SALES & MARKETING ADVICE
Going Up?
Written by Caroline McDonagh
Your elevator pitch refers to the pitch you would give to a potential customer or investor if you were lucky enough to get into an elevator with them and have their undivided attention. In other words, given two minutes with the right person what would you want to say or ‘sell’ about yourself, your business, your product or your service?
However, you might ask yourself, ‘why do I need to prepare an elevator pitch as I have developed my unique selling proposition (USP)’?
The reality is that this may not be enough. The following reasons explain why you should develop your pitch:
- An elevator pitch helps you distil your key skills: In your mind you will have a short summary of your key skills, or in the case of selling a business/product or service; the key attributes of these. Condensing these is not as easy as most people think. If you have ever tried to describe yourself in three words or write a USP for a product or service you will know what I am talking about. It takes a lot of thinking and time.
- You will be clear minded: If you happen to meet the right person you need to be very clear about what it is you are selling to them. By having a pitch prepared you can use the time to sell yourself, your idea or business without waffling, using jargon or to put it simply – not using the time you have with this person to do yourself or your business justice. Failure to present your businesses in a clear and concise way could cost you a potential lead for a sale, contract or funding!
- Gaining confidence: Once you have distilled your key selling points and you are comfortable with your message you will be far more confident when dealing with a potential customer or investor. This allows you to comfortably sell your idea/product/service and ensuring you are in the position to answer any awkward questions. As you appear confident about what you are selling, this will also help build trust between you and your audience.One of the most important things you need to consider when are preparing your elevator pitch is your audience and how you communicate with them. You may need to tweak or amend your pitch depending on who you are speaking with.
When preparing your pitch you need to think about the following:
- What is my objective from this communication?
- What must I say in order to achieve that objective?
- Is this the right message for this person? Or in other words: are you sure that you are conveying the right message to the right person?
If carefully developed, the elevator pitch can be an immensely valuable selling tool. By taking the above points into consideration you will be able to present your business in a concise and constructive way and can help you exploit all your business opportunities to the maximum. Read more on marketing your business in the blog.
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