Solopreneurs: Your Elevator Pitch is Step One. But Step Two is More Important.

As I stepped away from the microphone and walked back toward my seat, the room was booming with boisterous laughter, and every eye in the room followed me back to my seat.

"My face hurts from laughing!" I heard a voice say.

I quietly settled into my chair and took a sip my drink, and rather sheepishly looked out around at the audience, quite amazed at their reaction.

I had just delivered the speech of a lifetime. I've given plenty of speeches, but I've never considered myself a leave 'em rolling in the aisles kind of guy. On that day, however, that's exactly who I was.

The reason my speech went so well? I was exceptionally well prepared. Not well practiced, mind you. In fact, I barely had time to rehearse leading up to the event. There is a big difference between practice and preparedness. Here's how I define the two:

Practice is the repetition of an activity with the goal of reaching and sustaining a higher level of performance or competency.

Preparedness is the act of anticipating a set of circumstances and establishing a plan of action to be followed at the moment when those circumstances are encountered.

Preparedness makes you better equipped to impress your audience, whether you're speaking to a room full of people, or having a one-on-one conversation with a potential client.

Why Preparedness Matters to Solopreneurs
Say you're asked to give a speech for an important event. You could so what a lot of people do, which is to write one speech, practice it to death, get up to the microphone, deliver it, and sit down.

Or you could prepare enough material to fill two speeches, and have the luxury of pulling out some of this bonus material based on the circumstance you encounter. In this case, the mood of the audience you're addressing.

When I addressed that audience, I encountered a crowd of people who were listless and tired as a result of the day's proceedings. They needed a wake up call and, because I had so much bonus material prepared, I decided on-the-fly to dip into this extra material and pull out a humorous and ridiculous story to lighten the mood. Preparedness saved the day.

Most of the time, however, we practice too much and prepare too little. Look at the "elevator pitch" for example. As a solopreneur, you've been told countless times how important it is to create an elevator pitch and hone it down until you've got a perfectly polished gem of a 30-second commercial.

And there's actually nothing wrong with that advice, except that it's incomplete. Honing your elevator pitch is really just step one. But we often forget step two.

Step two is to sit down and anticipate the myriad of possible follow up questions that people will ask you after you deliver that pitch.

Questions could pertain to any number of things... your track record, how your products or services are priced, typical outcomes your clients enjoy, your process for engaging with clients, etcetera.

Have you actually sat down and prepared yourself for those post-elevator pitch conversations? I mean, have you actually sat down, with pen and paper in hand, and mapped your answers out? If not, start that process right now.

Take 10 - 15 minutes right now to anticipate common questions that may come up in an early conversation with a potential client. Write them down. Several of the questions you come up with are likely to be questions you've heard before, perhaps many times. That's fine, just get them all down on paper.

After 15 minutes, you'll likely have a page filled with questions.

Next step is to look at each question and prepare terrific answers. Answers that are rich with color, descriptive language, tangible examples and solid proof. (This part of the exercise will take a few hours. Plan to chip away at it over a week or so.)

If you do this right, you'll have pages of notes. Literally pages of material you can dip into and deliver based on the questions you are asked.

Whenever a potential client takes a conversation in any number of directions, you'll have a clear roadmap of how to respond, so you can provide knockout answers in illustrious detail.

THAT is preparedness.

Next time you hear about the importance of having a well-practiced elevator pitch, remember that it's only part of the equation. Practice is important. But it's preparedness that makes you better equipped to win over an audience.

*

Pete Savage is a bestselling co-author of The Wealthy Freelancer: 12 Secrets to a

Great Income and an Enviable Lifestyle (Penguin/Alpha Books) and

co-founder of TheWealthyFreelancer.com. Download three free

chapters and other bonuses here.