Tag Archives: elevator pitch

Hot Conference Networking Tips From the Gurus

Scott Allen, who writes about entrepreneuring and has just come from SXSW Interactive and picked up some tips from networking expert and author Thom Singernger on how to network a big multi-day conference.

In Top 10 Conference Networking Tips, Scot says “one of the main reasons that people site for attending a conference is the networking opportunities. Yet they often leave the event feeling they made few or no connections. Here are 10 Tips to help you get the most out of connecting with others at a conference:

1. Have a plan. Know in advance whom you want to meet (directly or the type of people), which speakers you want to hear, and what tradeshow booths you want to visit.

2. Set appointments in advance. If you know that there will be people in attendance whom you know that you would like to see, call or email a few weeks in advance to schedule a time to meet for coffee, a meal, or a drink. Do not hope to “run into them”, as your paths might not cross at a time when you can spend quality time together.

3. Do not focus on meeting the celebrity speakers. While meeting famous authors, speakers, and other gurus is fun, you are one of hundreds who will come up to them and shove a card in their hands. Instead, place you focus on meeting other people in attendance at the event. It is the other attendees who you are most likely to bond with and create real long lasting mutually beneficial friendships.

4. Talk to the people sitting next to you. When you walk into a seminar, take the time before the presentation begins to say hello to the people seated around you. I call this the “power of hello”. Once you have said something as simple as “hello”, it will be easier to talk with them later in the week if you see them again.

5. Ask questions of people you meet. Never lead with your “elevator pitch“. People are more interested in themselves than they are in you, so ask them questions to help them get to talking.

6. Put your technology away. Do not run to your phone, BlackBerry, or laptop at every break. When you are working on electronics you send the message that you are unapproachable because you are busy. Utilize the time on breaks to converse with others.

7. Do not automatically send a LinkedIn or Facebook request. So often people immediately send social networking link requests to people they just met. However, different people have different policies about whom they link with. If they believe in only connecting with those whom they have established relationships, you make it awkward if you send them a link too early (which they then ignore). Best is to ask people if they would welcome such a link at this time. Be respectful of the fact that they might use social networking differently than you do.

Immediately following them on Twitter is okay, as Twitter does not require a mutual connection acceptance.

8. Read their stuff. Many people are active bloggers, twitterers, authors, etc… If people create the written word, seek out their work and read it. It is a great way to get to know people by reading their stuff, but they will also be honored when you tell them that you read their blog or follow them on Twitter.

9. Introduce others. When you meet cool people, be the conduit who connects them with others who might be beneficial to them. This includes others at the conference, as well as other people you might know back home. If you ask the right types of questions, you will easily spot connections that can help others. Don’t ever worry about “what’s in it for me”, but instead just be the person who helps others. You will over time that others will help you too.

10. Follow up. If you meet interesting people and you never follow up, it makes no difference. Own the follow up after you meet people and send them an email (or better yet, a handwritten note) telling them how much you enjoyed talking with them, and plan for future discussions.
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A few of the attendees at Thom’s session had some great additional tips:

  • When attending evening parties, get there early. That way a cluster of conversation builds up around you and you don’t face the challenge of working your way into other clusters like you do if you arrive late.
  • Another great way to meet people at parties is to play the role of informal host. For example, know where the host or celebrity guests are, where the bathroom is, the name of the waitress/bartender, etc. Stand near the entrance and be of service to people.
  • When you get business cards, jot a brief note on the back – where you met them, what you talked about, etc. That will make it much easier to follow up with them.
  • A great way to follow up with them is not only to follow them on Twitter, but also to make a brief post about your conversation with them. Promoting other people is a great way to create value for them and build the relationship. (If you’re unfamiliar with Twitter, see Twitter for Entrepreneurs. If you’re already on Twitter, you can follow @ThomSinger as well as me, @ScottAllen.)

I invite you to follow me as well, @gretchenglas,thanks.

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Can You Tell Me Something About Yourself? Fine Tune Your Answer For Your Audience

Can You Tell Me Something About Yourself! – Careers-Employment- AdvancingWomen.com

“Tell me about yourself” is a question, usually posed at some point in an interview. In Can You Tell Me Something About Yourself? Don ‘t Let That Question Stop You Cold we discussed the fact that interviewers use the interview process as a vehicle to eliminate your candidacy. Every question they ask is used to differentiate your skills, experience, and personality with that of other candidates. And we also discussed the process of preparing for the interview and how to handle the question.  To review that discussion, go here.

But remember, one size does not necessarily fit all.  Yes, your core skills, competencies and value to the company remain the same.  But there is a slight difference in perspective, depending on who’s asking the question. For different people, with different roles in the company and therefore different perspectives  on qualities which will be reassuring to them, you should retain your core “elevator pitch” but pivot slightly to address the main concerns of a person whose role shapes his or her outlook and the qualities he or she is focusing on.

When Asked by Different People?

The HR manager or CEO of the company or the Departmental Head can ask the same question and your answer should vary slightly since the expectation of each such person is different.

When asked by HR Manager, who is all about people skills, your response should include something like this: “My career has been characterized by my ability to work well with diverse teams. I seek out opportunities to involve others in the decision-making process. This collaboration and communication is what has enabled me to achieve success in my department. People are the most valuable resource of any organization.”

When asked by CEO, who is all about the bottom line, your response should include something like this: “I have achieved success in my career because I have been focused on the bottom line. I have always sought out innovative solutions to challenging problems to maximize profitability. Regardless of the task or challenge, I always established benchmarks of performance and standards of excellence. I have never sought to maintain the “status quo.” An organization that does not change and grow will die. I would enjoy working with you to help define new market opportunities in order to achieve the organization’s goals.”

So, prepare, define your competitive advantage, think “elevator” pitch, and adjust your pitch every so slightly, depending who’s asking the question. Then go in and dazzle them with your capabilities! Good luck! And please write and tell us how you do or if you have any other thoughts to help with this process.

( If you think you may need some help clarifying and preparing any of your answers, go to Advancing Women Portfolios, email advancingwomen@gmail.com or call toll free: (888) 565-4627. We would love to hear from you and we will be happy to help.)

To read the whole post, go to Can You Tell Me Something About Yourself! – Careers-Employment- AdvancingWomen.com

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Strategies For Self Introduction in an Interview

Strategies For Self Introduction in an Interview.

This is what many of us call “an elevator pitch” : a description of your concept or company which is short enough to be delivered to someone whom you or one of your advocates…..your spouse or colleague, perhaps.. run into and have the opportunity to pitch on the elevator, somewhere between the 10th and the 3rd floor. Three to five sentences would make a good elevator pitch, so they’d better be good ones, whetting the appetite for more.

This author also mentions figuring out what is unique about yourself…. your unique selling point… what makes you different from others… and you’d better have one.

Try to connect, of course, just like you are meeting someone you’d like to know better at a social occasion.

The Cold, Hard Facts About Business Plans, Elevator Pitches And VC Presentations

It takes either rare blind luck or enormous business savvy, determination and skill..not to mention the nerves of a cat burglar and the daring of a trapeze artist to bootstrap a company successfully. More than likely you will be looking for outside capital as your needs will outstrip your revenue fairly rapidly, early on.

The first cold, hard fact about business plans is that no one reads them. This is not to discourage but to wise up those who have not met venture capitalists face to face, or had to ask their banker for a working capital loan. These people are busy and every micro -second counts.

What to do? Should you have a plan? Absolutely. In fact, you should have a number of presentations of the same plan, in different stages of condensation, to draw on and use, depending on whom your audience is.

For Yourself – A Road map

You will first need a business plan for yourself and your team. This will become your road map; when completed it will tell you how to take this business where you want it to go.

Today there are many sites from which you can download a template and fill in the blanks. These will give you an acceptable form for a business plan, although the creation of one may be just as much of an art as it is a science.

The important, irreplaceable dynamic of creating a business plan is that it assures that you address and think through the issues confronting the industry you want to enter; how is it regulated; who are it’s customers; is the customer base growing or shrinking; who are your competitors and what competitive advantage do you perceive you will have to allow to compete successfully against them; all the details of your operation, whether it is capital or labor intensive, seasonal and , ultimately, how you are going to wrest a profit from it.

Many organizations, without any further interest in inspecting your business plan, will ask if you have one. Putting yourself through the discipline of creating one provides evidence you are not a “shoot from the hip” kind of gal, and that you have thoroughly thought every aspect of this venture through. You also can turn back to your plan time and again to test your assumptions. You can see if business is developing along as you believed it would, if external circumstances† the stock market, the Net, the health of the economy†.are as you envisioned them or if you need to tweak your plan or even completely overhaul it. If you’ve taken a detour, or even run off the road into a ditch and need to get up, dust yourself off and put the wheels back on, you can consult your map and find your direction or set a new course.

That’s what your business plan will do for you. Don’t confuse that with the pitch you plan to give banks or investors.

Bootstrap or Seek Outside Capital?

Can you create your business without outside investors? Possibly. People have done it and some do it today. The art of bootstrapping is the ability to plunge in with the money you have and, with the skill of a Swiss watchmaker, carefully balance whatever revenues you have, with whatever outflows are required to generate them, continuously guarding your downside, while cautiously inching upward. Sometimes, even after a company is fairly large and well on its way, a boot strapper is counting her greenbacks, one by one, on the desk at night, because there is precious little margin for error. It takes either rare blind luck or enormous business savvy, determination and skill..not to mention the nerves of a cat burglar and the daring of a trapeze artist…to bootstrap a company successfully. More than likely you will be looking for outside capital as your needs will outstrip your revenue fairly rapidly, early on. Growth costs money, and, even if you are very successful at selling your product or service, you will go through an expensive period of having to ramp up quickly to build the infrastructure to meet the demand.

The Elevator Pitch

The first people to invest in your company are, generally, family and friends. Or, as some say, the 3 F’s: fools, family and friends, although those fools sometimes turn out to be staggeringly well rewarded. But at some point, you can no longer moon light to support your business, a hard working spouse or trusting parents, even admiring friends, are no longer enough to feed your constantly hungry child† that is, your growing, cash consuming business.

To move on to the next step, you first have to meet an investor or a venture capitalist or someone who will provide you with an introduction to a venture capitalist or, as an intermediate step, someone who will groom you to be ready to meet one. This might be a lawyer or an attorney, who travel in these circles, and who like to keep feeding their investors, and help grow their mega-bucks clients of tomorrow.

To even make it to first base with the people who can provide introductions to help you bridge the chasm between friends and family and professional investors, you can forget the full blown business plan; you will need to develop what is known as “an elevator pitch.” This is a description of your concept or company which is short enough to be delivered to someone whom you or your attorney run into and have the opportunity to pitch on the elevator, somewhere between the 10th and the 3rd floor. Three to five sentences would make a good elevator pitch, so they’d better be good ones, whetting the appetite for more.

The VC Presentation

Again, forget your business plan. Venture capitalists receive thousands and review hundreds of business plans. They have been known to complain the plans are too long, filled with big, generic numbers, like “billion dollar market”, are not sufficiently specific about customers, and can not convey the quality of your team’s interaction. Who is your customer, precisely? How much is she willing to spend on your product and how do you reach her and convince her to try it. If you already have customers, revenues and referrals, so much the better. That is the kind of hard evidence a potential investor likes to see.

Get your team together and prepare a brief verbal presentation. Don’t go in alone. You want to show you can work as a team. And you will need someone tracking the time, scanning the crowd for body language and taking notes on reactions.

The importance of the team aspect can not be over stated. The most critical factor for any investor will be the team, as much as the quality of the concept and the size of the potential market. On the same theory that crises soon outstrip one person’s ability to solve them, so too, new companies in dynamic markets and today’s fast paced, 24/7, global environment, quickly outstrip one person’s ability to master all the details. Focus on being a leader; develop a team where each person has his specialty; you see the forest, but let each grow the trees in his or her own area.

Timing Is Everything

Remember, timing is everything. There will be a time for you to sit down and develop a complete, full blown, well thought out business plan. Its purpose is, as much as anything, to document the process of your thinking and allow you to make orderly changes. It will also keep you and your team singing from the same sheet of music. There will be a time to condense this into your “elevator pitch” and then to translate it into graphics and a well rehearsed group performance for investors. Developing a business is not a sprint, it is a marathon. Creating your plan is only the beginning. Then you must create the business, but that’s when it gets exciting.