marketing

Elevator pitch

Very concise presentation of an idea covering all of its critical aspects, and delivered within a few seconds (the approximate duration of an elevator ride). (businessdictionary.com)

The elevator pitch: a term mired in mystery in which outcomes lead to one extreme or the other: despair or greatness. But how can someone possibly fit all the critical aspects of an idea into just a few seconds yet still be captivating? Is this a skill one is born with or is it something developed over time?

If you are still reading, then you are experiencing the importance of the elevator pitch. What you read in the first few lines of this post was interesting enough for you to read more! People have short attention spans and people care about things that are relevant to them. The more relevant you are to a person, the longer they will give you their attention. The trick is quickly convincing someone that you are worth more of their time. When approaching a boss, CEO, HR Manager, or anyone else you would like to get a word in edgewise, the more of a stranger you are to them, the less time you have to capture their attention…so capture it fast.

Marketing yourself is one of the most difficult things to do because there is so much that you think is great about you. Think about it – when you are writing your resume it typically takes a while to cater it to the specific job you are applying for because you are trying to decipher which experiences you have are the most relevant to the person reading the resume. Its natural, everyone thinks that what they are doing is really important. Why else would they be doing it?

Put yourself in the shoes of the listener. What does he/she want to hear from you? What do they value? Those are your “critical aspects”. If you have an idea that could increase the productivity of you and your coworkers without adding any work hours, but your boss only values cutting costs, you shouldn’t lead with “I have a plan to increase the productivity of coworkers.” Rather, you should lead with “I can help you cut costs by 22% through this plan to increase productivity of myself and my coworkers.” You have caught your boss’s attention by stating a specific percentage of reduced cost which made him/her want to listen to the rest of what you are saying.

The point is that people only want to listen to things or to people that appeal to them. The less a person is interested in you, the more you have to speak in terms of what they want to hear. The more a person is interested you, the more likely they are to listen if even if they don’t care about what you are saying.

There are tactics to knowing what a person wants to hear or what they care about. There are also tactics to applying your experiences to those things a person cares about. Sometimes it requires building rapport with a person first on a completely irrelevant topic to what you would like to speak about (but something that the other person highly cares about) and then bringing up your ideal conversation to that person.

Even if your first few attempts at marketing yourself to others doesn’t turn out as you would like, keep pivoting and working on new ways to improve your pitch.

Pivoting is not failure, but failure to pivot is. 

As an executive of your company, you are the face of the company or business you run. You are the one that everyone first thinks of when they hear or interact with your brand, you are the one they blame if something goes wrong, and you are the one they remember. 

Executive branding is important no matter what kind of business you are in, whether it be retail, construction, manufacturing, healthcare, technology, or any other industry. 

Branding is necessary for all aspects of your business; you want everything to be cohesive and be true to who you are and what you believe. Those values and beliefs should trickle down the pipeline of your employees, and as an entire brand, you should all feel similar in how you see the workplace and the world.

 

 

Executive branding starts with determining what you want your core message to be. Your message should coincide with what your target audience believes, and you need to use your message to grab their attention. For example, if you are the executive of an environmentally friendly packaging supplies business, your message should relate to the work your company does and how you do it. Your target audience would be business owners of all sizes who want to only use packing supplies that are eco-friendly. If you brand yourself properly and market your message to those people, you’ll have a loyal customer base in no time.

Even though you may not deal with your audience daily as other people within your company do, it’s still extremely important to brand yourself as the executive. Your branding is what helps you make connections in the business world, it helps get your name in front of people’s eyes, and it helps to boost your business more than you probably imagine.

Whether you’re in a new position as executive or you’ve been executive for 10+ years, there is always room for improvement when it comes to branding yourself.

 

 

 

As an executive of a company, you barely have free time as it is. So, do you really need to take the time to brand yourself? Here are 5 reasons why it’s necessary to establish a personal brand for yourself:

 

Executive branding is your one chance to show your audience what makes you and your business unique. What do you offer that others don’t? Why should they support your business over your competitors? What makes you unique?

These are all things you should answer when defining your brand as executive. People support those they align with, in all aspects. If someone can see who you are as a person and can see you truly care about a cause or believe in a product or service, they’ll see that and come to your business with their credit card ready. Authenticity and uniqueness are what drive people to your brand!

 

The only way to gain new clients or customers and create loyal ones is to get them on your side. Let’s go back to the eco-friendly packing supplies business example. If there is a small business owner that believes in your cause and can tell you truly care about saving and protecting our environment and they like you as a person, they are 10x more likely to continue supporting you even if your prices are higher. 

Relationships are crucial and maintaining them is an essential practice. 

In fact, 71% of consumers say they prefer to support companies that align with their own values. Why is that? Because they like you for you, not for your prices or products. You have similar values and that is what makes people loyal to one brand over another.

 

Going back to the stat that 71% of consumers out there prefer to purchase products or services from brands that align with their own values and beliefs, creating an executive brand is one of the best things you can do to show your target audience what you believe in and why you believe it. 

These days, people don’t just type in something online and purchase the first thing that pops up. They take time to research the company, see who runs it, and learn why they started it. If you don’t tell your story well enough or show potential consumers what you believe in and why, or what your values are in life, odds are they have already clicked off your page.

Why is that true? Because people like to see authenticity and they like to know you became an executive of a company for a reason other than to make a new income. Consumers don’t want to feel like you are using them to get a paycheck, they want to feel good about purchasing and investing in your business because your values and beliefs are the same as theirs. 

Make sure to tell the world what you believe in, what your value in both your personal and professional life, and why. If you hit this on the head, your loyal customer base is going to skyrocket.

 

Any high-up executive knows that no one is perfect, and you are bound to make a mistake at some point in your career. When you are in control of your executive branding, you can determine how people see you. Are you the nice boss that allows your employees to dress down on Fridays? Or are you the mean boss that doesn’t want to pay people’s healthcare?

When positioning your brand, you need to think about what you want people to think of you as. If you treat your employees right, you market yourself right, and your brand yourself properly, you can drown out the negative comments made. 

This can be sharing things about yourself, your life, or an experience you had with a customer. It can also be donating to a cause you believe in, or this can be showing off how you treated your employees to a team bonding experience. Whatever kind of boss you want to be, make sure you consider how people are going to see you from that. 

 

As an executive, you only want to be seen in a positive light, so make sure you brand yourself to receive only positive thoughts! Branding is one of the best business tools you can use and guess what? It costs nothing but time and energy! Branding yourself as an executive is something you should take your time