How do you make your elevator pitch your brand statement?

Jeannette Paladino a like-minded colleague on LinkedIn, prefers the use of the phrase brand statement over elevator pitch. I started to interview Jeannette about how to go about this. Like the term or not, she offers some ideas which just may keep yours, your elevator speech, always going up.

Q: How do I develop a brand statement?

By the way, brand statements are for people who work within a large company and entrepreneurs from solo operators to small companies. Once again, tailor your brand statement to your audience. For example, if you are with your boss you can say, “I’ve been the leading sales producer for the past two years, bringing in $xxxxx. I’d like to discuss increasing my compensation to reflect my success in helping the division reach its profit goals.” You’re reinforcing your brand as the division’s sales leader.

You wouldn’t go a client and use that brand statement to get more business. You would say something like, “I’m glad that our (name) solution is solving your problem with (name) divisions. I’d like to tell you about another service that will actually add to your profits.” You got to be the top sales producer by selling more to existing clients – but you don’t tell them that!

Q: How do I figure out what I should include?

OK, who are you talking to? Think of your brand statement as coming out of a toolbox. The toolbox is your arsenal of accomplishments, experience, academic credentials and everything that makes you wonderful! Reach into your toolbox to figure out what is going to push the hot button of your listener (or reader).

I once gave a workshop to a group of entrepreneurs in which they worked on their brands. One was the manager of a musical group that played for bar mitzvahs, weddings and other private parties. She told the group, “but we do what every other band does, so we’re no different.” We probed a little and discovered that every player had graduated from a prestigious music conservatory. We worked with her to develop a brand statement including this as their key differentiator. Their new brand statement had the potential to increase the band’s fees and get them gigs at more prestigious corporate events. That’s because event planners would expect musicians who graduated from Julliard and other conservatories to be exceptionally talented.

Q: When do I know I have an effective brand statement?

You need to keep refining it all the time, based on current circumstances, whether it is eliciting the magical question, “Tell me more.” If it isn’t, go back and refine. Try things and see how they work. Brand statements are not engraved in stone. You keep changing – you keep adding experiences and accomplishments. Build them into your brand.

Thank you Jeannette! For my perspective on elevator pitches, visit Jeanette interviewing me.

Promoting the brands of companies and entrepreneurs and helping them to make profitable connections through blogging, on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Jeannette Paladino, Writer-in-Chief at Write Speak Sell, .

If you are interested, you can see what I said to Jeannette in further discussions: