Today I want to talk about how to create the perfect elevator speech.
Now some of you might be saying, “What the heck is an elevator speech” (although I hope that’s not the case). The phrase elevator speech has been around forever. You might have also heard it called your value proposition, your value statement or even something else.
In a nutshell, your elevator speech is what you say when someone asks you what you do. For instance, it could be a stranger making small talk or someone you have just met.
Now what typically happens is folks start to spew out this long drawn out story about what they do, and this is not the time to do that. When someone casually asks you this question, they really aren’t asking for your story. They want the down and dirty (quick) version.
You should be able to tell folks what you do in a clear and concise way in just a few sentences. It’s the time to tell the person asking just enough about you to get them interested in hearing more. You might call it a “teaser”.
If you have put together a good elevator speech or value statement, you will know. The reason you will know is that person will ask you to tell them more. When you consistently pique people’s interest when you answer that question you know you have a winner.
How Do You Create an Effective Elevator Speech?
They the key word here is “effective”, and there is sort of a formula.
An effective value statement will contain the phrases “I do this…..” and “so that….”. It may also be like this; “I help.…” “so that.…”.
Here Are a Few Examples.
- I help sellers that have inherited an unwanted property by buying the house no matter what the condition so that they can move on with their life.
- I help sellers behind on their payments by buying their home to that they can be rid of that property and save their credit.
- I buy distressed properties and renovate them to top notch standards so that my private money partners have a safe but very lucrative return on their money.
- I buy properties that need a lot of repairs, renovate them so that someone gets an awesome home, and I am helping improve the neighborhood at the same time.
- I put together lucrative real estate deals so that my investment partners can earn great returns on their money invested.
You get the idea. I do this … so that… (the outcome). That is the framework for your elevator speech or value statement.
When you get this right the person will automatically want to hear more.
Now it’s Time to Practice
Once you have created your speech and you’re happy with it, it’s time to practice it so it rolls right off the top of your tongue when you say it. Probably the only thing worse than not having one, is doing a poor job of communicating it.
My advice is just to walk around the house or your office repeating it until is flows naturally and you remember it word for word. This is no time to improvise because what inevitably happens is you end up telling them some version of a much longer story. Keep it concise, keep it simple and keep it short.
How do I Really Put this Into Practice?
There are so many times this will come in handy. You should be telling everyone you meet what you do. You just never know when the next person you meet will have a house to sell, they will know someone that has a house to sell, or possibly they will be your next private money partner.
One word of caution here; when you are looking for private money partners don’t prejudge folks when you meet them. Your next private money partner AKA private money lender might look like you would expect them to look.
They might not look like they have a lot of money. You may in fact know that they have had some struggles, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a boat load of cash tucked away.
When you talk to people it’s critical that you appear confident. Most of these folks aren’t going to part with their money easily. You credibility and your reputation will be the determining factors in whether or not they become one of your sources of private money.
Here’s a Story for You
I have a really close friend whose parents are the perfect example of “you never know who has buckets of cash”.
My friend’s dad was a union worker at one of the local factories. They lived in a modest house in an average middle class neighborhood, but through the years they lived frugally.
They were savers, not spenders.
They certainly didn’t waste money on things like restaurant meals. When you walked into their home in the middle of summer, they most likely had fans on; not their air conditioning. The kitchen floor was barely there. The linoleum was so thin you could see areas of subfloor.
Had the house been updated? There weren’t any cosmetic updates. Only things like the furnace and other essentials had been replaced and then only when they could no longer be repaired. I could go on and on but you get the idea.
When both of them had passed away, they had accumulated a huge amount of money. They hardly spent any money over the years. In fact they had saved so much money they started giving it away a decade before they died.
Every year in December they would give each of their children a “gift” of the maximum amount of money allowed by law tax free. To look at them, you wouldn’t think they had two dimes between them. So the moral of this story is to never prejudge a person’s financial situation by the way they look.
Your elevator speech is critical when for attracting potential money partners, but getting this down pat will make you a better, more confident real estate investor in all areas of this business.
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