As a part of our efforts to help small businesses and start-ups, we and Evan Polin have offered various networking tips and related advice to those who are either looking for clients or trying to find a job in the first place. Still, it is important to know that effective networking is only half of the story. Once you have a person's attention, you need to know what to say - and how to say it.
This is where the so-called "elevator pitch" comes in. The term comes from the idea that you have the length of one elevator ride - say, thirty seconds - to sell yourself, your company, or your idea in the event that you randomly meet a rich investor while riding to the top floor of his firm's building. But the practice is not only relevant to start-ups who need funding - in a high-tech, multi-tasking era in which people have short attention-spans, many of us often need to sell ourselves in such a manner.
Imagine that you answer your phone and the person starts trying to sell you something. Are you going to be thinking about his offer - or the ten things that you need to do in the next hour and the fact that he or she is taking away your valuable time? When you try to grow your business, many people to whom you speak will be thinking the same thing about you.
Whether you are cold-calling prospects or e-mailing potential leads, it is important to be direct and communicate your "added value" and "unique product (or service) quality" as quickly as possible. Carmine Gallo offers a concise set of tips in Entrepreneur's online website:
1. What do you do?
2. What problem do you solve?
3. How is your product or service different?
4. Why should I care?
As cold and mechanical as it may sound, few people will care about your life story and the sacrifices that you have made to start your own small businesses, firm, or consultancy. (But we admire it - many of our clients are in the same professional "boat"!) Many busy executives and potential clients will care only about how you can benefit them (and, hopefully, vice versa). Do not bore them!
If, for example, you have a small, private law firm that competes with larger, established ones in a given sector (whether divorce, family law, tax law, or any other practice), tell potential clients that you have obtained larger settlements than your competitors or that you take a smaller fee or percentage of the settlement - or whatever matches the reality of your business situation and what you can offer. Think of the one thing that will make you appear better than the competition in a way that the prospect will like.
The same is true for whatever industry in which you work. Imagine that you have thirty seconds to sell yourself. Ask yourself: What would the prospect want to hear, what can you tell him or her about yourself that will satisfy that need? The possible pitches are limited only by your creativity and whatever your business and personal strengths happen to be.
The point is to condense your entire business and marketing strategy into a single sentence. What is your core competency, and how can it benefit the prospect? Once you answer that question, you will likely find that more and more leads will come much more easily.