PROBLEM
You’re standing in a queue at a business function and the person next to you turns and asks: “What do you do?”
How do you respond?
How do you introduce yourself to strangers in a manner that lets them know what you may be able to do for them (after all just about ANYBODY can do with the exposure an advert can bring them) but without threatening them?
SOLUTION
You give them your ‘Elevator’ Speech.
Imagine that you are standing by the elevator on the top floor of a 30-story office building. The elevator arrives. You step in. Just as the doors are closing, another person jumps in beside you.
“Hi!” they say, “What do you do?“
You’ve now got until the elevator reaches the ground floor to tell them and (maybe) sell them.
What do you say?
You give them your ‘elevator speech’. The elevator speech is a 30 second sales talk. It is used whenever you are AMBUSHED.
Yikes!
You can be ambushed in the elevator, in a checkout queue, on the bus, by your old school friend, aunt, future client or by ANYBODY who says, out of the blue “And what do you do?“
You can also ambush others with your elevator speech. It is the BEST thing to say to a voicemail robot or an executive’s screener who won’t allow you to talk to ‘the MAN’.
And the TRUE elevator speech offers your SOLUTION to a PROBLEM.
As we all agree in the Community, modern sales — especially modern ad sales — revolves around solving problems for your client. If they don’t have a problem which you can solve, then they don’t need you – do they?
This is not just true of ad sales but all products and services.
If you’ve just put a new set of tyres on your car, then you don’t need a set of tyres, do you? If you’ve just insured the contents of your house for more than they are worth, then you don’t need ANOTHER house contents insurance policy … and so on.
Which is why the first step in the DIPADA sales method which we use in the Community is :
D – DEFINE the problem
(The next steps go on to solve it).
So the first step of any ‘elevator speech’ is to define the problem which you SOLVE BEST.
Then create your script with two parts:
1. Part one.
ALWAYS begins:
“You know how … (STATE THE PROBLEM)”
Or
“You know how … (DESCRIBE THE PAIN)“
2. Part two.
“Well, I fix that.”
“What I do is … I solve that problem”
or
“You know, I cure that pain and make it go away FOREVER”.
This can be used by all salespeople:
For selling products:
“You know how some people find that every time that they bend down, they get a shooting pain up their spine? Well, we have a pill which can cure this pain ….”
For selling services:
“You know how people suffer every year when the time comes to work out their taxes? Well, we take away that suffering by doing it for them ….”
Most people advertise because they want to find MORE people to sell their ’stuff’ to (whatever their stuff is).
Which means that the very first words YOU say are:
“You know how most business owners today are desperate to find new customers, so that they can grow and prosper, expand the business and help more people — instead of going bust …?”
The Other Guy: “Yes”
You: “Well, I help businesses find new customers — and make more new sales, and more profits than they ever have before.”
The Other Guy: “Oh!”.
Then one of two things happens. If The Other Guy is a business person who also needs some new customers he’ll say:
“Wow! Could you find some for me?”
Or
If The Other Guy is a school teacher or fire inspector or a business person who DOESN’T want any new customers, they’ll say: “How interesting.” Then they’ll walk away.
Why is this so powerful?
It’s powerful because you have just Cold Called the other guy.
You’ve checked him out — but without asking him for business. You have laid out what you do and invited him to respond. He can do so or not, without pressure.
This is the basic ‘elevator’ script. Next time, we’ll add some bells and whistles to it …
