Just a bit more on this from yesterday. I think it’s important to understand thata Phrase that Pays is not necessarily the same as an ‘elevator pitch’ or a ‘positioning statement’.   It’s more about what you want people to know, understand or ‘get’ clearly as a thought to mull over and use to inspire changing thoughts or actions.

I met yesterday with a banker, who was talking about how what he does is to give people a sense of relief or excitement over their banking needs.   We could have used the line ‘I give people a real reason to get excited about having a relationship with this bank’… or ‘I help people feel relieved about their banking challenges’.   Both could be also argued to be elevator speeches – and maybe are a little cliche too.

So how about this instead… “when people have a real understanding about what their bank’s capabilities are, it helps with the relationships needed to do business together”.   This is a Phrase that Pays… because it’s something that suggests the need to understand, and the benefits of having good business relationships.   I would encourage him to use this every time he gets into conversations with people, whether it’s in a selling situation or not.    He could also use it to start important conversations and use those to lead to questions about someone’s existing knowledge of their bank’s business capabilities.

You see, when you talk to this particular man, you get a feeling he’s really on a one-man mission to help people to know this very important point.   That if we all better understood how our bank’s work and what they can actually do when asked, that we’d all have a much better time of it when times are both good and bad.

Your own Phrase That Pays needs to address the key things that you really want people you connect with to know.  What  are you passionate about them really understanding?   It might be longer than a three – five word positioning statement, and more than an average nine word slogan, and it does serve a different purpose.   But it does stick in people’s minds when you say it, and it can help to change the way they think about what you do.

I encourage you to think about this, and get some expert help, or discuss it with colleagues.  It’s not a quick thing to create, but it will come from the heart and resonate strongly with you when you get it right. More important, it will resonate strongly with those you say it to.