You may use this image in your ezine or website if you choose to publish my article. Click here to see the picture full-sized.--- Alan Rigg

Do you truly believe that your company's products and services 
will help your prospects? Have you ever thought, "I KNOW I could 
find ways to help (company name) if I could just get (prospect 
name) to talk to me for 20 minutes!"

Why is it so difficult to convince prospects to schedule time to 
talk with us? There are two main answers to this question. First, 
dozens (or even hundreds) of salespeople may be asking for your 
prospects' time. If prospects gave everyone who asked the time 
they ask for, they would never have time to get any work done! 
Second, chances are that your prospects are not just sitting 
around waiting for salespeople to contact them. They are focused 
on their own (business and personal) objectives, issues and 
concerns. When you contact them, you need to find some way to 
break through this "mental clutter", grab their attention, and 
focus it on what you are saying.

This makes developing an effective "elevator pitch" the single 
most important step in sales prospecting. After all, what good is 
it to have fabulous solutions to problems if we can't get the 
people who have the problems to talk to us? Plus, how many times 
a day are you asked, "What do you do for a living?" How many 
prospects (and referrals) might you uncover if you had a highly 
effective and intriguing answer that rolls right off your tongue?

The concept behind an elevator pitch is simple. Imagine you are 
riding in an elevator. The doors open and one of your top 
prospects steps into the elevator. You now have a very brief 
(thirty to sixty second) opportunity to introduce yourself and 
convince your prospect that they need to have a longer 
conversation with you. What are you going to say?

To be effective, your elevator pitch must 1) differentiate you 
from all the other salespeople who contact your prospects; and 2) 
break through your prospects' mental clutter and grab their 
attention. The best way to begin to develop an effective elevator 
pitch is by considering the following questions:

1. Who are your target prospects? What do they do? What job 
   titles do they hold? What vertical markets are they in?

2. How will your products and services help your prospects? How 
   will their lives be different after they work with you?

3. What are the QUANTIFIED IMPACTS (dollars or percentages and 
   time frames) that have been produced by your company's 
   products and services? How SPECIFICALLY has your company 
   helped its customers?


Here are sample answers to these questions based upon my own 
company's products and services:

Q1: Who are your target prospects? What do they do? What job 
    titles do they hold? What vertical markets are they in?

A1: My target prospects are business owners, executives, and 
    managers. Because I address sales performance issues, and 
    these issues occur in all vertical markets, I do not focus 
    on specific vertical markets.

Q2: How will your products and services help your prospects? 
    How will their lives be different after they work with you?

A2: My products and services help my customers end the  
    frustration of 80/20 sales team performance, where 20%  
    of salespeople produce 80% of sales.

Q3: What are the QUANTIFIED IMPACTS (dollars or percentages and  
    time frames) that have been produced by your company's  
    products and services? How SPECIFICALLY has your company  
    helped its customers?

A3: Some of my customers have seen their sales DOUBLE in as  
    little as EIGHT MONTHS.


Once you have answered all three questions, you can combine your 
answers to create an elevator pitch. Here is an example based 
upon the preceding information:

"I help business owners, executives, and managers end the 
frustration of 80/20 sales team performance (where 20% of 
salespeople produce 80% of sales). In fact, some of my customers 
have seen their sales double in as little as eight months!"

If you have never measured the quantified impacts of your 
company's products and services, that's OK - it is a new concept 
for many salespeople and companies. However, it is CRUCIAL that 
you collect some quantified impact information as soon as 
possible! Why? Because nothing breaks through a prospect's mental 
clutter like quantified impacts!

Here are several questions you can ask yourself and your 
customers to define quantified impacts for your company's 
products and services:

1. What BUSINESS PROBLEMS is your company especially good at 
   solving? (Make a comprehensive list - it will provide a 
   useful outline for your conversations with customers.)

2. How have you or your company helped a customer in a way that 
   was unusual or especially valuable? In other words, when have 
   you or your company really been "a hero" in a customer's eyes?

3. What (specific dollar value or percentage) increase in 
   revenue or reduction in expenses can the customer associate 
   with each identified example of "unusual value"? Over what 
   time frame was this value delivered?


In conclusion, if you want to pump up your sales prospecting 
success rate, develop a truly compelling elevator pitch. Make 
sure your elevator pitch identifies your TARGET PROSPECTS, how 
they will BENEFIT from using your company's products and 
services, and one or more examples of QUANTIFIED IMPACTS that you 
(or your company) have actually produced for other customers.

A properly designed elevator pitch will help you stand out from 
other salespeople, break through your prospects' mental clutter, 
and grab their attention. These are crucial first steps to 
convincing prospects to schedule time for more in- depth 
conversations. 

Sales performance expert Alan Rigg is the author of How to Beat 
the 80/20 Rule in Selling: Why Most Salespeople Don't Perform 
and What to Do About It. His company, 80/20 Sales Performance, 
helps business owners, executives, and managers DOUBLE sales by 
implementing The Right Formula™ for building top-performing 
sales teams. For more information and more FREE sales and sales 
management tips, visit http://www.8020salesperformance.com.