22 | TRAINING WORDS | Paul Owen The Elevator Pitch
Don’t panic, but what you say the next 30 seconds could make or break your career. Wait, I said don’t panic! OK, then, let’s hear Paul Owen’s top tips on how to put your business across in the time it takes to reach the sixth fl oor...
ou have a meeting at Microsoft. You jump into the lift and press 12. As the doors are about to close, a geeky looking guy hops in at the last minute. “Hi, I’m Bill Gates,” he says. Gulp. He presses button number six and turns round. “So, what do you do?” You have 30 seconds, the time it takes the lift to get to the 6th fl oor, to answer in a way that makes Bill Gates say, “Sounds interesting. Here’s my card.” Yes, folks. It’s time to talk about
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that staple of the salesperson’s skillset: The Elevator Pitch. Everyone in sales, in fact everyone in business, needs to know how to describe what they do in a short, punchy manner that is both a good refl ection of the truth and an enticement to fi nd out more. In my years of training sales, the ability to do this well is rare. There are some common mistakes
made and I’d love to help you avoid at least some of them and give you my top tip. As regular readers have already guessed, my tip does not involve a script but I do have a 3-point structure
(yes, another one!) that will help you. The common mistakes fi rst. An elevator pitch is not something that closes a deal. It’s not “Here’s what we do. Would you like to buy one now?” An elevator pitch is a great way to establish an interest – so it’s the start of a conversation, a way to create interest, not the end. Next, you don’t need to tell them
everything. The question is “What do you do?” not, “Tell me all about
“This is the start of the conversation, a way to create interest, not the end”
the company history, the full range available and all special offers”. Too often, there is nothing left to
intrigue the questioner as they’ve been told the lot (though remembered nothing). Finally, don’t get into specialist
market detail and, in particular, avoid market jargon. By keeping it at
Paul Owen was fi rst chief executive of the Association of International Property Professionals (AIPP), building the membership to 400+, creating its annual consumer guide and setting up the AIPP Awards. He now runs The Clear Path Company, specialists in sales recruitment and sales training, which this year launched ‘Let’s get Britain selling!’, a nationwide programme of free sales training for 16-24 year olds in the UK. Call: +44 (0)20 3004 9113
headline, business-benefi t level, it’s more likely to make sense without boring them. Mistakes done, now for my
favourite structure (there are loads – Google to your heart’s content). The 3 points of my structure are: Problem; Solution; Result. People usually jump straight into their solution and this lacks impact because it lacks context. Imagine a fi rst time property investor. You say, “We research the global
market to source the very best investments for our clients and have been doing so for the last 10 years. Our in-house experts check the security of each one and assess the risk/reward ratio each time.” Not bad. But the
fi rst timer may not understand what problem you’re solving. How about this presentation of the
problem fi rst? “It’s diffi cult for overseas property
investors to know which agents to believe and whether the returns are real or imagined. There are too many smooth sales pitches and not enough trustworthy advice.”
Done well, the problem phase will have your client nodding his or her head. “Yes, that’s exactly the problem now you mention it.” You’re recognising the same problem and they’re already warming to you (though still don’t know what you do!). NB. I’m not encouraging you to
deceive clients. You’re just presenting truthful information in a way that makes the important things clear, things that a client may not recognise as important. The fi nal step is to present the result,
what your service achieves. Like this: “This means that you can buy your investments through us knowing that we’ve checked everything fully. You can buy in confi dence because we’ve already done the research and that is why our clients come back to us again and again.” Each of you can make your version better, I’m sure, but I hope this structure and its benefi ts are clear. Give context with the problem. Highlight the importance of your service with the solution. Then translate that into the result for the client. It’s a simple, effective way to present what your company does in a concise and compelling way. The version above takes exactly 30 seconds. “Sounds interesting. Here’s my card,” says Bill as he leaves the lift. Through it all, keep my previous
Going up? | When Bill presses the button, you’ve got 30 seconds to pitch... can you capture his interest or will you fl op?
adive in mind... Low. Slow. Keep it short. Try it out.
BUSINESS
www.opp-connect.com | APRIL 2013
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