Page 106 - How To Sell Yourself

Selling Yourself in Confrontation and Media Interviews 105 Memorable
The key is getting your message across in such an effective way that your audience will remember it.
You can be memorable in a good way or a bad way. Guess which one I recommend.
Disastrously memorable
I was in the audience at a breakfast meeting at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The audience was made up of business leaders, lobbyists, association executives, legislators, and pro- fessionals in every field. The featured speaker was then-secre- tary of the interior, James Watt. In the middle of his talk, he put on an impish grin and said (I don’t remember the exact words, but it was something like this): “We have the perfect coalition. We have a woman, a black, two Jews, and a cripple.” He got a huge laugh but lost his job.
It was memorable, all right. Unfortunately so. People are still quoting it years later.
Making a connection
Earlier I said, “Tell them what they want to know.” That means that to be memorable, you have to connect with them. The best way to do that is to tell stories. Use anecdotes, personal examples, paint word pictures using similes and metaphors.
“What have you done for me lately?” will often be one of the questions you should answer. How will you affect my income, my future, and my family?
Tell stories
Notice that I said stories; mind you, not jokes. Not smart-alec comedy. And remember, buzzwords are memorable. You have to be more memorable in your responses than the buzzword that was used against you.
As with the other aspects of this training, the memorable an- swer isn’t easy to come by. But awareness of the concept and its importance will help you develop a technique and incorporate it into your style.