Tools and articles

Our Personal Headline

When asked by a reporter, how long it takes to prepare a 3 minute speech, Sir Winston Churchall replied; 3 weeks. What about a 10 minutes speech; 1 week was his reply. The reporter was on a roll so he asked; how long for a 3 hour speech. Churchall replied; "when do you want me to start"

The point is presenting a powerful 3 minutes speech is the greatest challenge.

What about a 1 minute speech?

A great leader will deliver dozens of 1 minute self introductions every day. We call these speeches a Personal Headline, because they follow similar principles to a headline in an advertisement. We hear people refer to them as an elevator speech. How we introduce our selves will have a greater impact on profitability than any other single activity. It's worth investing in a powerful Personal Headline.

Whilst we recommend scripting your Personal headline we obviously can't use notes when someone asks what we do, so the following is a simple guide for developing and delivering a powerful / profitable Personal Headline.

Ask your self;
What is the emotional pain I remedy? Dig a little deeper here. You may think the pain for a home owner is to sell their house, but on a deeper, emotional level it may be to find someone who will love the home that they have raised a family in for 30 years.

What is my niche? The more specific we are in defining our niche, the more our Personal Headline will 'speak' to the people we can help most. Courageously going after a tighter niche and saying 'no' to opportunities outside that niche is a powerful strategy for building a business. Choose your niche carefully.

An example: "I help people buy / sell a family home in the Newmarket area." Depending on whether you need more buyers or seller in the current market.

What words will grab the attention of the best potential customers in my niche? This is where we have to play around. Listening for, trying and refining words that are a little different, but familiar to people in our target niche is a life long pursuit. The best words will be true to ourselves and allude to the pain our customers feel.

Courage is needed here because you will initially feel a little uncomfortable delivering different words, but eventually they will become second nature.

Deliver them cleanly and then pause. Imagine it is a game. You pitch a ball to the batter and pause. Once the ball leaves your hand there is nothing more you can do so stop talking. Practice not speaking a single word after delivering your Personal Headline.

Be free of an expectation of what response you will get. Be generous. Be interested in them and allow the law of reciprocity work.

If your Personal Headline, doesn't arouse curiousity, either the words need refining or the person is not feeling the pain you remedy. Move on, find someone else to introduce your self to.

Download the prompt card on the right hand side of this screen, both side 1 and side 2, print them out two sided and keep it visible to remind you to focus on this strategy.