One of the hardest things I’ve learnt in a business network is being able to present yourself, your job and your company in merely 60 seconds. It’s like one of those scenes in a movie where the boss is too pre-occupied and the lowly employee with a groundbreaking idea ends up too tense to even blurt out a word.
Imagine you were given 60 seconds to secure a job from everyone in a board room who’s interested to build a website. All of them have the general requirements to build their website but all that’s between them and you is the confidence to pass on the job to you. In that one minute they want you to tell them why they should hire or give you $5000 to build their website and not someone else outside the boardroom awaiting their turn.
What would you say to the clients who don’t know you? What could you say to them about what you do that is different and so that they would benefit from it? What can you do to make them impress with your work without passing out a brochure or showing them your portfolio?
Difficult, isn’t it? Well, I’m not a business minded person but I do believe in my creative thinking abilities. Mixing creativity and business sometimes shows you the alternated option that no one sees. The best part is sometimes the idea is just so easy and the best ideas are sometimes very simple.
The first step in mastering the 60 seconds is to be confident and not have your heart racing the derby. The second step is to believe your capabilities and your job as what you do. The third step is when you need to use your idea to win them on. The fourth step is to make them laugh not by falling over a banana skin but over an intellectual joke. Something almost every business person would understand. The fifth and most likely last thing you need to do at the end of your 60 seconds, keep them at the edge of their seats and leave them thinking.
The minute you spent is like watching the television commercial except that there’s more talking than visually displaying. When you’re up for the 60 seconds, the environment and you is the stage set. Your actions and words is the commercial rolling. The clients are watching you sell them something they’d most likely buy or at least be left interested to find out more.
So I think the next time I get my 60 seconds, I’ll have to come up with a winning commercial.
How would you sell in 60 seconds?