Steps to Help You Build Your Elevator Pitch

When people hear elevator pitch there is an immediate connotation around startups. In reality, a great elevator pitch is relevant to almost anyone working in any business. The reason is that we are all salespeople of our company in one way or another. Without revenue, there is no business. Whether you are in finance, IT or sales & marketing everyone has a responsibility for being able to discuss who they work for, what the company they work for does and what makes them unique. I am a bit biased as a career salesperson and as a business owner. I see huge importance in having your employees be knowledgeable enough to quickly and concisely describe what we do, how we do it, what makes us unique and the benefits of working with us.
 
An elevator pitch is not as simple as just freestyling some information you think is relevant. A good elevator pitch should be thought out well in advance. To do this I have outlined a few steps below in helping you to craft your own elevator pitch.

Know Your Target

By this, I mean the type of company you are selling to. Are you selling to a vertical or are you selling horizontal? Do your targets span multiple sectors? Take a look at where you have been successful in the past. Does the segment you are going after have the money to purchase your product? Do the firms you are targeting line up well with your benefits?
 

Who is Your Buyer?

Who in the target organization are you going after? Is it the VP of Marketing or Operations, the CEO or owner/operator or is it the local franchise operator? Understand their buying behaviour and how they purchase. Is it one person making the call or do they purchase by group consensus? Do you understand what is important to them?

We find in a number of cases, you may have more than one type of buyer. We recommend you create buyer personas as a means of understanding who your buyer is, why they would be interested in your product, what their business pain might be and what is going on in their job. If you do this for each potential buyer or even influencer, you will then be able to better tailor your pitch to each of them.
 

Be Clear on What Business Pain(s) You Are Solving

Your product or solution should do at least one or more of these things.

  • Drive revenue
  • Reduce expenses
  • Mitigate a risk
  • Drive an efficiency

These are your benefits. These are ultimately why someone making a business decision will choose to purchase your product. If your solution does at least one of these things then you have game. If it doesn’t then reconsider what you are selling.
 

Know Your Value Proposition

This is bringing all and more of the above points together into a succinct message.

  • Who you are
  • What you do
  • Your current clients/experience
  • Business pain(s) being solved
  • Your benefits (maybe a feature or two)
  • A tangible reference to something that would resonate with them eg. a case study or whitepaper

Your value proposition is something you will work into your sales decks, marketing collateral, website content, social media messaging, call and email scripts etc.
 

Now, Deliver Your Elevator Pitch

You are standing at a networking event, in a room of strangers and you know a number of them are prospects or referrers. What do you do? When you meet someone you give them your elevator pitch.

You can start by asking a few questions including:

  • Who they are?
  • What they do?

Once you have that then you can tailor your elevator pitch accordingly. When unsure, keep it simple – do not use too much technical jargon. You have 30 seconds (or less) and you want to cover:

  • Who you are
  • What you do
  • How you can help & your benefits
  • Where have you done it before (tell a quick customer story that may be relevant)

We recommend that you practice by yourself and then with a family member or colleague or friend until you feel like you have it down. We encourage people to try different variations to see what works better, what resonates well and what doesn’t. It is only by trying and then assessing the result that you can continue to fine tune your message.

I have outlined a sample “Elevator Pitch” below (in writing) so you have a feel for what it would read like:

“Hi, my name is Steve Gruber and I work for VA Partners. We are providers of outsourced sales and marketing services to growing companies across Canada and the U.S. We started the company to in 2006 to provide a cash flow friendly solution for firms to get professional sales and marketing assistance. Our clients span a variety of sectors including industrial services, professional services, fintech, IT, cleantech and telecoms. We work with our clients on a part-time basis, normally 4 to 8 days per month. As an example, a few of the successes we have had include:

  • Assisting a vehicle rental and leasing firm grow their client base from 2 to over 60 customers over 3 years
  • Assisting a rescue services company in closing approximately $500,000 worth of new business in the first year”

If you are in need of assistance from a sales and marketing perspective feel free to contact me. I would be happy to see if we can help. Alternatively, if you are simply looking for a source of excellent sales and marketing information, please feel free to sign up for our newsletter or follow us on Twitter.
 

Steps to Help You Build Your Elevator Pitch