Top 7 Savvy Secrets to Introducing Yourself in Technicolor

Do people remember what you do the first time they hear it?

Now they will!

With these savvy secrets, you can design the kind of colorful self-introductions that get you easily remembered, recalled AND referred.

1. Craft a self-introduction of 10 words or less that includes a benefit or a problem you solve for your customers. Choose verbs that express your value and grab your listener’s attention: verbs like “reduce, enhance, fix, rescue, shrink, save or create.” Which is more memorable? “I’m a CPA” or “I find hidden money…in people’s hidden assets.”
   
   
2. Create a “visual picture” with your carefully-chosen words. Help the listener “see” what you do and how you can solve their problems. Use an easy-to-repeat alliteration (help people win the war on clutter), or an analogy (“I’m like Dr. Phil…for your face. Wrinkles galore, I do erase”). A good introduction creates immediate interest, prompts good questions, starts conversations and gets your listener to say, Tell me more!
   
   
3. Change any title-only introduction (I’m an accountant, supervisor, consultant, lawyer or banker)to a benefit-driven one. Titles immediately limit the listener’s view of you, boxing you into their stereotype image of your title. Change boring black and white “I’m a desk top publisher” to Technicolor “I make people look great on paper.”
   
   
4. Avoid preaching, teaching or selling. Your goal is telling people how they can profit from what you do. Be aware of how much time you spend "telling." Less is often more. Eliminate verbs like I OWN or I SELL because they focus solely on you. A networking or social event is not a sales presentation.
   
   
5. Develop shorter and longer introductions to suit the kinds of networking (or social) events you attend. Create 30 second, 1 minute, and 3 minute versions. How you introduce yourself to someone for the first time creates that vital first impression. And that’s the ONE that lasts. Be clear, brief and upbeat. Which would spark your interest? “I’m a local minister” or “I convert skeptics into optimists.”
   
   
6. BRAND yourself with a unique self-introduction so that when people hear it, they think only of YOU. Keep refining and testing it with a variety of listeners. A business owner recently went from “I’m a consultant.” to “I stop the leaks and increase your flow of profits.” Tell me more!
   
   
7. Ask people about themselves FIRST before you tell them what you do. This is key. And, you benefit in two ways. First, you concentrate totally on them, making them feel interesting and important; second, you can then better adapt your own introduction to meet their interests and needs.

Sasha ZeBryk helps companies increase their impact, their image and their income. Speaker, author and executive speech coach, she has served on the board of directors of the New England National Speakers Association. Email Sasha at . Her tips booklet, NetWork the Room like a PRO and CDs show people how to passionately and shamelessly promote themselves. They are available at http://www.SashaSpeaks.com