A while back, I got an enquiry from a guy who wanted help marketing his business. But when I asked him what business he was in, I got a five minute description that I couldn’t understand.
It was something to do with helping companies to choose the right insurance, but he wasn’t a broker and didn’t sell insurance himself. After a 15 minute conversation with him, I still didn’t get it. He was finding it hard to get customers. No big surprise really – he was trying to sell something that nobody knows they need. But worse, he couldn’t explain it easily either.
He could have made life a lot easier for himself by spending time to craft himself an elevator pitch. The idea of the elevator pitch is that if you were in a lift with the prospect of your dreams for 15-30 seconds, what would you say to get them interested enough to want to meet you properly.
Here’s a simple 3 step process you can use to write your own elevator pitch…
1 – What Do You Do?
2 – Who Do You Do It For?
3 – How Are You Different To Your Competition?
Once you’ve written down the answers, you need to smarten the words up so they flow easily.
So an accountant might say – I look after small business accounts and help 80% of my customers to make extra profit every year.
An IT company owner could say – I stop small businesses from losing hours off every month due to computer issues.
A golf club manufacturer could say – I make golf clubs that help average golfers hit the ball 30 yards further without changing their swing.
So ask yourself sometime what you do, and make sure you can say it in 1 sentence.