An elevator statement is a concise, well-rehearsed summary of your value proposition. Metaphorically, it should be delivered in 30 -90 seconds – the time it takes an elevator to ride from the ground floor to the top floor.
If you are not comfortable with the elevator analogy, think of a ‘BBQ Statement’, or a ‘Pub Pitch’.
It’s all about helping the recipient of your pitch ‘get you’ in the first few seconds they spend time with you.
Pretty much the most common question that everybody gets asked at networking events and parties is: “So, what do you do?”
Answers can be anywhere between the sizzlingly curious, to the utterly boring and long-winded.
What you want to be is sizzlingly curious to the other person.
To effectively communicate an elevator statement, use this formula that I recently gleaned from Allan Dib’s book, ‘The 1 Page Marketing Plan’.
I call it the PSP framework.
“You know (Problem)? Well what we do is (Solution). In fact (Proof).”
Here are three examples:
For a tax accountant: You know people pay too much income tax. Well what I do is legally reduce tax for all my personal and corporate clients. In fact, I just reduced the income tax for a company that paid a $2 million tax bill the prior year to $1 million and for one personal client I was able to get him a refund.
For a mortgage broker: You know how most people finance their home and continue to pay that mortgage year-in, year-out without questioning that arrangement. Well, what I do is help people know what the latest mortgage offerings are in the market and how they could roll over from their existing provider to a better provider. In fact, just last week, a client of mine was able to reduce his annual mortgage repayments by over $7,000 by switching to the provider we recommended.
For a payroll manager: You know how one of the most annoying and disengaging things any employer can do is incorrectly process employee’s pay. It peeves the employee and ties up the employer’s payroll department’s resources. Well, what I do is to make sure every payroll run complies with all awards and contracts, consistently providing error-free processing. In fact, in the last year I’ve been able to reduce the number of calls our Payroll Department receives from 100 complaints per payroll run to zero.
The PSP (Problem, Solution, Proof) Elevator Statement framework (Problem, Solution, Proof) works better than most others.
It’s simple.
It’s easy to be understood.
It does not take a lot of effort to learn.
Want to learn more? You can also find out another way of crafting an elevator statement by seeing this link – Elevator Statement: An Alternative to Hollywood’s Logline.
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About the author:
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Greg Weiss is one of Australia’s most renowned career coaches. He is the author of “So You Got A Job, WTF Is Next”. The book prescribes a proven, practical 7 step guideline for new employees so they succeed, rather than fail their probation periods and beyond. Find out more about the book at https://www.wtfisnext.wtf/
He is the Founder and Director of Onboff an online training and coaching platform that helps HR specialists, coaches and recruiters to deliver exceptional onboarding and offboarding experiences for employees.
Greg also hosts The Keep: The Employee Experience podcast and runs CareerSupport365.
