Dear friends,
I hope this finds you well. I’m sending this “Quarterly Update” to all Elevator Speech Training alumni (and new clients who have their training coming up soon) to share a couple tricks and resources that I’ve recently come across that you might find helpful. If you prefer not to receive these once-every-three-months updates, please click the one-click unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email.
Updated Framework One-pager
I’ve attached an updated version of the Elevator Speech Framework one-pager. You might find an important change from the version you saw during your training, depending on how long ago that was. Let me explain: I recently realized that in almost every one of my training sessions, a significant time was spent discussing examples. Either their entire absence or their insufficient concreteness. Whereas in earlier versions, the one-pager mentioned examples only in the right sidebar, they are now explicitly included in the 10-step framework on the left, so that they are impossible to miss as you use the framework to construct your sequence of key points. I’ve noticed with recent trainees who used this new version that their first takes during the role-play exercise were more powerful off the bat.
Book Suggestion
If you’re in the mood to read an interesting book on elevator speech making, I recommend “Pitch Anything” by Oren Klaff. If you watch some interviews with Klaff on Youtube, you can tell that he is a pretty alpha Wall Street type of guy. Sure enough, what makes his approach unique is the emphasis on the role of status during interactions in which we pitch something. I think he has a very valid point. Klaff strongly counsels against using deferential language, especially in the opening sequence of an interaction (for example, “thank you so much for taking a moment to see me today. I know how incredibly busy your schedule is,” and so on.). Instead, he gives suggestions for subtle things we can do to establish status parity or even dominance at the outset of an exchange, for example, cutting right to the chase. Or doing a subtly status-defying thing like rearranging the seating arrangement in a meeting room without first asking for permission. I find these suggestions especially important for non-profit leaders who interact with funders. As a former foundation vice president, I’ve experienced myself how grant seekers are often unnecessarily deferential. For example, they often go to extreme lengths to express gratitude for past grants they have received. Let me tell you that funders are much more interested in the impact, urgency and excitement around your work, and the confidence you have in its quality.
I hope you found this update useful.
As always, if you want to recommend elevator speech training to a colleague, friend or loved-one, please know you can tell them to mention your name to receive a 25% discount off the price of their first session.
All the best,
Marc.
