Your answer to the 'what do you do?' question will either close doors or open them. It's your choice. What's crucial is that you take every opportunity to deliver an 'elevator speech' that makes a positive rather than negative impact. Here's how.

Here are two types of Elevator Speech (ES) that are only going to induce yawns...

‘Hello, my name is Joe Average, and I'm a banking manager with XYZ Bank.'

Or:

‘Hi, I'm Mandy and I'm an accountant.'

If you forget everything else when crafting your ES - remember to focus on what you can do for the listener. Now, if Joe and Mandy changed their ES to this focus, here's how they might come out (and I've changed their names accordingly!):

‘Hello, my name is Joe and a big part of my role is giving money out to people!'

‘Hi, I'm Mandy - I keep people in business out of jail!'

Aren't those more likely to get people's interest? Might they prompt a follow-up question from you along the lines of ‘Really? How do you do that?' They've got your permission to tell you more rather than assuming you want to know more. Here's a different example:

My name is Karen and I'm an editor. I hold a first class honours degree and have studied for a Masters degree. I've worked in publishing for nearly 18 years, have been Deputy Editor of two national magazines and Editor of a national newspaper.'

Sounds like a potted CV. But what's wrong with it? Answer: it's all about herself, not her target audience. She should have tried something like this:

‘My name is Karen, and I turn dull and failing publications into exciting reading with rising circulations. For example, a newspaper I edited rose in sales from 25,000 to 50,000 - and went from weekly to daily. Together, we could take your periodical onto the next level too.'

You'll notice that all of these speeches begin with giving your name. And most people follow that with their role or position and what company they work for. Though there's nothing wrong with this, if everybody does it, how are you going to stand out from the crowd? Also, by giving your name right at the beginning, people have probably forgotten it by the end. So consider not giving your name till the end. If your ES is enticing enough, so that people want to find out more, people will ask your name at the end anyway.

So what do you do instead? You need an attention grabber - something really insightful or clever:

• You could start with a short example of how your company solved someone's problem.
• You could quote some statistics, followed by a statement telling how you can change those statistics.
• You could make a strong, bold statement like, ‘I perform miracles!' and then go on to explain you are talking about business miracles!
• You could ask a rhetorical question, and then show how your company answers that question.

Here are two examples of how putting a rhetorical question, or declarative question, at the beginning could work:

1. ‘You know how some graduates fresh out of college are shy when it comes to introducing themselves? And so they find it hard to use networking to find a job. Well, I put them through some training to boost their confidence and give them some questions to ask to open up a conversation. As a result, they're able to make cold calls and go up to people at conferences and ask about a job. It's great to see them find their ideal job!'

2. ‘Have you ever heard a seminar leader so engaging, creative and exciting that you forgot where the time went? Someone who doesn't just give facts but inspires, motivates, empowers and enthrals an audience? If you haven't, then you need me!'

Think about being different rather than better. There are lots of good people out there, many as good as you. But they don't stand out.

An attention-grabbing elevator speech can get you noticed and distinguished from all of your competitors. So tell me, what do you do?