START-UP TOOL KIT

The Elevator Pitch in Action

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Greetings from the BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas, where bloggers, marketers and technology companies meet to discuss the online world.

Last week I wrote about the Elevator Pitch, Reloaded. Today at the Expo, I got a hallway elevator pitch that hit many of the important points in that article. The person didn't know I was a blogger for Inc., or that I wrote the article. She just gave a passionate pitch that really hit all the points for me, so I thought it'd be worthwhile to show you an example of someone doing it right.

Her name is Ellen Marden, and she is sales director for Zoom Album. A Zoom Album is, according to the company's site, a "small photo album sold as a kit that allows users to create a handmade gift of memories with a professional look from digital photos, a personal computer and a home Inkjet printer." Here's how Ellen hit the points below as she did her demo:

1. Show, Don't Tell
Ellen actually showed us, while she was talking, how to make a zoom album. She had a pre-printed cover sheet and a pre-printed grid of 12 photos from an inkjet printer, done on their special paper. As she talked to us, she was ripping the paper on perforated lines, removing some backing and sticking photos together. She then created a cover with a punch-out cardboard piece and a larger photo. Then she put it together, like this and like this. Within 3 minutes, she had created the album I photographed above.

2. Show your product in the first 60 seconds.
Ellen had one hanging on her neck--a photo album of a trip to Maine. She showed it immediately and showed the value of how easy and convenient it is to show and share photos.

3. Leave people wanting more.
After Ellen showed the album, almost everyone standing there wanted to know how to make one, and how to get a kit to do so.

4. Talk about what you've done, not what you're going to do.
Ellen let us know that Canon is now selling these kits in Fry's, Best Buy and other places under the Canon brand. That's a major company endorsement, as well as a statement of future potential growth.

5. Short answers are best.
Ellen had quick and easy answers as to how you could create an album, without diving into huge details. She showed a simple demo that made you feel like you Ellen's demo encouraged the people around her to ask for more information about how to buy her product. She gave out samples, which I saw people showing to others within five minutes.

Does your demo inspire your potential customers to buy and to show your product around? Do you get people to be an evangelist for you? When was the last time you showed your demo and got really comprehensive feedback on it? It may be time to do so again.

Howard Greenstein

Howard Greenstein is a social media strategist and evangelist, and president of the Harbrooke Group, which specializes in helping companies communicate with their customers using the latest Web technologies.