To reach the top more quickly use the Elevator Pitch

How do you elevate your business in 30 seconds? This is a question that most of us have to answer on a regular basis. In my experience, we spend far too long trying to explain what we do and fail to get to the critical point.

What we really want to do is inform someone what we do in the shortest possible time, and then determine if they are a potential customer - essentially, to determine whether they are "someone with money".

The technique I am describing is called an Elevator Pitch. If you enter an elevator and you are asked, "What do you do?" you have 30 seconds to determine whether the other person has an understanding of what you do and whether they are a prospect, and then to create an opportunity for further dialogue.

It goes something like this: "Hi, what do you do?"

"Hi, my name is Barry. I am part of a team called SalesPartners Worldwide. For the past 20 years we have helped hundreds of businesses around the world achieve positive growth of anywhere from 20 percent and upwards. Would you be interested in increasing your business?"

An Elevator Pitch is not about being witty. It is about defining what you do and getting to the point in 30 seconds.

If you give this a bit of thought and time you will find it helps you get through the first step in the sales cycle: finding the people with money.

To start your Elevator Pitch, fill in the blanks on this script.

"Hi, my name is: … I … so that people etc can … Would you be interested in that?"

The five key areas are:

# Who you are.

# The time frame: how long you have been in business, how long your product or brand has been on the market. If you are new to the market, find someone or something in your team to help establish a time frame.

For example, if you open a new franchise for a brand that has been around for 10 years, you may be new to the industry but the brand is not. So: "I am part of X and we have been doing Y for the past 10 years."

# Credibility: establish this immediately, using statistics such as time or money. Find a key number that is associated with what you do and the results you can bring about. Explain the time, money or change that is effected by what you provide. Address who, what, how and why specifically. If you don't have credibility yet, find someone or something credible in your field that you can associate with to enhance your credibility.

# Pain point and solution: identify a pain point for your prospect. For example: "We help businesses achieve positive growth." The pain point is in businesses that are not achieving positive growth. Your solution is positive growth.

# Engaging question: "Would you be interested in that? Is that something that you would use?" And so on. This will enable you to establish whether you are talking a potential customer - a person with money.

When you are putting your Elevator Pitch together, don't make it too complicated. Focus instead on getting to the point. You are not writing a story.

Finally, prepare yourself to say the Elevator Pitch well and on demand. You will only be able to do this if you practise.

Spend time practising and refining your Elevator Pitch. When you think you have it ready, deliver it to your customers. And remember: high energy counts.

Business Report, The Star, September 18, 2008

By Barry Mitchell

Copyright 2008

Barry Mitchell is the operations director at SalesPartners South Africa. You can contact him on salescoach@mweb.co.za and (011) 826-6392