Elevator pitches don’t work

How do you think your elevator pitch is received?

Over the years I have heard some truly awful pitches and one or two gems. What do you think is an elevator pitch will actually do for you?  Turn people off or engage them in dialogue?  To make matters worse, when most entrepreneurs give their “elevator pitch,” they talk really, really fast – S L O W D O W N don’t try to cram as much as information as possible into a few seconds.

First up lets bust a few myths.  An elevator pitch is not a 1 to 2 minute sales pitch to the perfect client who just happened to be trapped in an elevator with you! If that’s what you think, I’m sorry: you’ve been given false information.

Take a moment to think about what you are saying.  For a start who is your target and why should they listen to you?  Is your message going to engage them?

When writing an elevator pitch start by putting yourself in the position of the person at the receiving end of your ‘pitch’.  The question is this, ‘would you listen to it?’  If so write down three reasons why your audience would listen.  Then ask your friends or colleagues for their opinion.  This should help you focus on how people receive your message.

Your prospect is only listening for one thing – What’s In It For Me!   If you miss that you have lost your opportunity.  A lot of elevator pitches just ‘Off Load’ information with no thought about the recipient. That is being selfish so stop doing it.

For many years people told me what an elevator pitch was, and over time the realisation that they were wrong just got stronger and stronger.  Don’t get me wrong, you should have an elevator pitch that is designed to engage. After all, it is a simple way to turn a casual conversation into a business opportunity.

So What It Should Be?

The original idea behind the elevator pitch was light years away from sales.  It was the conversation between a job applicant and the PA on the way to the interview.  The idea being that the PA’s boss would ask “what did you think of So and So?”  This 1930s inspired approval activity has been reborn as a short introduction not a sales pitch.

Let’s be honest no business was ever done immediately.  Business develops over time, it always has and always will.  So your elevator pitch needs to do two things.

One, it should be casual in its delivery.  No one and I suspect even you wants to or likes being sold to

Two it should be able to be delivered in challenging surroundings.

To work elevator pitches are not sales pitches. The objective is to turn a general conversation into a business opportunity.

Here is a starter for you:

1. Generate Interest or Curiosity.

Please choose your words carefully, and keep it to 20 words.  Yes honestly no more than 20 words. It should contain who you are and what you do, not what you are. Here are some simple examples:

• “Independent Retailers use our software to train their employees, resulting in an average 10% increase in sales.”
• “We give customers peace of mind, allowing them to sleep at night knowing their all their admin functions are AOK”
• “After I have worked with people who have a fear of public speaking they say how easy my system is to master”
• “Within six months, customers typically add 15%  more profits because their people want to be more productive”

Note that all of these can be used as responses to “What do you do?” state a quantifiable benefit to your customers that would be relevant to a prospective customer. And no selling takes place.

You have just used what is called a positioning statement, and the person you’re talking with will express either interest or not.  If no interest is shown let the matter lie.

If the other person shows interest, maybe by saying something like, “how do you do that?”–then you take them on a journey as shown in the next step.

 2 Be Different and be Remembered

You have just interested someone in your offering, what now?  Your stimulating soft introduction has got you a further opportunity, so let’s move on.

It’s now up to you to show why you and your firm are special.  This is done by revealing one or two facts that prove your uniqueness. Examples:

• “Our methodology and supporting software based on proprietary scientific research is delivering XYZ.”
• “Over the year we have become known for the quality of our advice, in fact our VAT adviser  is recognised as an expert by HMRC”
• “We help people deliver presentations that hit the mark time after time, by delivering the 3 goals of any presentation from 60 seconds to an hour”
• “We’ve been able to prove that some customers have exceeded their expectations and got a return on their ROI in less than six months.”

Your follow up statement still needs to be short if it is to hold the attention of your prospect.  Also it needs to match the positioning statements in Step 1.

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3. The Hook

If your prospect is still interested it’s time for the Hook. This is an open-ended question to find out whether or not the person you’ve just met could be is a potential customer. They could, of course just be being polite.  The hook will confirm their interest:

• “Just out of curiosity, how does that fit with what your company is doing?”
• “Tell me, if what I have just said may be of interest?”
• “How many of your people could benefit from that?”
• “Enough about me. How do you handle that kind of issue?”

The secret here is K.I.S. ‘Keep it Simple.’  The more complex you make it the less likely you’ll get a positive outcome.  Your key is open questions, you know the ones that search for a variety of answers, not those that can just be answered yes or no.

4. Ask for a Meeting

If you are doing it right this should have all taken less than a minute. And if you are doing it right you will have spoken for about a third of the time, which means you are listening for information you can use.  When the other person shows interest it’s time to close for an appointment.

There are many ways to do this, but my preferred option is keep it casual.  Try to stay on the same lines you started with.  You can ask for a cup of coffee meeting to chat through in a little more detail.  And because you are still being social if nothing happens you can talk about the event you are at. Your key is keep it simple!

Here are a couple of techniques I use.

If the prospect seems hesitant or is not giving you their full attention:

• “If we really could do (add something of value to them ), what would your thoughts be on having an quick chat to hear more?”

If the prospect seems interested or enthusiastic, ask:

• “I would love to chat with you about ((product/value/service)). Can I buy you a coffee so we can chat further?

It’s that simple. No sales pitch, just regular conversation.

Now all that’s left for you is some practice.

To your Speaking Success

Paul M Johnstone is a Management Communications Speaker; Public Speaking Coach, and The Public Speaking Expert.  He’ll help people Overcome their fear of Public Speaking. He is n Executive Coach and Communications skills mentor.

Paul is the founder of the On The Money© an easy to master presentation system allowing you to deliver Killer Presentations every time.

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