Elevator speech for potential private investors

[Deano Vulcano]

So I was sitting here reading post after post on the BP website, like I do most evenings....I know I know, "why don't you get a life pal"? I will after my first million....anyway....

I was reading a post by Brian Burke and he was talking about what he says to folks who ask him " so, what do you do"? He said that most of us would say, oh I flip houses, or Im a wholesaler, or Landlord etc.

But this is what he says, "I'm a private funds manager and my objective is simply to maximize my investors return" ......then I might add something like "in a very secure asset" or "and I happen to use real estate to achieve that objective for my clients"

With everyone's input maybe we can tweak this thing and come up with a killer elevator speech we can all use.

Any thoughts?

[Brian Burke]

Wow, @Jay Hinrichs thanks for the endorsement, I guess I must be doing something right to generate such kind remarks. Either that or it's just that we both fly a Cirrus!

In reading @Deano Vulcano 's post I gather that he rather liked a portion of an old post I wrote from way back. Resetting the focus back to your original question, Deano...the most important thing about an elevator speech is that it is genuine to you. This means that something that you use might not work for Jay, and Jay's might not work for me.

First, define your problem and your audience. For example, if you are a wholesaler looking for deal flow and you are talking with sellers, your elevator speech would be a short comment that you help sellers unload their house quickly without a having to market the property.

If you are a first-time flipper talking to a potential private lender, you might say that you and your investors purchase homes fix them up, and resell them for a profit. If you manage a real estate fund, then you can say that you are a private fund manager.

Mine would be "I'm a private fund manager and my objective is simply to maximize my investor's return." This is genuine to me because I actually do manage a number of distinct funds (but even just one fund qualifies!) and my decisions are driven by how I can maximize my investor's return.

This "elevator speech" usually results in a question like "oh, so you sell mutual funds and stocks?" or something like that to which I reply "no, my funds leverage distressed real estate to achieve our results." If they didn't ask the first question they aren't interested anyway so it doesn't matter what investment vehicle I use. Most anyone with money or investment experience will ask a question leading to my disclosure of the asset class I use. Then, either a conversation results or it doesn't. If it doesn't, that's OK...not everyone cares how I do what I do and not everyone wants to discuss investing with me. The point is, I let them lead the direction of the conversation. No one wants to be trapped in a conversation with someone that just wants to sell their product when they aren't interested in it.

That said, I have a totally different elevator speech when talking to a wholesaler about being a buyer of their properties, a different one for real estate agents, etc...just have to know the audience.

I guess my point is that we can't all collaborate in this thread on developing the perfect elevator speech that works for everyone, but hopefully this all helps with ideas on developing yours. It isn't just what you say, it's how you say it and what you follow up with that produces results.