BACK TO THE BEGINNING
Know Your Story!The third step in my Vision Based Business Plan is knowing your Story; the first and second are your Vision and your Why. The complete Vision Based Business Plan has over 40 components so being number 3 must mean that is very important.
This past two weeks I have attended 2 meetings where self-introductions started the meeting. Not once did I hear a 30 to 45 second “Story” told the right way. The typical answer had a name, a business name and a service or product.
As a result of another meeting I invited 20 people (all small business owners) to set an appointment with me and to share their biggest, current challenge. To date, I have met with 14 of the 20 and my opening sentence is always “Please share your story.”
Most typical answers were “Where shall I begin?” and “What do you want to know?” Not one person shared their Vision for their company or their personal Why.
This is not a challenge, but a must have marketing and relation building tool.
Create the following before you talk to another prospect or attend a meeting in which you share who you are and what you do:
- Write a 30 to 40 second self-introduction which includes your vision, your why and something about yourself. This is commonly referred to as the “Elevator Pitch”.
- Now expand that story, keeping the same theme to a total of 2 to 3 minutes. Use this when you have more time, for example at a social gathering, and, also when someone wants you to share your story.
- The last creative step is to take your story and incorporate it into a “Pitch Deck”. This is used when making a presentation with the hope of getting an order for your product/service, or at least to get invited back because your prospect wants to “hear more”. This should be under 10 minutes and hopefully you can convert it into a power point presentation to display it.
AS always, BizQuack is here to listen to all three of your “stories” and to offer support.
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Tips & Advice by Nick Petra, CFP – Founder of Strategic Duck and BizQuack
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