The Elevator Pitch - How to Sell Your Vision and Ideas

As an executive, manager or employee working with innovation, you always have something to sell. In the end it is a product or a service, but during the development of your revenue-generator, you have to sell your vision to internal and external stakeholders. In two posts, we will look into how you will communicate that vision by:

? Developing a value proposition that can be adapted for various stakeholders. Check this post: The Value Proposition - How to Sell Your Vision and Ideas 

? Capturing the very essence of the value proposition in a brief elevator pitch that focuses on the recipients of the message.

This post focuses on the elevator pitch.

An elevator pitch (or elevator speech) is an overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride. When I do exercises, we work with 60 seconds, as I find 30-second pitches too superficial to be useful.

The term “elevator pitch” is typically used in the context of an entrepreneur pitching an idea to a venture capitalist. Venture capitalists often judge the quality of an idea and team on the quality of its elevator pitch, and will ask entrepreneurs for the elevator pitch to quickly weed out bad ideas

You should use an elevator pitch to get your foot in the door with key stakeholders who can influence your offering or message. This is important. An elevator pitch is not about making a sale; it is about getting a chance to explain your offering or message in further detail at a future meeting. Do not try to sell now and do not get into details. Just get a meeting.

You have many types of stakeholders such as partners, customers, and colleagues so you should make versions of your pitch for each of kind of stakeholder—or even better for each individual you target.

I often tell teams I work with that they should set up a war room in which they put up posters of their key targets and write down all the information—business as well as personal—they can get on them. This could include information such as:

• Why are they relevant for your offering?
• How might they specifically help you if they like your offering?
• What are their business facts (company facts, position within in the company, organizational structure, and contact information)?
• Who do they know?
• Who do you know that can get you in touch with the target or someone within that circle?
• Where can you run into the target (conferences, cafés or restaurants, transportation)?
• What is their public profile (LinkedIn, Google, articles, speeches)?
• What are their personal interests?
• Do you or someone on your team have something in common with the target?
• Does the target have a history of helping other people in the way you wish them to help you?
• Can you get in touch with people they’ve helped before and ask them about their experience with the target? What worked for them?

This should of course also be stored online, but it helps to be able to visualize your key stakeholders in the war room or in your office. Okay, not many teams do the visualization part, but you should definitely do the information exercise. The more you know about your target, the better you can prepare for the potentially once-in-the-lifespan-of-your-project opportunity to make the impression that gets you to the next stage that might make the whole difference for what you do.

You will most likely never get to use an elevator pitch in the true sense, as you will almost always have more than a minute to make your case when you interact with others. Then you might think that there is no need to do this. Wrong. The key purpose of value propositions and elevator pitches is their preparation. The learning you gain while defining your value proposition and tuning your pitch will make you understand your product, service, or message so well that it will become much easier for you to achieve success. That creates all the reasons in the world to take this very seriously.

Picture this: You have worked on an idea that can really make a difference at your company. Nevertheless, you keep hitting the wall of corporate indecisiveness. After having given yet another so-so presentation to people who seem unable to make a decision, you step into the elevator with the person who can single-handedly decide whether your idea is boom or bust. You know this is your big—and perhaps only—shot. Your pulse quickens. Your body temperature rises. What do you do?

Too few people are prepared to deal with such a situation. They have not given it much thought, let alone prepared something to say or rehearsed saying it. So instead of capitalizing on the opportunity, they just let it walk out the door or mess it up and end up looking like an incompetent fool. Do not leave this to luck. Prepare. Prepare. Prepare.

What should you include in a pitch? This is my shot:

? Introduce yourself properly. Introduce yourself in a proper manner and get a confirmation that the person is who you think he or she is. Beware of your body language. During role-play exercises at workshops, I am amazed how many people do not really pay any attention to that.

? Find a hook. You should find a hook or an angle that is personal and gets the person intrigued to listen to you even though he or she is busy. It could be that your target has given a speech or written an article that you have heard or read. Make a reference to that. This opens up the conversation and at the same time plays to the target’s ego. Not all people have such high profiles, but your research should give you some nugget of information that enables you to start with something that shows you have taken the time to get to know this person. Do not exaggerate, as some people might find this intrusive.

? Explain the big picture. Frame the big picture in a plain and simple way that does not get into details or technical talk. An example: We specialize in providing utility cost-saving solutions for top-tier companies in the beverage and dairy industries. Our offerings help companies reduce utility costs by 10 to 20 percent, which not only improves bottom lines on an average of 3 to 4 percent, but also reduces CO2 emissions.

? Make it specific. Follow up on the big picture by focusing on the pain of or the opportunity for the target. Remember this is not about your compelling reason to sell, but the compelling reasons why the target should listen further to you.

An example: We took the time to get to know your company a little bit and we understand you have annual utility costs of about $19 million. Would you say this is correct? (You need to be sure this is correct. Wait for some kind of acknowledgement from the target before you move on). Okay. Then we believe that you can save $2.2 million over three years. This is a 2.8 percent improvement of your bottom line. Would you like to know more about this?  

Of course he or she would like to know more, giving you another yes answer. Try to ask questions that your target answers positively. This keeps the target in a more positive state of mind.

Now you have quantified the big picture in specific terms for the target and you are ready to close the conversation.

? State how you do it, why you are different, and close the conversation. Give a brief explanation of what you do and why this is better than the current offerings or solutions on the market. The target should have an idea of such offerings, enabling you to make a positioning statement regarding the competition.

Now you need to close the conversation. An example: “I understand you are busy and I will not take more of your time. May I suggest that we set up a meeting within the coming weeks? Great. Here is my card. Can I have yours? Thanks. I will get in touch with regards to a meeting as soon as I am back in the office.”

Or it could be slightly different if your target is a referral person rather than the decision-maker: “I understand you are busy and I will not take more of your time. I understand the proper person to discuss this with is Cynthia Jackson, who is in charge of utility costs. Is this correct? Great. Can you help me get introduced to her? Fine. Here is my card. Can I have yours? Thanks. I will get in touch with regards to setting up a meeting with Cynthia and other relevant persons as soon as I am back in the office.”

? Follow-up. Remember to follow up quickly and competently. You might need to be quite persistent here, as busy people do not always reply on the first email or phone call. There might also be another reason than just busyness. If your target gets many solicitations, they might not respond until you have proven that you are persistent and dedicated. It can take several attempts of trying to get in touch to prove your persistence.

You should also check this post: The Value Proposition - How to Sell Your Vision and Ideas