Elevator Pitch Framework To Fix Your Next Meeting.

What's Elevator Pitch?

An Elevator Pitch is very essential when it comes to sales. As a Salesperson, your job is to meet a lot of new people, be it in a seminar, at a client location or a networking event. You want to network with as many people as possible. Now due to the current COVID situation, you may not meet prospective clients face to face.

But you try to reach new prospective clients over the phone, through emails, WhatsApp, LinkedIn.

When you try to reach out to a prospective client for the first time, your intention is to create a memorable first impression in a short span of time. This prompts the prospect to give you the next meeting for further discussion.?

So how do you do it?

With your sales elevator pitch. A sales elevator pitch is a 30 sec to two-minute sales pitch which tickles the curiosity of your prospective client. It compels them to give you time for further discussion.

A sales elevator pitch can be compared to the trailer of a blockbuster movie. A good movie trailer hooks the audience and makes them book their tickets for the first day's first show.

That's exactly what your elevator pitch should do for you. Your elevator pitch should make your client curious about what you and your company have to offer. It should make them give you time for further discussion.?

It is unlikely in B2B sales that you will close a deal by delivering a compelling sales elevator pitch. But, It is a tool that increases your chances to gain your prospect's attention and time. It's a quick introduction to you, your company, and how you can help your prospect.

Your elevator pitch will vary as per the audience. It will be different for the CEO of a large organisation. It might be different for the user of the product or service; it will be different for the CFO or procurement person.

As a professional salesperson, you need to keep a bank of elevator pitches that you can deliver to different stakeholders at a prospective clients end.?

Now there might be a list of prospective clients whom you might meet in networking events. There could be clients whom you want to reach out to for any new business opportunity. But, you might not be sure how to start your conversation.

In this blog, you will learn the framework to create your elevator pitch. So?the next time you meet a prospective client you are confident and have higher chances to engage with prospects for further discussion

Here is a 4 step framework that you can use to craft your next elevator pitch.

THE 4-STEP FRAMEWORK FOR A KILLER ELEVATOR PITCH:

Step 1 - Introduce Yourself.

When you meet anyone, the first thing you do is greet that person and then you introduce yourself.?That's what you need to do here.

In this step, you talk about three things; your name, your organisation’s name and your role in the organisation. Give your prospective client a background interesting enough for them to believe you can be of value.

Given below is a good example of this:

Hi. I am Prabodh Deolekar, I am an Enterprise account manager in ABC IT Hardware company.

Step 2 - Get to the hook.

This is the most important step in creating a framework for an effective elevator pitch. This is where the magic happens.

I always keep on saying as a professional salesperson you are a problem solver. If I get an opportunity to rename the word SALES, I will rename it to Problem-solving.

In step 2, you mention what problem your organisation solves for their customer.

The problem you solve should be in line with prospective clients' organisations. The more unique your solutions are, the more interested the client will be to talk to you.

Keep in mind, your hook can’t be the product you sell. For e.g, if you sell a home loan or credit card don't go on talking about a credit card or a home loan. Do not make the client think that your only goal is to promote and sell your product to them. Your hook always has to be the business outcome you deliver for the customer through your product or service. Talk about outcomes, mention what you/your product can do for the prospective client.

For example, you are selling home loans. Instead of saying, I provide home loans, try saying we help new home buyers reduce their expenses by offering home loans at the least rate in the market. Make your services sound important to the people.

To do this you need to know your clients well and know the problems you have solved for them. You can’t talk about the most affordable cars to buy to people who have no interest in buying cars. Make sure that the prospective clients need your product/service.?

Your hook should sound short and succinct. People have very short attention spans. You don’t want them zoning out mid-conversation. You don’t want them to look back at your conversation and think ‘Oh god, that was so long and boring. ’ Keep it short and interesting.

Step 3 - Establish Credibility.

Now that you have the person listening to you, they know what you have to offer and they seem to be interested in it, what comes next in your elevator pitch? Credibility. This is the step where you get your client to trust you. Once you have shown what solutions you can offer to your client, talk to them about your previous experiences in doing the same. Give references of past customers you have helped. If possible, quote references of clients in similar industries.

Support your claim with some tangible proof points. This is how you show them that you have the expertise of solving problems for similar customers.

For e.g If you are selling digital marketing services, talk about results you delivered for previous clients.

It could be leads generated through a social media campaign or how you generated more organic traffic for your client. Credibility will make your prospect believe they are speaking to the right person. It will make them believe that the services you are providing are of value.

Let's see an example of Step 3 for a sales training company:

Hi, this is Prabodh Deolekar. I am the Customer Success Manager for XYZ sales training company. We help organisations in the IT industry to improve demand generation through our sales training programs. Recently we conducted a sales training program for ABC System and helped their sales team generate a pipeline?of?100 cr out of which 20% move to the closure stage.

If you observe the above example we are very specific to the outcome delivered and to whom we delivered.

Step 4 -?Call to action

The goal of an elevator pitch is to engage further with your prospective client for further discussion.

Now that you have got the customer interested, you have established your credibility, this is where you make your final move. See if they are giving you any sign of being interested in your work. If they seem to be inclining towards you, request an appointment.

If you can get meetings or get an opportunity to discuss further, you can rest assured that your elevator pitches are working.

Short elevator pitches are a great way of making a great first impression. It helps the customer gain clarity of what you do and builds on the relationship. Elevator pitches delivered with great confidence and poise takes you a long way. They help you ease your way through a stranger who could be your prospective customers.

Are elevator pitches a hundred per cent successful?

A brilliant elevator pitch most often is like anything good in life. Making a great elevator pitch is also going to take time and a lot of practice. You can’t achieve perfection right from the get-go. You need to work on it. The?4 step framework given above is something I swear by. You keep using the same framework over and over and over again and it becomes second nature to you.

Sometimes it may happen that you have indulged deep into your elevator pitch and then realize that the people you are talking to do not seem interested in you at all. Believe me, this is not a rare occurrence when delivering an elevator pitch.

What do you do when your elevator pitch starts to fail??

Evaluate it.

See if you are delivering steps 2, 3, 4 as per the framework.

Run it through your peers, take their feedback, put yourself in your customer shoes and think if you had to hear it as a customer how would you react.

When you understand the people you are talking to, flowing conversations according to them becomes easy. And when conversations become easy, your audience becomes comfortable enough to listen to your elevator pitch.

A successful elevator pitch is one of the most important things to learn when it comes to becoming a successful salesperson. Elevator pitches delivered with great confidence and poise takes you a long way. It helps you discover infinite possibilities in your life.

That is all there is about elevator pitches. Do let us know in the comments your experience with elevator pitches. If you have any extra suggestions for us, comment down below.

Thank you!