The networking elevator speech is dead. By now, people who go to networking meetings have figured out that the very worst way to market yourself is via a tedious audio-marketing brochure. The elevator speech puts the cart before the horse, by jumping into let-me-tell-you-about-my-services mode before a relationship has even been established.

Here's a better way to get a new relationship off to a good start: Try the "bumper sticker method."

You'll start by developing a very short (eight or 10 words, maximum) answer to the question "What do you do in your work?" This is your bumper sticker. The key to a great bumper sticker is that it answers the question just enough to be polite. It doesn't provide any more information than it needs to. In fact, a good bumper sticker provides less! You can tell a good bumper sticker by the way it encourages the listener -- if he or she is interested at all in learning more about your workplace persona -- to ask another question.

How Bumper Stickers Work

Here's an example. Let's say that you are a portrait photographer. If someone asked you, "What do you do professionally?" you could answer, "I'm a portrait photographer." That's kind of a conversation-stopper. Your conversation partner could ask you, "Aha, what kind?" or, "Do you have a studio?" or some other run-of-the-mill photography-related question. But you can have more fun and create more intrigue by answering with a nicely constructed bumper sticker instead.

Let's try it again:

NETWORKER: "So, what do you do professionally?"
YOU: "I help people celebrate their most important life events."

Now, your networking acquaintance is virtually certain to ask, "How do you do that?" That's when you say, "I'm a portrait photographer." Isn't that much better than a boring elevator speech? You've come up with a pithy bumper sticker that gets across the value you provide to people. Ninety-nine percent of folks will be curious enough to ask you how you help people celebrate those life events.

A bumper sticker is great because it conveys just a little information, in the way that "real" conversations do. In our non-networking lives, we don't get to hog the microphone and blather on about ourselves without inquiring whether or not the other party gives a darn. Your bumper sticker gets a networking conversation back where it belongs -- in the realm of back-and-forth conversation.

More Examples to Consider

Here are some other great bumper stickers -- all answers to the question, "What do you do in your work?"

• "I create really cool boxes for things." (package designer)
• "I tell entrepreneurs where their money is going." (bookkeeper)
• "I get great people into my organization and keep them there." (HR manager)
• "I help kids succeed in school." (educational counselor)

If you're out at networking events to begin with, then you're interested in creating relationships. And if you care about that, then you'll want to talk to interesting people and you'll want to interest the people you talk to, as well. Try a bumper sticker next time!

Liz Ryan is a 25-year HR veteran, former Fortune 500 VP and an internationally recognized expert on careers and the new millennium workplace. She is the author of "Happy About Online Networking," a popular speaker on workplace and work/life topics, and the leader of the global Ask Liz Ryan online community. Contact Liz at liz@asklizryan.com.

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