YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH- Marketing for Small Business

You are having a conversation with a stranger at a wedding party

Stranger: Hello

You: Hello

Stranger: I am Jane. You?

You: Sally

(…all the conversation that comes after the name)

Stranger: Sally…interesting name. What do you do for a living ?

You: I run a business. I have an online clothing store. What do you do?

Stranger: I am a teacher. I teach high school maths…

(Read the revised version of the conversation below)

There goes your wasted opportunity to get a customer, get her friends, her family and colleagues as your customers, then her friend’s friends and family…The list is endless.

Remember I said you market everywhere with your mouth. I know some of you are thinking I am such a spoilsport. You are there to have fun but who says you can’t have fun and make money at the same time or at least make prospective money…LOL

Or you have been thinking about how to sell this business idea to an investor and by some stroke of luck, you have an angel investor sitting beside you at a conference. It is time to network and you just go blank after you say; Hello, I am samantha, it is so nice to meet you. I have this mobile application I just developed and I think you would love it, he says okay…Then you have this awkward silence between the two of you(because you are expecting him to say something and he is tired of hearing what you just said, he hears it everywhere he goes)… he saves you by saying, I need to go check on a friend of mine…

Tadah, you just made the best mistake of your life…No need to beat yourself up about it, we’ll make sure it never happens again.

Last week I said something about the elevators pitch- saying who you are and what you do under 60 seconds. Let’s write yours.

We need five sentences/ around 60–70 words.

First Sentence -Introduce Yourself

What your name is and what you do

Hello. My name is Samantha and I am a business person

Second Sentence- What you do

I have an online clothing store. We sell clothes for plus-sized women

Third Sentence- What are you trying to solve (if possible create a story around it )

I needed a dress for my boyfriends birthday party and I did not have the time to go to a store. So I decided to check online…I checked almost every store and I could hardly find any nice and comfortable dress. The only ones I found were drab and very uncomfortable.

I got angry and decided to find a solution. I started an online store, scouting for good designers who could make stylish clothes that were comfortable and beautiful at the same time.

Fourth Sentence- What makes you different from your competition

You do not have to wear those tight body shapers to look classy in our clothes.

Last Sentence- Call to action

What do you want from the person? Do you want the person to buy or do you want to set up a meeting? You have to ask

What is this pitch for? Is it to get investment, is it to schedule a meeting for further discussion,

Can I have your instagram handle, so I can follow you and DM our website to you. Just check it out and let me know what you think

(Remember the questions we answered to help us create our marketing plan…It is time to bring it out again. It would help you write your pitch quickly.)

Rules

1. Use simple words. No technical jargon please. People get pissed off by ambiguous words like irregardless (Don’t ask me what is ambiguous about irregardless. Just don’t use it)
2. Make sure the pitch is conversational. Always bring the other person into the conversation. For instance, you are proposing reliable delivery services- You ever had one of those terrible experiences where you order for a spoon and you get a chopstick instead- (humour is also a very good tool)
3. Practice!! Practice!! Practice. You ever heard a robot speak? That’s how you would sound without practice. We don’t want you stammering when you are talking to someone about what you do.
4. Be ready to answer any question. People would ask questions and if you don’t know you can always say I’ll get back to you on that one, instead of spouting nonsense.
5. Confidence. I know it can be nerve-racking sometimes but you have to tie those shoelaces and walk and talk like you have the solution to the most important problem in the world.

P.S. You can’t have one elevator pitch…You need more than one for different purposes and different situations.

Now don’t go running away, they are all saying the same thing, just with a little twist here and there…and do not wait for people to always ask you what you do first, go ahead and ask them, 95 out of a hundred people return the favour.