Avoid the Blah Blah Blah – “What Do You Do?” Elevator Pitch Workshop

I had a lot of fun last night with my competitive intelligence and business intelligence buddies from the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (event announcement).

You can read my article, Tell Your (Data) Business Story – Eight Steps to Inspire Your Audience, or review the post from a SCIP event a few months back, Data Storytelling Workshop for Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals.

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“What Do You Do?” 3 Steps To A Perfect Elevator Pitch

I designed the program around these five learning goals:

• Avoid the blah-blah-blah syndrome using a proven 3 step process
• Make networking more enjoyable with a perfect elevator pitch
• Communicate with influence while making genuine connections
• Think on your feet faster using audience analysis techniques
• Tell your story with more confidence, credibility, and ease

HIGH LEVEL CONCEPTS

Some of the high level concepts included:

• The Better Tomorrow Message ^TM is the key to success with your elevator pitch
• Inspire with stories that connect emotionally first, then with your data second
• Your elevator pitch is just one part of your overall story
• “It’s all about them”
• “Think like a sales person, present like a sales person, be the expert that you are”
• Avoid wishy-washy words and phrases such as I’ll try; I hope; It goes without saying; and Needless to say
• Avoid negative words. The main culprits are But; Yes, but; Right, but; Although; However; On the other hand; and With all due respect
• Facts and data don’t last. Stories are memorable. Be a data storyteller. Why? Great stories travel^TM
• Master these communication techniques to improve your CI data storytelling, presentation and public speaking skills

One of the lasting thoughts I left the group with was from H. Jackson Brown, Jr., author of Life’s Little Instruction Book: “Remember that the person you’re about to meet can become as important to you as someone you’ve known for years.”

“Remember that the person you’re about to meet can become as important to you as someone you’ve known for years.”

Photography Source:  © Copyright 2018, The Chief Storyteller^®, LLC. All Rights Reserved.