We all are familiar with the concept of that 30- to 60-second “speech” known as the elevator pitch. A “typical” elevator pitch goes something like this (read it aloud and check the second hand on your watch):

Hi, I’m Tyler Jones. I copy edit, proofread, and fact-check nonfiction trade books and periodicals. What publishers know and appreciate about me is my competency in style conventions, my ability to reconcile them with house style, and the way I ensure the language of the piece is appropriate for the target audience. With my capacity for tact as well as professional firmness, dealing with subject-matter experts and in-house editors is a breeze for me. The result of all that is a timely turnaround of my projects, and new quality publications get released on schedule. I am currently looking for a role as a developmental editor, where I can apply my writing acumen as well as my publishing-business savvy.

And check—yes! All this can be rattled off in the time frame “allowed.” And there are some people out there who do just that, at every networking function, in every small-group conversation they join.

Having their lines memorized may give those people the necessary confidence, or make them especially proud of their “expertise.” And presenting yourself so “fluently” is sure to make an impression…right?

Well, an impression it will make for sure, only not the one that was intended. People will be just plain overwhelmed. Worse yet, in most situations they will probably find this approach off-putting, and perceive this type of “master networker” to really be saying: “OK, enough of me now. So what do you think of me?”

But…this is the elevator pitch! It’s what you are supposed to do in networking, isn’t it?

Yes, you do want to have an elevator pitch, but not one where you just hit “Play.” A canned pitch, memorized and regurgitated with the exact same words in the exact same order, is a buzzkill; that “elevator” will only go down, and fast.

No, your elevator pitch is a tool. Here are some pointers on what makes this tool effective.

Rehearse the gist, not the words.

You can word each key piece of information in various ways. Jot down your information in sentence fragments, and review it periodically so it will come to mind the moment you need it.

Practice the delivery of your information: in front of the mirror, with family, with friends, and with fellow networkers during meetings. That way, your exact words will vary naturally.

You may also notice how the order of pieces of information changes over “trial runs.” So you went from saying what you do straight to saying what you are looking for, instead of talking about the unique ways you do things? OK, maybe that was appropriate in that situation. The order in which you touch on your talking points is not chiseled in stone, no more than your exact words are.

Give the other person a chance to chime in.

At some meetings, people in attendance take turns standing up, one at a time, to introduce themselves. That’s the only situation I can think of where you want to deliver your entire elevator pitch, or most of it.

In all other situations, elevator pitches take more of a conversational form, speaking turn by speaking turn. Ask questions that invite the other person to expand: “So what do you do?”; “What brings you to this event?”; or “What are you most interested in?”

The other person’s answers may come with cues that allow you to direct the conversation back to all the wonderful things you have to give. Having the gist of your elevator pitch ready will make it easy for you to know a cue when it comes your way.

Less can be more.

So you just met a person, went back and forth with her five times, and didn’t have a chance to get the “communicate-with-tact-and-firmness” part of your elevator pitch in? Then maybe there wasn’t a good cue for that. Sometimes there is just no apparent connection across industries, roles, pursuits, aspirations, or even towns.

Trust your gut and your best judgment: if a conversation doesn’t get off the ground, don’t force that last talking point; it would probably fall flat. Every so often, the most gracious move is to say something like: “Well, it was nice to meet you. Now what say we find out what the others in the room are talking about?”

To sum up:

The elevator in your office building doesn’t go all the way up and down all the time, does it? Rather, people get on the elevator at various levels, and stay on for varying spans of levels. Therefore, you don’t want to be concerned with delivering your entire elevator pitch. What is much more productive is to use each of your talking points as ammo, one at a time. If it’s on target, reload. Oh, and give the other side a chance to take their shot as well.

When I facilitate the career-center workshops on networking, I usually begin with a brief networking-conversation opener, leading up to the question, “What do you do?”

About half the time, I get answers such as: “I was a research associate, until I got laid off.”

With an answer like that, you set an overall negative tone. You didn’t answer the question of what you do, not even what you used to do; you pinned yourself down to a position, and with a look back, still struggling to move on. That makes you a has-been. What would make people want to network with a has-been?

Here’s a variation on the type of answer just quoted: “I used to be a research associate. Now I am looking for a job as a developmental editor.”

On the surface, this sounds like goal orientation. But look at it closely: It goes from a look backwards on to something not yet attained. The worst-case takeaway message here is: has-been topped off with never-has-been. Again, do you think people will be lining up to network with someone projecting that type of image?

The person networking with you learns nothing about you from a past job title. And if indeed you got laid off, then chances are the job doesn’t even exist anymore; it may have shipped off to China, it may have been consolidated, or it may have been just plain eliminated.

The question “What do you do?” invites you to showcase the signature type of impact you make. The question goes to what you strive to accomplish. It begs to be answered with action-oriented verbs, not with static position titles—least of all, with position titles of jobs you no longer have.

Instead, focus on what you have actually done: how you have applied your competencies, how you have achieved results, and what expanded skills you have come away with. Now you may think: Wait a minute—that’s still a backwards perspective. How is that the present, let alone a look ahead?

To transcend the past, talk about what you do in the form of a story that says: “Here’s the type of endeavor I engage in, evidenced by a consistent, progressive record of accomplishments I have been building on. Here I stand ready to make my next contribution.”

Now let’s look again at the job seeker above who is looking to move from research to developmental editing. Instead of evoking in the listener the tiresome associations with all the tediums of career change, the story told in terms of action and impact could look something like this:

“I produce textbook chapters and journal articles. Specifically, I ensure the substantive content is sound and the narrative is compelling and coherent before a piece is published. To this end, I thrive in liaising among subject-matter experts, peer reviewers, and editorial professionals, until things add up. Incidentally, I am currently available for new opportunities.”

Now that sounds a lot more positive, and it is a much more spot-on answer to the question of what you do. You touch on the treasure trove of your accumulated assets, not as faded glories but as resources from which to benefit for future challenges. This type of answer is much more likely to keep a good networking conversation going.

In one of the workshops offered at the North Shore Career Center, we have a module on goal setting, where you make a “Contract with Yourself.” I can’t give away too much here, but at the basis of this “Contract with Yourself” is the concept of SMART goals:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Timely

You are most likely to succeed when your goals meet these SMART criteria. From what workshop participants have reported back about the congruency of goal and actual outcome, it seems people tend to think “SMART” when they pit their goals against what they can do today, then tomorrow, then by the next deadline.

Say my goal is to “increase my brand visibility.”

Let’s look at this in SMART terms:

• The goal is vague in substance; therefore, it is hardly specific.
• There are no metrics involved; therefore, the goal is not measurable.
• With no tangibles provided or bars set, the goal is not really attainable.
• The goal does have some obvious intuitive appeal, so let’s say it is relevant.
• But it doesn’t specify a time by which it should be attained—it doesn’t even specify when to start. Therefore, the goal is not timely.

Now say my goal is to “write a blog post on best networking practices, and post LinkedIn and Twitter updates about it, by tomorrow.”

Again, let’s take a look, in SMART terms:

• With topic (substance) and media (form) clearly identified, this goal is specific.
• The posts are either there or not there, so that makes the goal measurable.
• Assuming I know the subject matter and I am comfortable navigating the media, this goal is attainable.
• It looks like this goal is relevant toward my overarching ambition of increased brand visibility.
• I am planning to do this by a certain deadline, which is close enough to suggest when to get to work, so this goal is timely.

The attainable and timely parts are in a particular functional relationship. Note the goal was not to “write a blog post on best networking practices by the end of next year”; that would seem attainable, but hardly timely: assuming a project of this caliber takes a day or two to complete, this time frame would be too noncommittal—at this point, it’s almost two years before I would even have to begin.

On the other hand, the goal was not to “write a book on best networking practices by tomorrow,” either. I hope we don’t have to belabor the cliché of “biting off more than you can chew” here. (In this context, note some people understand the R in SMART to stand for “realistic” rather than “relevant.”)

So what if the goal were to “write a book on best networking practices by the end of next year”?

Hmm…sounds somewhat realistic (with attainable and timely within apparent proportion of each other), but writing a book is a very complex project. You would have a hard time knowing how far toward attaining your goal you are at a specific point in your endeavor, say after you have: done research on a topic; interviewed a subject-matter expert; written a draft of the first chapter; and so on.

So measurability would be an issue, for one. Even so, let’s be optimistic and say you finish the book five months before (!) the end of next year—then where do you go from there? “Freeze” it? Try to go above and beyond? Or cut yourself some slack for having “over-achieved”?

It is better to break down complex, long-range goals into smaller goals, one at a time. That’s exactly how it’s done in the “Contract with Yourself” workshop module mentioned above; it makes each goal more attainable. In the case of writing a book, sample goals could be: “Do research on the ‘sandwich-message’ concept tomorrow”; “Make appointments to interview subject-matter experts next week.”

That way, you can calibrate and set the next goal accordingly. A more overseeable time span also helps make a goal specific and, therefore, determine whether it is relevant.

True SMART goals are timely in that you can see the contingency between time and action more clearly. Not only does that help establish good habits, it leads to measurable outcomes occurring with greater frequency, thereby providing more frequent reinforcement—another goal attained, building on the one attained before. Now how is that for “smart”!

If you look around in the first couple of weeks in a new year, you will notice folks who have been downing pizza and fries suddenly nibble on steamed broccoli and cauliflower. Gyms suddenly fill up, as if people were racing to become alternates in the upcoming Winter Olympics.

It’s New Year’s resolutions at work: eat better; exercise more; maybe both. Oh, and then, of course, there are those career-minded folks whose New Year’s resolutions might center on kicking their personal branding and their career ambitions into high gear.

And what usually ends up happening? Well, as the year turns from “new” to “no-longer-new,” the New Year’s resolutions fade in the distance. And people often hardly even notice, because by then the behaviors related to the resolution have pretty much faded as well.

Do you find you can relate to this at all? If so, then don’t berate yourself; it’s normal, really. Here’s why New Year’s resolutions are bound to fail:

The timing of New Year’s resolutions is extrinsic and arbitrary.

We are accultured to associating the beginning of a new year with a “new beginning, period.” The truth is, though, 24 hours from now we’ll each be the same person we were 24 hours ago. None of us will have any more or less of any inclination to start or stop any of our accustomed behaviors. Does a new calendar on the wall really mean all of a sudden you have new staying power?

New Year’s resolutions are an excuse for putting things off.

Yes, let’s slack off as the year winds down. It’s the holidays, isn’t it? And with all the turkey, pumpkin pie, and eggnog by the fireside, who feels like serious self-improvement work anyway? Hey, the year is almost over, and we’ve got all year ahead to be good, and follow through—right?

I rest my case…keep reading.

There is an illusory correlation between “a lofty goal” and “a year to do it.”

Just committing to doing something feels like taking action already. The resolve even grows stronger as the New Year draws closer. That even glosses over the fact you haven’t really acted on anything, yet. (See above.)

And then January is here, and yes, at first you are full of verve as you set out to implement your plans. Yes, it feels different, but that’s the idea, isn’t it! Until “different” turns into “difficult.” Over time, you feel the impact of how abruptly you tried to make big changes.

That’s when self-imposed new habits falter. And the rest is history.

Better to think SMART!

Goals you set stand the best chance of coming to fruition when you keep them realistic and manageable. You can make that happen with the tried-and-true SMART approach: Specific; Measurable; Attainable; Relevant; and Timely.

Example: “I will be a more efficient and productive networker.”

That sounds good. At the same time, it sounds vague. You may not even know where to begin to become an “efficient and productive networker.” Give it a SMART makeover!

Possible results include the likes of:

• “I will attend the two major Chamber of Commerce networking events next month.”
• “I will follow up by e-mail within 24 hours with the person whose business card I just got, using a ‘sandwich message’ (offer-ask-offer).”
• “I will review my contact log and, by the end of this week, get back in touch with three people I haven’t contacted in more than six months.”

Perhaps the best thing of all is: any time of the year is a good time for SMART goals. Oh, but if you want, you can still plan to make the New Year the time to step up your personal branding. You’ll have your SMART goals to back you up on these plans!

In these past couple of weeks at the One-Stop Career Center in Salem, Mass., the usual holiday cards from business connections have been trickling in: tokens of appreciation for another year of fruitful collaboration, along with good wishes for the coming year. The sources of these holiday cards have been as varied as they come: nonprofits, recruiters, staffing agencies, educational institutions, and private enterprises.

And that’s all good. We value good business relationships, and there is wisdom and prudence in the tradition of acknowledging that whatever another source contributes to an overarching goal—workforce productivity, in this case—is every bit as important as what we do. Or maybe it’s just a good tactical move.

Besides those season’s greetings, there have been other gifts coming into our office. These gifts came from clients who found jobs: homemade goodies, very much befitting the season. All combined, those goodies, even when divvied up among all office staff, easily exceed my ballpark idea of the total “allowance” in calories for all twelve days of Christmas.

But these gifts go to show something else. We received them courtesy of the time and effort those clients invested in making them and getting them to us in person. Although that may have been in thanks for the time and effort we put into our services, it is clear they didn’t have to do that. We had done our job, without asking for gingerbread and snickerdoodle cookies as “consideration.”

These gifts reflect networking at its best. The best networking moves are those that cater to the recipients’ needs. Perhaps what our Career Center needed was some holiday cheer, and those goodies brought it in. Networking moves that are the result of time and thought are the most effective, and will be remembered.

I certainly come across hundreds and hundreds of Career Center clients each year. Guess who are the ones I will be most likely to remember by name. The benefits of good networking can be reaped year-round. On that note, as has been said so many times before: make it a good Holiday Season!

So you are about to send out that “infomercial” letter and flyer. And of course you are determined not to leave it at that, right? You are going to stay on the ball so your pursuit maintains momentum. Depending on the nature of your job, it may be your daily bread and butter to initiate and sustain business conversations.

If you happen to be a job seeker (currently employed or not), then that is certainly the case; meaning, it is in the nature of your job (the job being “job seeker”). When you first initiate business conversations, it usually is in the form of a cover letter and résumé—a qualified, specific instance of an “infomercial” letter and flyer.

In any case: following up is important. The sources you contact may have hundreds of other projects on their plate (or, specifically, hundreds of other résumés to sift through), and it is critical for you to keep, or regain, their attention. Much of your “competition” won’t even follow up (because they’ve let it slack or because they’ve moved on), so this tenaciousness can only work in your favor.

Take control: Say you will follow up, and how, and when.

Not only do you establish protocol with a proactive announcement, you anticipate that the other side won’t be contacting you in the meantime. The announcement has two benefits: for one, it lets the other side off the hook, by communicating “It’s OK if you don’t respond—I’ll get back to you regardless”; and for another, it leaves the door open for you to move on to the next step in the conversation, even though they may not have responded.

My favorite announcement goes something like this: “I will follow up on the phone within two weeks of this letter.” Assuming you first made contact in writing, they have formed a first impression based on the quality of your writing. Now here’s your chance to get a first impression of your voice into the mix—to refresh, enhance, and “broaden” their first impression of you. (Unless they said “No phone calls”; that should be respected).

If you are anxious about calling, or worry about bothering them in the middle of something: don’t call them during their workday—call early in the morning, before they even get there. Voice mail systems usually come with date stamps, and it will make a good impression you called at 6:43 a.m. Successful people take care of business before breakfast!

Just make sure your voice mail goes on no longer than 30 seconds. Nobody wants to listen to longer voice mails; every second they spend listening feels like five as it is. Oh, and Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays are generally better for doing your follow-up than Mondays and Fridays, which tend to be the busier days of the week.

When you say you will do something, follow through with it.

Did you notice the sample follow-up announcement above included the phrase “within two weeks”? That means you can follow up as soon as one week or as late as two weeks from now. That’s about one week’s worth of a “buffer” you can give yourself—plenty of leeway to allow for weekends, holidays, or days you may be caught up in other things.

The main thing is you do what you said you were going to do. This will get across that you are a person of your word, which will reflect well on your professionalism. No matter what your interaction with that source may be like in the future, it can only work in your favor that they first got to know you for being purposeful, organized, and reliable.