by Jeffrey J. Mayer 

Shirley - an executive recruiter - and I were speaking the other day. 
She was lamenting that many of the people who she had contact 
with 'really' didn't know what she did. 

I asked her about her elevator speech, and she said that she had a 
pretty good one: "I help companies find wonderful employees." 

And I agreed.

An elevator speech is a brief description - under 10 seconds 
- of who you are and what you do. 

It's designed to keep the other person from saying:

* "I don't need any." or 
* "I'm already doing business with..." or 
* "I'm well taken care of."

And most importantly, it keeps the conversation going. For the 
longer you can keep a person talking, the greater the possibility 
you'll discover they need something you just 'happen' to sell. 

If you need help with your Elevator Speech, you'll find my 
best-selling eBook "Opening Doors with a Brilliant Elevator

Speech" to be a great tool. It's helped 10,000+ business & sales
people learn how to say who they are and what they do in under 
10 seconds. 

Here's the link to order & download.
Opening Doors with a Brilliant Elevator Speech

Shirley explained that she uses her elevator speech every time she 
speaks with a person. "But what about the times you're communicating 
with someone when you're NOT speaking with them?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" Shirley replied.

"How many e-mails do you send out each day? And how do you 
sign your e-mail messages?"

"I send out dozens and dozens. And I sign my name Shirley Jackson" She said.

"What's your e-mail signature file say?" 

There was a blank look on Shirley's face as she said 
"What's a signature file?"

As our conversation continued, I asked how many people call her 
each day and leave her voice mail messages. She said that the phone's 
ringing all day long. "And what does her voice mail message say." I asked. 

She didn't remember, so we called her up, turned on the speaker 
phone and this is what it said:

"This is Shirley Jackson. I'm not at my desk and am either 
in a meeting or out of the office. Your call is very important 
to me. Please leave a message."

My suggestion to Shirley is that she use her Elevator Speech to turn 
her e-mail and voice mail messages into advertisements for her services.

Your E-mail Signature
By default, you can have a signature added to each of your 
outgoing e-mail messages.

In Outlook, you select, you select Tools, Options, Mail Format.
In Outlook Express, you select Tools, Options, Signatures.

Your signature should include your name, company name, phone & 
cell phone numbers, Web site, and e-mail address.

You should also include a brief description of who your are and what 
you do - your Elevator Speech. Here you describe how your products,
and services add value and quality to your customers business and life.

Be short, quick & concise. Limit your 'signature' to two or three 
lines of text with about 60 characters per line. 

You can also create multiple signature files, enabling you to select 
the appropriate one for each e-mail message.

Your Voice Mail Message
Now that you've created your e-mail signature, use the same wording 
in your voice mail message. 

Focus on only the most important things that you do. Limit yourself 
to 10 seconds, at most.

Shirley's voice mail message is now:

"This is Shirley Jackson. I help companies find wonderful 
employees so they can become more successful and make 
more money. I'm not in at the moment, and will call you 
when I return. Please leave a message."

Use your Elevator Speech in your e-mail and voice mail messages 
and you'll tell more people who you are and what you do. 

"Reprinted with permission from "Jeffrey Mayer's 
SucceedingInBusiness.com Newsletter. (Copyright, 2003, Jeffrey J. 
Mayer, SucceedingInBusiness.com.) To subscribe to Jeff's free 
newsletter, visit http://www.SucceedingInBusiness.com ."