Dear friends,
I hope this finds you well. I’m sending this “Quarterly Update” to participants and friends of Elevator Speech Training to share tricks and resources you might find helpful. If you prefer not to receive this once-every-three-months update, please click the one-click unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email.
This quarter’s update focuses on a small but meaningful improvement to the Elevator Speech Framework that every training session is based on. I’ve called this most recent modification the “More Transition” because the word “more” plays an important role in it.
Here is how it works: Almost at the end of your pitch, when you’re done explaining why the work you do is close to your heart, you insert a sentence using the following schema to segue to your call to action (CTA):
“So, it’s close to my heart, but MORE importantly, it needs to matter to all of us because [here reinvoke the big issue with which you create urgency in the beginning of your pitch]. So, let’s [call to action here].”
Here are some examples:
- “So, this is close to my heart, but more importantly, it needs to matter to all of us as Americans because the very health of our democracy is at stake. So, let’s…”
- “So, this is personal, but more importantly, it needs to matter to all of us as parents who want their children to maximize their potential. So, please…”
- “So, for me, this hits close to home, but much more importantly, we as a community need to get behind this project to help ensure that the human species will survive the effects of climate change. So, I urge you to…”
Here are three rhetorical effects that you accomplish in one fell swoop by using the More Transition:
- You segue to your call to action smoothly instead of abruptly.
- You go full-circle (always a good thing rhetorically) by reinvoking the important big-picture issue you emphasized in the beginning of your pitch. This also infuses your CTA with added urgency.
- By using the word “more,” you self-deprecate and convey that the big issue at hand is more important than the personal reasons why you are involved. This enables you to use a personal backstory to create empathy in your listeners (which makes it more likely they will heed your CTA) without coming across as inappropriately self-centered.
The More Transition is helpful in virtually every situation: Promoting your organization, proposing a project, applying for a job, raising money, or finding strategic partners.
Lastly, allow me to share a personal reason why I am happy to send you the attached updated framework one-pager: I do hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of elevator speech training sessions every year. They are my sole focus. I love doing this work more than anything I have ever done in my life. I get to meet so many special people. They all have in common that they try to make a positive difference in our world. It’s a privilege to meet and work with them. The Elevator Speech Framework represents the distilled collective insights from all these interactions. It is special to me because it contains, in a fashion, the magic and essence of all these encounters.
I’ve attached the latest version of framework. You can also access it any time by clicking the “framework” link on the bottom of my homepage or via www.eltrain.com/framework.
I hope you find it useful. Feel free to pass it on to your colleagues, friends, and loved ones.
Warmly,
Marc.
