Give your ‘pitch’ a facelift

“What do you do?” It’s a simple enough question, used often for starting a conversation. Yet the answer you provide to that question can determine whether the conversation continues or stops dead in its tracks. Everyone needs a clear, concise and engaging way to answer the question, “What do you do?” Here are a few ideas about how to refine and refresh your "quick pitch:"

• Know your target audience.  Knowing exactly who would benefit from your product or service is critical.  We all must be able to communicate ideas that others will recognize, so they will see how we can help them. You should have the  ability to adjust your pitch, depending on your audience.
• Understand what the other person cares about, his or her concerns and priorities.
• Talk about your results, not how you achieve them.  For example, if you are a consumer financial literacy educator, just don’t talk about  all the consumer issues that exists, you might say that you help communities all over the country to take charge of their financial lives.
• Connect with your own passion and enthusiasm.
• Pay attention to how people respond. The goal of an elevator speech is to get people interested and have them ask more questions. If they don’t ask questions, you may want to adjust what you are talking about so people can  recognize the value or benefit that you provide.
• It’s also important to listen to what the other person is saying to you.  Quite often they will tell you exactly what they are looking for or interested in learning or hearing from you.
• Less is more. Most people like to receive information in capsules or bite size pieces.