If you're like most entrepreneurs, you think an "elevator pitch" is a one- to three-minute sales pitch that you could presumably give during a very long elevator ride. If that's what you think, I'm sorry: You've been completely misled.
Let's start with the basic fact: Nobody listens to sales pitches. (Do you listen to them? I don't. Especially if they are coming from some bozo I just met.)
To make matters worse, when most entrepreneurs give their "elevator pitch," they talk really, really fast so as to cram as much as information as possible into a short a time as possible.
In professional sales, this is known as the "spray and pray" method. It's not only ineffective, but it's irritating–especially if your listener didn't sign up for an information dump.
That being said, you're crazy if you don't have an elevator pitch, providing you realize that it's not a sales pitch, but a way to turn a casual conversation into a sales opportunity.
The original idea behind the elevator pitch was to have something that you'd say to a potential customer whom you happen to meet by chance. While the "elevator" scenario is a bit absurd, there's no question that chance conversations can result in business opportunities.
Bob Carr, the CEO of Heartland Payment Systems–one of the largest credit card processors in the United States–once told me how he sold the idea for his new business to an investor whom he met at a wedding.
A real "elevator pitch" presents you and your offering in a casual, socially acceptable manner. That means no sales pitch. Period.
Instead, you introduce yourself and your firm in the natural context of a social conversation. Here's how to do it.
This is a carefully crafted sentence (that's just one sentence, folks) that describes who you are and what you do for your customers. It's what you say to somebody who asks: "So, what do you do for a living?" Here are some examples:
Note that all of these responses to "What do you do for a living?" state a quantifiable benefit to your customers that would be relevant to a prospective customer. Also note that all the responses are pithy enough to be socially acceptable.
When you position your company in this way, the person you're talking with will express either disinterest or interest in what you just said. If it's disinterest, the person is not a potential customer–so let the matter drop.
If the other person shows interest–maybe by saying something like, "how do you do that?"–then you proceed to Step 2.
The person you've just met has shown some interest in your firm, based upon your one-sentence position statement. Your job is now to show why you and your firm are unique and different from your competition. Do this by revealing one or two facts that prove your uniqueness. Examples:
Note that the examples match the positioning statements in Step 1.
Assuming there are still signs of interest, ask an open-ended question to find out whether or not the person you've just met actually is a potential customer or just being polite. Examples:
No need to get fancy. Be sure the question is open-ended rather than something that can be answered with a simple yes-or-no answer.
If you're following the steps, you've now spent about somewhere around 40 seconds on the conversation–about half of which consisted of the other person speaking, and you listening. If it makes sense to have the conversation continue, it's now time to ask for a meeting to discuss the matter in more detail–so you can drop the business talk and go back to discussing, say, how lovely the bride looked.
There are two basic approaches.
If the prospect seems skeptical or hesitant, ask:
If the prospect seems interested or enthusiastic, ask:
It's that simple. No sales pitch, just regular conversation.
By the way, the real expert on the subject of elevator pitches is sales uber-guru Barry Rhein. He's the one who explained all of this to me while I was working on my recently published book (see the bio below for a link).
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