Elevator pitch – sales techniques

The elevator pitch is a communication exercise designed to present the advantages of your project to an audience in 30 seconds to 2 minutes.

The principles

Some studies show that a person only has 8 seconds of attention, so the shorter and more punchy your pitch, the better. You need to think impact more than description, you need to make your customer want to know more, to make them want to see you again in greater depth. It’s all about presenting a solution to your customer’s needs that could bring unexpected benefits.

Applications

The main uses of the elevator pitch

• Make an appointment with a customer for a sales meeting during telephone prospecting
• Prospect at a networking event.
• Spark a customer’s interest during a meal, a meeting in an elevator, in a corridor, etc.
• Sell yourself to find a job during a short planned or impromptu meeting
• Getting an investor interested in a start-up project

Elevator pitch steps

1. Introduce yourself by highlighting your experience in your customer’s field of activity and the results you’ve achieved.
2. Briefly describe the customer’s situation or problem
3. Propose our solution and the expected benefits for him
4. End with a short call-to-action related to the speaker’s motivations: money, security, convenience or ego. Example: “This is the best solution, because it’s the easiest for you, the safest, the one that will bring you the most profit.

Example of an elevator pitch

1. We are specialists in the placement of financial products, and have been working with such institutions for 10 years, consistently achieving returns of 15%.
2. You have your investments managed in the traditional way and have experienced gains of 2 to 5%, but also losses.
3. Our results are possible thanks to a combination of daytrading and swing trading that enables us to play both short and long term, taking advantage of global economic fluctuations.
4. I’d like to meet with you for about 1 hour to discuss how much you could earn while respecting your investment security wishes.

Elevator pitch for a start-up project

The elevator pitch for a start-up is a little longer.

1. Introducing yourself
2. Show the problem using the SOS sales technique : situation, objective, solution
3. Current situation for consumers: problem
4. Improvement target for customers
5. Solution: we have the solution
6. Present and demonstrate the solution, if possible based on the key points of the marketing mix: target, product, price, implementation, advertising, promotion.
7. Discuss the potential return on investment.
8. Use a call-to-action phrase to continue the discussion

Example of an elevator pitch for a start-up

1. We specialize in the sale of shares in co-owned luxury boats, working with prestigious names and managing the following boats.
2. You’d like to spend your vacations in different places and avoid the crowds, but you’d also like to make profitable investments and limit your tax bill.
3. We sell shares in the boat for $800,000 to our wealthy and discerning clientele, allowing you to use the boat as you see fit for your own personal or business purposes. We work through networking, and the boat makes money for you when you’re not using it.
4. Our solution not only lets you spend your vacations with a return on investment of 30% a year, but also allows you to reduce your tax bill.
5. I’d like to spend an hour with you to show you how you can benefit.

Conclusion

The elevator pitch is based on a quick and punchy speech, remember that :

• The shorter the better
• The shorter, the harder
• The shorter it is, the more you need to prepare.