How many times have you gone to a business event where everyone was asked to introduce themselves and tell what their business does? In most cases you have 30-45 seconds to do this. Almost always there are one or two people who go on and on for 4 or 5 minutes listing all the features of their business and products, and boring everyone as well.
How do you make sure you’re not one of those bores but still get your message out?
Here is how. Plan out ahead of time by drawing up a 30 second, 45 second and 1 minute speech.
You can start out one of two ways. Either with your name and your company or with a question or interesting fact about your industry.
If you use the name opening, then state a pain that people have, followed by one of your Unique Selling Propositions (USP) that addresses that pain, then a call to action and end by restating your name and company.
If you use a fact as an opening, you then have to tie it in to a pain and use your USP to show how you can remove their pain. This is followed by your call to action and ends with your name and company.
When you have a longer time, say a minute, you can get two or three pains and their corresponding UPS before your time is up.
Also remember that your speech has to be from the listener’s viewpoint – What’s In It for Them. I don’t care about your features if it does not solve a problem (pain) that I have and want to get rid of fast!
Finally, if you’re asked to “take a moment to tell us about you and your company” or are given a time limit, say, “take 30 seconds to…”
LIMIT IT TO EITHER NO MORE THAN 30 SECONDS OR THE TIME THEY GAVE YOU. DO NOT GO ON FOR 5 MINUTES! PLEASE
Need help or would like more information visit our web site at www.freedcom.com or email me at tfc@freedcom.com
