Making an “elevator speech” work
May 21st, 2006Elevator pitches are a key part of most b2b sales and I read a good article by on this topic by Mike McLaughlin a site called “Guerrilla Consulting”
Although this particular article is focused on consultants, the essence of what is an effective answer to the question “so, what does your business do?” is no different.
The key observation in this article is that you need to create the “pitch” from your customers/clients perspective, not to grand-stand and to ask questions instead of blowing your own horn.
Now that may not sound too revolutionary to a lot of people, but it is by far the greatest mistake people make when they are put in the position to sell themselves or their service; they either undersell by giving some confused, convoluted, technical explanation or they go in to “sales” mode and lose credibility instantly.
Here is my spin on elevator pitches:
- Facts about the problems you solve
- Outline of what you do to solve these problems, including how you differentiate yourself
- Clarified through a typical client project
- Ending with a relevant question about their business to make it a two way conversation, rather than a monologue.
Write it down, rehearse it (tape it and listen to yourself) and refine it.