The Elevator Pitch, a concept everyone should be familiar with. For those who are drawing a blank, an Elevator Pitch is essentially taking around 30- 45 seconds to talk about who you are and what you are about. To be clear, an elevator pitch is not going on a big tangent or soliloquy (big middle school word *pats self on back*) about your product or service, but talking about it in an efficient and relatively broad manner.
Now when it comes to sales, especially the role of a sales rep, you can really live and die by your Elevator Pitch. I’m not talking about the initial first couple seconds of a call -(which is also really important)- where you are introducing yourself and trying to open dialogue. I’m talking about the opportunity, whether during a call or in person, to really give your prospect (or whoever’s asking) an understanding of what makes your company, product, or solution unique. There are times when a prospect asks “What exactly do you do,” says, “I’ve never heard of you,” and/or they play hard to get; you need to take a step back to explain the reason as to WHY you’re calling and hit them with the good word about your company.
As sales professionals, you need to relish in the opportunity to get the ‘mic and stage’ with your target audience right in front of you because you never know when it’ll happen again. As Uncle Ben would say, “with great power comes great responsibility.” Sales Translation: YOU GOTTA DELIVER IN THAT MOMENT. This means, most importantly, that you have to be Confident, Clear, and Concise. Allow me to dig a little deeper into the necessity of these three C’s real quick:
Confidence
Confidence is vital in our line of work but, in the case of delivering an Elevator Pitch, you need to express true belief in your company and product. Getting those extra reps in the training room or with your colleagues can foster more confidence and help with delivering your elevator pitch with ease and comfort. The biggest reason why confidence is so important, though, is because prospects are experts in sensing weakness. If you come across as timid during your Elevator Pitch, they’re going to feel that energy and, in turn, not feel the urgency to learn more about what your company does. You’ll probably end up settling for an email sent and a follow up that unfortunately won’t happen. Put in the extra work and be confident when the time comes to give that 30-45 second synopsis about what makes your company special.
Clarity
Delivering your message clearly is also a must when you talk about executing an Elevator Pitch. Clean speech projects competency, which certainly does not hurt. Listen, we’re all guilty of the occasional “um”, “uh”, “like”, and “you know.”; I truly believe that a filler here and there can actually reinforce the human in you as well, which is important. Being egregious with fillers, however, is where you are going to lose prospects; If you can’t get through your Elevator Pitch clearly, then the prospect has the right to not take you seriously. It may not seem like it, but 30-45 seconds is more time than you think; making sure that you don’t rush yourself and that you are cool, calm, and collected can convey confidence (#alliteration). Confidence eliminates filler words. Practice eliminates filler words and yes Allen Iverson, WE’RE TALKIN’ ABOUT PRACTICE!
Conciseness
As a self-diagnosed rambler, I cannot speak enough (here I go again) about how talking too much does more harm than good when talking with prospects. Even if the information you are sharing seems important, monopolizing the time you have on the phone with your prospect is detrimental towards learning more about them. The same goes with the time we are allotted to work through our Elevator Pitch- going longer than 45 seconds or so can turn more into a presentation then a conversation between two people, and, at the end of the day, if we aren’t getting back into asking questions then how can the prospect relate? Make sure you are calculated and precise about the information you are going to share during your pitch because of the importance of conveying the right message about your company. Lose useless words and stick to what is truly necessary and express confidence and competency. Your prospects’ time is precious and this proves to the prospect you’re not trying to waste it.
Opportunities for reps to ‘talk that talk’ can be few and far between. Making sure your Elevator Pitch is airtight and on the money is what it’s all about, baby! Put that extra work in to ensure you are confident when it comes time to pitch, clear in your delivery, and concise in your messaging so you aren’t wasting opportunities to do justice by your company and yourself.
