“Elevator talk” is great advertising, and can make you sales. Here’s how…

Are you good at “small talk”? I’m not. It’s easier for some people. When you are in a quick conversation (“Hi, how are you?”) what do you say? One of the first things someone asks is “What do you do for a living?”. How you answer that can have an impact on your small business advertising success.

Let’s say you own a small business that sells & services vacuum cleaners. When someone asks “What do you do?”

You can answer it in many ways;

“I own a business here locally” What does that tell the person? Nothing that could affect them.

“I’m in the vacuum cleaner business” Really? Do you make them, fix them, grow them, breed them? No help either.

“I own a store that sells vacuum cleaners” Better. At least they have a chance to say “My son sold Kirbys for a week” before they walk on.

“I sell vacuum cleaners at discount prices” Better still. Now they can ask “What brands do you carry?” and maybe there will be a conversation from that.

“I sell 15 different brands of vacuum cleaners at discount prices”. Better still. Now you just made a Positioning Statement. You’re the guy that has a lot of different brands. And it will be harder for them to ask you to list them all.

“I sell 135 different kinds of vacuum cleaners” is what I used to say. It wasn’t brilliant, but it sometimes got the conversation going.

“I own The Sweeper Store. We sell vacuum cleaners, air purifiers, and heaters at special prices” is what I also used to say. I thought I was being clever with the “special prices” line, since I really don’t discount at all. I actually had some people come in & buy from that line.

Now I say “We sell $800 vacuum cleaners for $350”.

Why? What about the heaters? The air purifiers? What about the selection? What about the name of the store?

I want the listener to say one thing & one thing only “Really, How do you do that?” Why do I want them to ask me this? Because now they have given me permission to talk about vacuum cleaners & ask what kind they have.

By the way, the answer to “How do you do that?” is “We don’t spend money on expensive advertising, so we pass the savings on a new vacuum back to you. What kind of vacuum cleaner do you have now?”

In the cold weather I say “We sell the safest heaters to keep you toasty warm”. That way, if they are thinking about a heater at all, they will ask me a question. These little “elevator talks” work better than the best infomercial. We get several people each month come in to buy from these conversations. Do you?

Don’t say what I say. Think of a positioning statement that leads the customer to say “Really? How do you do that?” memorize it, and use it frequently.

When I was selling vacuum cleaners in-home I used to hide what I did. I would say “I’m in the clean home business” or something equally bland & deceiving.

For some reason, I decided one day to just tell what I do.

“I sell the best vacuum cleaner in the world for $1,000” is what I would say. Most people didn’t dare ask a question.

But about once every few months I’d hear “Really, are the vacuums you sell really worth $1,000?” or something similar. I’ve sold out of my car, in restaurants, at bars. Dozens of $1,000 sales just because I told what I did, and made a positioning statement. I was the “$1,000 vacuum cleaner guy. This was a couple decades ago.