to benefit the prospect?
2) What problem(s) do I solve?
3) What should the listener do as a result of hearing this?
a. This is called a Call for Action
b. Try to know the prospect’s hot buttons
c. Mostly use on the second or third meeting
1) Here is my web site….
2) Facebook
Hint – Best Practices: Outlining is the shortest and best (highest quality) way to plan any
speech, blog or paper! Outline is also the shortest time way!!!
It is said; spend 80% of your time on the outline and 20% on the writing. In most
cases this will cut the overall time needed to write significantly!
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1. OUTLINE YOUR TALK – [Least time approach is to outline first.] (Best quality too)
Start an outline of your material using bullet points. You don’t need to add any detail at
this stage; simply write a few notes to help remind you of what you really want to say.
You don’t want complete sentences at this point.
Please submit your outline as well as the typed copy of your whole speech before
presenting to the class. (to Maximize your points) [Did your read this far?]
2. FINALIZE YOUR SPEECH –
 Now that you have your outline of your material, you can finalize the speech quite
quickly!
 The key to doing this is to expand on the outline/notes you made by writing out each
section in full.
Yes, I will give extra-EXTRA credit if you record your introductory speech on YouTube or
Facebook - as a Video!
To help you do this, follow these guidelines: (Speech, blog or essay)
a. Take each outline point, notes that you made and write a sentence or two about it.
b. Take each of the sentences and connect them together with additional phrases to
make them flow as a paragraph. (Three paragraphs is best!)
c. Go through what you have written and change any long words or jargon into
everyday language.
d. Read it out loud, go back through the re-written material and cut out unnecessary
words. Practice in front of a mirror.
e. Finalize your speech by making sure it is no less than 90 seconds nor more than
120 seconds long.
f. Present to the class
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How to Craft an Effective Elevator Speech
By Chris King
www.creativekeys.net/PowerfulPresentations/article1024.html
(CLASS -Ideas, examples – do you have any elevator speech
suggestions?)
“I know that at this moment, you are wondering what I’m talking about.
Who gives a speech in an elevator anyway? What I mean by an ‘elevator
speech’ is a short description of what you do, or the point you want to
make, presented in the time it takes an elevator to go from the top floor
to the first floor or vice versa.”
Watch out for the ADs. 
Helpful Sites:
http://bschool.pepperdine.edu/career/content/elevatorspeech.pdf
The Art of the Elevator Pitch
By Robert Pagliarini of SeekingCapital.com
http://www.businessknowhow.com/money/elevator.htm
Suggestions: Who in this class will be able to help you in two years? Start collecting names! 
Now!
3. KNOW YOURSELF - Before you can convince anyone of your idea/proposal you need
to know exactly what the idea is. You need to define precisely what you are offering,
what problems you can solve and what benefits you bring to a prospective contact or
employers. (Don’t try to cover too much.)
References in fiction
An elevator pitch (literally done in an elevator) is a key scene in the movie Working Girl.
External links
 Video on how to create an elevator pitch from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Ideas:
 http://www.creativekeys.net/PowerfulPresentations/article1024.html
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