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How to Sell Yourself in 60 Seconds or Less:

Elevator Pitches for Neutrals

By Anna Rappaport, JD Excelleration, LLC

© Anna Rappaport 2015-2016 (All Rights Reserved)

Marketing and business development are all

about getting people to know, like

and trust you.

What is an Elevator Pitch?

•  Used in networking and social environments

•  Briefly introduces you and your ADR practice (in less than 60 seconds)

•  Encourages people to refer clients to you and/or consider hiring you themselves

•  Can be spoken as a mini-speech or broken up and delivered in natural conversation

•  Ideally, you would use different elevator pitches for different audiences

The Goal of an Elevator Pitch •  No one is going to hire you based solely on

your elevator pitch.

•  It is an ice breaker for a business conversation, a chance to create opportunities for further discussion.

•  Marketing is the process of getting people to know, like and trust you – and this is the first step.

The goal is to go from this

to real human beings

Why Bother? •  More efficient. You get

referrals more naturally and easily.

•  Makes you more relatable and credible to business people.

•  Thinking through your message in advance helps you to avoid inadvertent ethical violations.

Six Common Mistakes

How 1.  Being inauthentic

2.  Using technical language

3.  Being boring or unmemorable

Six Common Mistakes

What 4.  Doesn’t clearly identify the desired

cases/clients

5.  Doesn’t identify the pain from clients’ point of view

6.  Doesn’t communicate a unique selling point

(1) Authenticity

•  It’s personal. Make sure your words reflect your personal style. – Different approaches work for different

people. –  Imitating others or trying to act a certain way

comes across as weird and artificial. – Hard for people to like and trust you if you are

not being authentic.

(2) Technical Language •  If they don’t understand what

you do, you will never get referrals from them.

•  Even if the other person is highly educated and has a basic understanding of what you do, it is still abstract to them.

•  Your communication skills are your bread and butter. If you don’t communicate effectively here, it doesn’t reflect well.

(3) Memorable

If they don’t remember you, they won’t hire you or refer you.

Being Memorable: The Dilemma •  Generic

–  I mediate and arbitrate civil litigation cases. –  I help resolve disputes over real estate.

•  vs. Wacky –  I'm "the death lawyer". I even have a full-size

scythe that I'd love to hang up in my office... – Your estate plan may not be the Thriller of the

week, like MJ’s was, but to your beneficiaries, when you go to Neverland, your estate plan will very important.

Memorable

•  What is memorable without being weird? – Specifics –  Images – Emotions – Stories

Being Memorable

•  This is what your brain looks like when you hear abstract words.

Memorable

•  This is what your brain looks like when you hear specific, concrete words.

Example

I mediate probate cases or

You know how after someone dies, the family members can be at each others’ throats over the inheritance? Well, I help people resolve those issues in a way that helps them repair the relationship, rather than tear it further apart through litigation.

Emotions make stories memorable and trigger

sharing* •  Humans bond through shared

emotions. •  If something elicits an emotional

reaction, people are more likely to share it.

•  High arousal emotions like anger, anxiety and excitement get shared more. *See Contagious: Why Things Catch On, by Jonah Berger

(4) Identify the Desired Clients/Cases

Example 1: I help hospitals or pharmaceutical companies resolve any kind of large conflict. For example, if one company thinks the other’s advertisements are lying or if they think the other company has stolen their formula for a medication, they will probably sue. But law suits are very time consuming and expensive. So I help them to resolve these issues in a way that is quicker and less costly.

Identify the Desired Clients/Cases

Example 2: I work with construction companies, the kind that build large malls or apartment buildings. Those big construction projects often include dozens of subcontractors who work on pluming, electrical, flooring roofing... With so many people working on the same project, when something goes wrong, as it usually does, there can be some pretty ugly law suits. So, I work with the construction companies, owners of the property and anyone else involved to help them address the issue and sometimes even salvage the relationship so they can continue working together in the future.

(5) Identify the Pain

•  What makes clients seek you out?

•  Tell their story.

•  How do they feel? (angry, scared, etc.)

•  What is an evocative way to describe their experience and their concerns?

Identify the Pain

•  Caring for aging relatives is difficult enough, but when the siblings are at each other’s throats or when the parents refuse to move into an assisted living facility, relationships can get strained or even broken. I help the families work together to find solutions so that they can start feeling like a family again.

•  Entrepreneurs have worked hard and sacrificed for years to get where they are, and litigation can threaten to seriously damage or even destroy the company they have worked so hard to create. I help entrepreneurs resolve their lawsuits more quickly, so that they can sleep at night and go back to focusing on building their businesses.

(6) Unique Selling Point

•  The biggest problem for most lawyers and neutrals in business development is believing that they are interchangeable with other attorneys in the same practice area.

•  Doctors, hair dressers, and mechanics aren’t interchangeable. Some you like working with. Some you don’t. Why would legal services be any different? Highlight the qualities that make clients enjoy working with you.

Unique Selling Point •  Do you have a particular

skill or unusual approach? •  Do you have an unusual

work history or set of experiences?

•  Does your personal background make you stand out?

•  Are you unusually caring or particularly conscientious?

Uniqueness Examples

•  I have a Ph.D. in biology as well as being a lawyer, which allows me to fully understand the technical side of these disputes.

•  I come from a family of medical professionals, so I bring an understanding of the human, as well as the business side of the health care industry.

•  I lived in Mexico for six years, so I have a deep understanding of that culture and a lot of experience resolving misunderstandings based on culture and language.

Final Points

•  Focus on what you have, versus what is missing.

•  The pitch alone is not enough! Ongoing visibility and relationship-building is still the key.

How Coaching Relates to Business Development

In addition to strategy & messaging, I help clients:

•  Increase courage and resilience

•  Address perfectionism

•  Remedy any difficulties staying focused on goals due to ADHD, too many interests, commitment issues, etc.

•  Identify and address “work baggage” – situations where a negative experience from the past leads to unhelpful interpretations or avoidance of certain actions, people or pursuits.

“I've gone from reluctance to acceptance to gung ho.”

--Grace Bumbry (Opera Singer)

Anna Rappaport, JD, PCC Excelleration, LLC

202-288-4453 [email protected]

Connect with me!

LinkedIn: Anna Rappaport Twitter: @CoachAnnaDC Facebook: Excelleration Coaching