Life After PowerPoint!

A fellow speech coach and past owner of a speakers bureau, Sandra Schrift, works a lot with professional speakers and with people who want to get paid for speaking. She helps them craft what she calls a defining statement — one or two sentences that identify their target audiences, the topic they speak about, and the benefit they provide.

I’ve always liked the concept of a defining statement — it sounds classier than “an elevator speech” — and I’ve used many of Sandra’s suggestions.

But lately I’ve realized I use a variation of it that I call an undefining statement. I use it as a way of distinguishing myself from others. I say what I don’t do — how I’m unlike other people who do what I do — in order to highlight what I do do.

I might say, for example, ”Unlike other speech coaches who focus primarily on delivery — on how people stand and move and sound when they’re giving a speech — I show my clients how to develop a strategy and a compelling message so that their speeches accomplish their goals.”

Here’s how it works. Fill in the blanks:

“Unlike other ____________________[your competitors]

who _________________________________________[describe what they do or how they do it]

I ___________________________________________[describe what you do or how you do it].”

Saying what you don’t do or how you don’t work or who you don’t work with is a way of setting yourself apart. It’s much better than saying you’ll do anything for anyone. And it’s a way of more concretely defining who you are and what you do.

What do you think?

When I told people at the Inventors Forum that they needed an elevator speech for their idea or invention, someone asked me what an elevator speech is.

That was my fault. I’m so familiar with the concept that I didn’t think to define it. (I’m always telling people to explain their jargon unless they’re 100% sure that everyone in the audience knows it. I’m still learning…)

The image is this. You get on an elevator and someone breaks the unwritten law against speaking to strangers in an elevator. Instead of staring in silence at the numbers as they light up (which is what normal people do), the person asks what you do. You have only a few floors — and a few seconds — to explain.

An elevator speech is a short — very short — answer to the question “what do you do?”

Google elevator speech and you’ll find a gazillion explanations and tips. Two places to start are at Entrepreneur.com and BusinessWeek.com.

People generally advise keeping your pitch to somewhere between 15 and 30 seconds. I try to keep mine to 5 to 6 seconds. I think the speech should only give a general idea of what you do so people can follow up with a question, if they’re interested.

Do you have an elevator speech you’d be willing to share?