Elevator Speeches/20 Second Commercials

The Elevator Speech (20 Second Commercial) answers the basic questions that salespeople hear every day – “What do you do?” or “Tell me about your company.”  You must be prepared to respond confidently and professionally.  There’s a right way and a wrong way.  (A new way and the “old” way.)

The wrong (old) way is typically company focused and makes statements that are often regarded with skepticism by the prospective customer.  An example is…

”We’re a leading national widget provider.  We’ve been in business for over 20 years and have a great reputation for excellent quality and service.  We have a long list of satisfied customers, and I’m sure our widgets can help you improve your manufacturing process.”

This may sound good, but it fails to differentiate you from the rest of your competition because they’re saying exactly the same thing.

Here’s a better way.  Notice that it focuses on the problems you and your company help your customers resolve, not worn out platitudes about how good you are.

“We’re a leading widget supplier.  What’s unique about us is that we have a proprietary method for calibrating our widgets that has increased the accuracy rate by 23% over our nearest competitor.  We work with companies that require a very high level of accuracy in their manufacturing process.  Usually people come to us because they’re frustrated with too much costly waste and concerned about equipment downtime.  Are any of these issues for you?”

Professionals introduce themselves by the problems they solve for people.

  • Explain what your company does
  • Explain why you are unique (hopefully there is something that is a real differentiator…stay away from platitudes like “our service is really terrific”)
  • Describe your typical client (modify as necessary to fit your audience)
  • Explain why companies engage you (mention 2-3 common challenges that your clients want you to help them resolve)
  • Test for pain… “I’m curious, are any of these issues for you?”

If your prospect reveals that he is dealing with one of the problems you mentioned, simply say something like, “That’s not unusual.  Can you tell me more about that?”  Now you’re focusing on the prospect and his issues instead of talking about yourself and your company.

This separates you from the rest of the salespeople out there who are into the traditional sales pitch, and you’ve begun the qualifying process.

How you sell is more important than what you sell.  This is where you begin to differentiate yourself from competition and gain credibility.

Self-Study Assignment:  Using the ideas above, rewrite your elevator speech so that it focuses on the problems you solve for people.  Eliminate all unnecessary references about how great your company is.  Run the new speech past your manager and your peers to see how they feel about it.  If it passes muster, commit it to memory.