Would you sell to someone you’d never met before if you were in a lift with them?
You may have heard of the story of the sales person who hated selling. To get used to it, he set himself the task of trying to sell to anyone who came close to him. If you were within two metres of this person you became a sales prospect.
One day he introduced himself to someone while in a lift. That person eventually became a client. He was converted because the sales person carried out an excellent quick introduction.
So the idea of the elevator pitch was born.
What is an elevator pitch?
An elevator pitch is the sales introduction you would use if you met someone in a lift. You would have a very short time to introduce yourself. You would have to make the other person want to find out more and have a longer conversation.
Naturally, the elevator pitch is normally used well away from a lift! In my next article we’ll cover seven places you should use your pitch.
Why is a good elevator pitch important?
These days most people decide if they are interested in buying a house or not within 60 seconds of walking through the front door. You often have even less time to get a prospect interested in you and your print services.
That’s why a good elevator pitch is essential. It’s your key to starting to build a relationship with a prospect. It creates an opportunity to control the conversation. It’s your chance to achieve the sale.
So what makes a good elevator pitch?
Here are the four key elements to a good elevator pitch
The first step in an elevator pitch is to state that you work with companies like your prospect. (This assumes that the prospect is the right sort of company for you.)
Next, talk about the problems that prospects like these typically face. You may want to carry out some research on current clients to make sure that your elevator pitch will work.
Thirdly, state that you can solve these problems. You shouldn’t go into great detail about your services here: you just want to get you prospect interested.
Finally, state why they should choose you or your company to solve these problems. Try and make this really memorable.
Here’s my elevator pitch
I’m Matthew Parker, Champion of Print at Profitable Print Relationships. I work with printing companies. Typically, I find that my clients are:
- Frustrated at so many conversations focussing on price
- Fed up with a lack of customer loyalty
- Struggling to stand apart from the competition
I help my clients solve these issues with a range of training and mentoring services. They choose me because I used to be a print buyer. Over my career I have received sales approaches from over 1,400 printing companies: I know what works and what doesn’t.
I find this pitch works well with my prospects. But some people do not get the results they want from their elevator pitches.
Here’s a key error to avoid with elevator pitches
Many people make their elevator pitches too general. It’s best to focus on a specific type of prospect. You can’t be all things to everyone. Therefore, you may need a number of elevator pitches to cover different situations.
If you use this guidance to put together your own elevator pitch, you’ll be able to introduce yourself well. You will have a good chance of converting prospects in all sorts of situations. Even if it’s in a lift!
