The primary purpose of your 60 second Elevator Pitch is to ‘open the door’ to further meetings where you can explore business opportunities with people who have ‘qualified themselves in’ by having expressed their interest to learn more about your products or services. It is given typically to people you are meeting for the first time and in response to their question, ‘So tell me, what do you do?’
When you are asked this question, the enquirer is really trying to understand if you are going to be relevant to them personally, or to someone that they know. Since you usually don’t know the answer to this question before being asked, you can use your 60 seconds to introduce yourself in such a way that it answers this question and qualifies any opportunity.
The mistake
Unfortunately, most people make the mistake of spending all of their 60 seconds saying who they are, what they do, all about their company and how good they are – leaving the listener to make any connection with any needs they may have. This is like going up to a shop window in which the shopkeeper puts their products and services on display but leaves it up to the window-shopper to decide if they should enter the shop to buy anything, or to find out more. However, in the face-to-face encounter we are describing, why leave this to chance? You have the golden opportunity to open a door which is currently closed – but how can you do this?
Selling is all about solving customer problems
The answer lies in understanding that selling is all about solving customer problems. So, by understanding the problems that you solve that add real value to your customers (ask your customers – don’t second guess them), you can structure your 60 seconds to focus more on their concerns to qualify an enquirer.
A 60 seconds that qualifies opportunities
I would suggest the following model:
Step 1 - Introduce yourself, your company and what you do
Step 2 – Explain who you work with and the types of problems that they have that
you can solve
Step 3 – Explain the value you bring and how you do this
Step 4 – Ask a question
I have illustrated this model using my own company’s services:
Step 1- My name is Graham Whittle from Going4Growth. We are Sales & Marketing Specialists.
Step 2 - Typically the company owners & directors we work with are frustrated at not winning the level of business they deserve despite having spent a significant amount of time, money & effort on various sales & marketing activities.
Step 3 - Our clients win £’000s of more business by engaging valuable prospects with a really compelling value proposition, and by qualifying and closing opportunities more effectively. This is all done in ways which they can afford, sustain & manage.
Step 4 - Can I ask if winning more business is a frustration you have with your own business?
If appropriate, an alternative structure is to miss out Step 3 and go straight to asking the question.
Don’t waste your time
The posing of a question at the end creates the opportunity for the enquirer to qualify their interest in your services by telling you if indeed this is a challenge they have, how big it is, and if they would value a further discussion. As such, this model lends itself to the enquirer inviting you to meet with you if they have an interest to do so - as opposed to you trying to ‘kick down their door’ – which is less effective and more painful!
Using this model, you will spend more time working on real business opportunities while making a note to keep in touch with other ‘not immediately interested’ enquirers as part of your on-going prospect nurturing programme.
