You may be familiar with the concept of an elevator speech, the type of speech you give to someone in just a couple minutes that sums up who you are, what you do, what your ambitions and goals are and what you offer others as a company or employee. For most websites and small business owners, their elevator speech is all about themselves. This is understandable, because that's how most of us are taught to create our elevator speech. But the truth is that when giving this speech to a customer, most of the time the customer couldn't care less about you.

Before a customer decides to purchase a product or service, he or she doesn't want to hear what's great about you or your business. They want to know that you get their problems, issues, concerns and points of pain. They want to know that you can empathize with their situation. They want to know that you have a solution. They want to know what your plan is to solve their problems. They want to hear it from you as if you do this everyday. Most of the time, then, and not until then, do they want to know about your credentials.

With this in mind, your elevator speech with prospective customers should always focus on your solutions and benefits, not your tactics or features. Keep the focus on the customer at all times and show them how you will solve their problems, rather than just telling them that you can. It's about them, not about you. It's about their needs first, not your tactics and resources. At most, it's about why you do this for their advancement.

Following this practice will, in turn, give you additional benefits including:

• Greater likelihood of sales conversions. When people feel that you can relate to their needs and that you do so with passion, compassion and empathy; they're going to be much more likely to purchase it. Secondary, is when they know how a product or service benefits them and that it will solve their problems. Unless what you offer is a commodity, this is the reality behind your offer.

• Greater customer loyalty. In today's world, trust is harder than ever to come by. Once you overcome objections the second and beyond sales or transaction as never been easier to come by. Loyalty then is all about execution and delivery. Customers want to feel as though they're the only thing that matters in the eyes of the company. The more focus you keep on the customers' needs, the more they'll keep coming back.

• More word-of-mouth advertising. A lot of research indicates that people trust personal recommendations from friends and family more than they trust commercials or celebrity endorsements. By creating greater customer loyalty, you also increase the chances that your customers will go out and recommend your brand to people that they know.

Take a good look at your elevator speech. How much of it focuses only on you as an individual or organization? If the answer is “too much,” then it's time to make some changes and place more focus on your prospective customer.

Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer | Viral Solutions LLC