#HecklersHangout 16 Summary – Chris Westfall on Conversation Versus Selling

If you have been thinking about honing your presentation or conversational skills, you are going to definitely want to give this Hecklers’ Hangout episode a watch. We were very lucky to have Chris Westfall, National Elevator Champion/author/coach as our guest tonight, and we covered a LOT of great information in a pretty short amount of time.

If you haven’t read Chris’s new book, The New Elevator Pitch (not an affiliate link), essentially what he wants to get across is that the “elevator pitch” is no longer about trying to get the sale. Rather, Chris emphasizes the need to talk to people conversationally, to address their needs, and to get them to say, “Tell me more.” That request means that they have become truly interested in what you have to say, to the point where they want to go deeper into the conversation. That’s when you know you’re on the right track.

Our own conversation traveled over several different topics, ranging from the difficulty in knowing when and/or how to “pitch” in social media to how to maintain a human approach at something like a trade show, where people are getting (most likely) too many pitches to count. Finally, I (being the evil dictator I am) made everyone in our full house give a short answer to the question you get so often – “Tell me a little bit about yourself.” It was interesting to see people approaching that in real life! But don’t take my word for it. You can watch the whole thing for yourself!

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Margie Clayman

Margie Clayman is Vice President of Client Services at Clayman Marketing Communications, her family's full-service marketing firm in Akron, Ohio. Margie blogs for the agency at http://www.claymanmarketingcommunications.wordpress.com. She also blogs at her own site (http://www.margieclayman.com), for Razoo (http://www.social.razoo.com), for Carol Roth (http://www.carolroth.com/blog) and for Leaderswest (http://www.leaderswest.com). When not blogging, Margie enjoys learning everything there is to know about the history of the world, exercising, and crafting.

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