The Art

Making an Impression in 30 Seconds or Less

Elevator Pitch

of the

Donato Diorio | Founder & CEOBroadlook Technologies | ddiorio@broadlook.com

Copyright 2008, Donato Diorio and Broadlook Technologies, All rights reserved. Do not distribute without permission.

Your time today• What exactly is an elevator pitch?

• Why you need one?

• What are the different types of pitches?

• Common mistakes with pitches?

• Techniques to develop an elevator pitch

• Metrics for measuring pitch effectiveness

• Coaching your team on the pitch

• The effect of the individual and the team

• to develop metrics to measure a pitch

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Poll 1

Do you have a well crafted strategy for

executing an elevator pitch?

• 6 years exhibiting at trade shows

• Explosive growth of client base

• 1000’s of software demos personally

• 1000’s of software demos by co-founder

• 8 different products, each with a different value proposition

• Have a unique product which is like “nothing else”

• Selling into a market where must be educators as well as sales professionals

• Competitive market with traditional vendors

• Battle with misinformation with companies competing for $$

The Pitch Gauntlet

A Month of Pitches

Thank you to all the vendors atHR Technology, NAPS, ERE

A Story of 2 Pitches

800 pound Gorilla

• Massive booth

• Lots of “chachskis” (that is the correct spelling)

• 1 Vice President, 6 account reps, 2 customer service reps, 1 video camera

• Average pitch 2-3 minutes

• 6 different messages

• Individual grades - range from 16-34 (50 is max)

• Team grade - 55 (100 is max)

The Startup

• Small booth

• Pens for “chachskis”

• 1 Vice President, 1 account rep

• Average pitch -1 minute

• 2 different messages

• Individual grades - 28 & 36

• Team grade - 62

What is an Elevator Pitch?

What is a pitch....(Historically)

How would you explain your business and make a sale if fate placed you in an elevator with your dream prospect and you only had the time it takes to get from the top of the building to the bottom?

What is a pitch... (Attributes)

•30, 60, 120 or 180 second business description of what you do, what you solve and how you do it.

•It is a follow up to an initial engagement.

•A teaser description of your product/service to garner interest and then a be invited to tell more

•A prelude to a call to action

Why you need a pitch•Capture opportunity. Often, you will

have limited time to garner interest in your company.

•If you can't summarize your business idea, product, service or business itself into an elevator pitch, chances are it's not well-formed enough to be successful anyway.

•It is the first step towards overall company messaging. It is the base

Different type of Pitches

• Elevator “speech” - funding related. Typically a 2-3 minute talk

• Cold pitch (true elevator pitch) - 20-30 seconds. Idea to break the ice and gain initial interest.

• Warm pitch - you have received permission from your prospect to tell them more. 2-3 minutes.

Do not confuse an Elevator Pitch with an Elevator Speech...a term that has been commandeered as a financial pitch to get funding. The techniques differ

significantly.

Pitch training: lost in the shuffle •Pitch is not differentiated from sales

training

•They have a pitch, but it is a warm pitch only

•They have never measured the pitch on an organizational basis

•Leaders know their vision so clearly that many times they don’t need to craft an elevator pitch, however, the clarity does not propagate to staff members.

call to action

core message

engageprospe

ct

engageprospe

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3 Aspects of a Pitch

Developing your Pitch

Develop questioning methods to engage the prospect

•Practice rapport building dialogue.

•Seek understanding of their pain

•Develop a set of known “buckets” of existing problems that you have a solution for

•Learn to listen for disqualifiers

Engage prospect

Write a baseline for the 3 major parts of the pitch

•Problem in the market

•Your solution

•Why you are unique

Developing your PitchCore

message

Uniqueness

• Uniqueness tends to be the worst part of most elevator pitches

• Stay away from “better”, “great” nebulous non-tangible terminology

• Be concise. “Our service is better than our competition.” (everyone says that). How about “we have the highest retention rate in the industry at 98%”.

• If your company is truly NOT unique, then look at business relation attributes like risk reversal and guarantees to separate yourselves.

Poll 2

Does your company have a unique message that

describes your value and do you project that

message in your pitch?

Pitch evolution - generic

“I’m a chiropractor and I focus on diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system, with special emphasis on the spine”

•No engagement

•No customization

•No call to action

What does your company do?

Pitch evolution - refined

“Many people sit for extended periods of time causing muscle strain, spinal mis-alignment, and pain. I manipulate the spine and joints to make people feel better. My philosophy is to first treat the first pain, realign the spine and work with my patient to change root behaviors that caused the problems.

“Well...why are you at the health fair today?”

What does your company do?

“I have back pain from sitting too much at work”

“Can I schedule you a no risk consultation ?”

Pitch evolution - “buckets”

“Many people [sit for extended periods of time] causing ...

“Many people [have had a car accident] causing ...

“Many people [slip on the ice] causing ...

“Many people [get a little overweight] causing ...

“Many people [are going through a stressful time ] causing ...

“Many people [INSERT ANY SITUATION] causing muscle strain, spinal mis-alignment, and pain. I manipulate the spine and joints to make people feel better. My philosophy is to first treat the first pain, realign the spine and work with my patient to change root behaviors that caused the problems.

Develop a call to action plan

•Look for permission to advance

•Move from cold to warm pitch

•Have several calls to action ready depending upon the level of interest

Developing your PitchCall to action

Common pitch mistakes

• No game plan, no planning, no preparation

• Inconsistency across team members

• Not getting permission before moving into a full pitch. Cold pitch, get permission, then warm pitch.

• Not asking any questions so you can customize your pitch to your prospect

• Ignoring the physical cues of your prospect. You are not at a show to talk, you are there to sell.

• Hand outs and booth messaging not matching you pitch

Capturing and Measuring Pitch

(metrics, metrics, metrics)

Capturing your teams pitch

• No advanced notice for preparationThis will give you a real view of what your the market is hearing from your team

• Record it Don’t get caught into “I did say” or “did not say” something. Video doesn’t lie.

• Be consistent with instructionsGive the same instructions to all your team members

• Instructions: If I walked up to your at a trade show and asked “what does your company do”. What would you tell me if you only had 30 seconds?

• Try to collect all pitches in a short time span

• Don’t do it in a group. This favors the people who go last.

Grading a pitch - IndividualEngages prospect 0-4

States problem 0-4

States solution 0-4

Describes uniqueness 0-4

Call to action 0-4

Clear 0-2Concise (within time limit)

0-2

Compelling 0-2Credible 0-2Consistent 0-2Customized 0-2Conversational 0-2Passion & Intent 0-16Fillers, er, um, ahh, your know -5 per

20

1416

5050

Poll 3

Where do you think your team would score on the pitch scale?

A. 1-10B. 11-20C. 21-30D. 31-40E. 41-50

Average individual grade 50 point max

Consistency across team 30 point max

Visual messaging matches pitch

10 point max

Handouts support pitch message

10 point max

100 point max

Grading a pitch - Team

Coaching the Pitch

Poll 4

Do you have a program in place for capturing,

measuring and coaching your teams pitch?

Coaching - type 1

In about 30 seconds I want you to tell me who you are and what your company does. Please be clear, concise, compelling, credible, consistent, customized, and and conversational. Oh, and stay away from fillers like um, ahhh, and “you know”

bullet points. (1) What is the problem, (2) how does your company solve it and (3) how are you unique.

Paralyzing

Simple coachingIn about 30 seconds I want you to tell me who you are and what your company does. Think in bullet points. (1) What is the problem, (2) how does your company solve it and (3) how are you unique. If you get urge to use a filler word (um, ah, you know), squeeze your hand instead to replace that behavior. You can do this. Remember. Problem - Solution - Uniqueness.

Empowering

Coaching the pitchEngages prospectStates problemStates solutionDescribes uniquenessCall to actionClearConcise (within time limit) CompellingCredibleConsistentCustomizedConversationalPassion (debatable?)Fillers, er, um, ahh, your know

✓

✓

The 7 C’sself

coaching area

Coaching for the Pitch

• Give your team the tools it needs. The vision, direction and training on the pitch.

• Work in teams that can self monitor each other. Make it fun, make it a game.

• Practice, practice, practice

(what to do is not how to do)

Thoughts on trade shows

• It is NOT an elevator, there are typically competitors everywhere

• Time is even more limited as you don’t have people’s exclusive attention

• Study the vendor directory. Reach out to the vendors on either side of you.

• If you have an attendee list, reach out to them before the conference. These visits start with a warm pitch

Coaching tips

• Teams. Work in teams of 2 to self-coach

• Right Location. Get them to come into your booth. That act alone shows interest. Be inviting (“Come on in and join the fun”)

• Eye contact. Practice in teams. Ask the question of your partner. “what did my level of eye contact project?”

• Project your voice. If too loud or too soft use the “imagined distance” technique. Even works on the biggest introvert.

• Remove fillers - squeeze ball. Work towards fluency.

• Practice - One 5 minute meeting can double your result

(specifically for trade shows)

Poll 5

Did you learn at least one thing that you can immediately use to improve your pitch?

Broadlook Technologieswww.broadlook.comDonato Diorio

ddiorio@broadlook.com877-977-8080 x211LinkedIn: www.linkedIN.com/in/donatodiorio

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