Elevating the elevator pitch

It's not easy being a “prospective customer” in today's highly diluted and complex market. If you're the targeted prospect, you're constantly barraged with marketing messages and annoying sales pitches. Whether the pitch is presented on the radio during a morning commute,

If you're a business professional trying to get your prospect's attention, you may be experiencing how difficult it's become to cut through all the noise and have a respectful, insightful and mutually valued conversation with that person.

Given this situation, your initial contact with a prospective customer leaves little margin for error. The first conversation is the most critical and least forgiving point of the entire sales process. Within the first 20 seconds you must simultaneously establish relevancy and credibility—or you'll be dismissed as just more marketing noise in the relentless barrage of sellers looking for attention.

Consider how you or your colleagues respond when a prospect asks the simple question, “What do you do?” Do you respond with a cleverly crafted and crisply canned “elevator pitch?”

Unfortunately, that's the conventional advice coming from the majority of sales trainers. But what reactions does this pitch elicit? The prospect's reaction will typically not be what you hoped for or expected. Perhaps you have a suspicion that there might be a more effective way to engage your prospective customer in the first few moments of interaction.

One problem is that these pre-packaged sales pitches hit our prospects from all directions. The elevator, it seems, is full of salespeople with an arsenal of stuff to shoot at their prospects. All too often listeners respond by saying, “Oh, really … that's interesting.” Of course, that response is a good indicator they're not interested at all.

What are the consequences of this situation? Most likely, it's a wasted opportunity. Not only do we waste our prospects' time, but by mismanaging this initial contact we miss opportunities to open a quality conversation. Indeed, in the prospect's eyes, we diminish our own credibility by presenting ourselves as just another self-absorbed vendor.

Re-think your “elevator pitch”

If the opportunity is in fact real, the response we should be getting is: “That sounds as if you could possibly help us. How do you do that?” Another positive outcome could be, “We've been discussing that problem, maybe you should be talking to…” The key to making this conversational transition is to describe what you do by not describing what you do.

Instead, focus on your customer's world. Discuss issues you think your customers may be experiencing, but don't come across as certain that they are experiencing them or that you can resolve them. If they are indeed having those problems, they will probably be very open to exploring them further with you. This is a powerful way of turning a brief, opening monologue into a value-rich dialogue that leads to real business results. When your prospect believes you understand his problem, he will likely believe you have a solution to it. At that point, you'll have established relevancy.

Consider that initial moment of contact. It must be carefully prepared, highly relevant and thoroughly rehearsed. Here's an example of the format:

“We work with companies who are facing escalating manufacturing costs and are looking at the possibilities of outsourcing. We help them analyze the risks and potential benefits of outsourcing and have the capabilities to provide the manufacturing services if their situation points to that as the best alternative.”

This takes roughly 20 seconds to say, but it covers a lot of ground. Let's break the statements down:

“We work with companies who are facing escalating manufacturing costs and are looking at the possibilities of outsourcing.”

This speaks to relevancy and positioning. You describe who you are by the type of company you serve and a major symptom they might be experiencing. The customer now knows who you are and should be thinking, “That sounds like me.”

“We help them analyze the risks and potential benefits of outsourcing…”

Here, we introduce more specific relevancy via the issue with which they would typically be struggling. Notice the balance of analyzing the “risks and potential benefits.”

“…And have the capabilities to provide the manufacturing services if their situation points to that as a best alternative.”

This provides more relevancy. Here we state the value we can provide.

This really isn't a pitch in the conventional sense. There is a dialogue taking place within this short monologue. You're speaking, but the customer is replying silently and agreeing through his thoughts that he is experiencing the problems you're describing.

You are addressing, in sequence, the questions that are popping up in the customer's mind. Who is this person? What does he do? Is this about me? Is it an issue I'm experiencing? When we establish relevancy, we give customers the information they need to answer these questions, and they invariably agree to continue the conversation.

Unfortunately, too few of us really take this matter very seriously because we often get hung up in our standard way of doing business. It's typically handled in an ad hoc, uncoordinated way and in a format that we have rehearsed so often with so many contacts that it becomes even more embedded and more problematic. When you consider the complexities of an ever-evolving and highly competitive marketplace, how can we expect to get the prospects' attention if we don't change our approach and evolve with our customers and the complexities they face on a day-to-day basis?

First impressions make a difference

Considering how much is at stake with regard to initial impressions and their impact on perceived credibility, it's surprising how few enterprises actually address this issue in a thoughtful and disciplined way.

Many times, conversations like these are multiplied across the sales force. Constantly undermining one's credibility takes a major toll on market penetration and profitability for salespeople and the companies they represent. The focus on self is also often reflected in marketing materials, sales collateral, product training, Web sites and those very valuable and often under-scrutinized first call conversations. Opportunities simply never reveal themselves because our introductory positioning statements close them off.

Are your initial contacts with your prospective customers carefully considered and thoughtfully constructed? Is your company positioning itself with focus on the customer's world? After all, your first impression makes all the difference, and you only get that chance once.

There is much to gain—or lose—in the opening moments of a conversation. It's critical to take the steps necessary to build credibility in that initial contact, ensuring the conversation continues and deepens. Otherwise, your prospective customer will always be just that.

Jeff Thull is a professional speaker and author of several books, including his latest release, Exceptional Selling: How the Best Connect and Win in High Stakes Sales. For more information visit www.primeresource.com Industrial Distribution, go to www. inddist.com/sfs .