The Single Most Effective Trick to Come up With a Persuasive Elevator Pitch
The most common mistake people make in describing what they do is to frame it like a label. “I am a business coach” or “I am a web designer” or as a generic solution “I design beautiful websites” or “I help entrepreneurs make more money”.
Try This Instead:
Hit it Where It Hurts the Most
Try to introduce yourself as a solution to a massive problem, a red hot burning pain that your idea buyer either can’t tell or won’t tell others but that hurts all.the.damn.time.
What you need to do is to simply bring it to the surface by asking a question and framing yourself as a solution to that massive pain point.
Step One: Think of the deepest darkest desire or pain point of your ideal buyer and ask a question that brings it to the surface.
Step Two: Introduce yourself as someone who’s actually the miracle cure to that pain point (the more specific the better)
See it in Action below:
Before:
I am a web designer who specializes in designing photography websites
After:
Have you ever felt ashamed of sharing your URL with your prospects because you feel it just doesn’t do justice to your talent and your value?
I am Kate and I design photography websites that you will wear like a badge of honor and that show the world that you HAVE in fact arrived!
Before:
I am a Business Coach
After:
You know that feeling when you feel like you are digging a never-ending hole with no end in sight and holding on to that shitty client because that’s the only one you have?
I am Simon and I help newbie entrepreneurs get better (and nicer) clients and make bucket loads of money and I do it with a smattering of humor and tough love!
Give this a shot and let me know how it goes!
Oooh, this is perfect, as I am currently redoing everything so I’m fresh for new ideas. Thank you!
My elevator pitch (first attempt, so it will probably change a lot, but I like your brilliant format!):
You know how much of a downer it is when you don’t have enough energy to do even the important stuff, yet alone the fun exciting stuff and you can’t quite remember the last time you didn’t need a coffee?
I’m Claire Stone, a nutritionist who gets you jumping out of bed in the morning full of energy with enough brain power to be able to find the time to do the fun stuff too.
This is genius Claire. If this is your first shot at this, please reward yourself with a big-ass bar of chocolate…it is THAT good!
You paint a vivid picture and I think you could make your pain points even more tangible, more specific..something like “Days when moving your arm to grab that remote seems like climbing Everest?”
And in the solution, something like “enough brain power to write your next book, crush your meetings and haggle with your boss on the raise..all in the same day”.
Thanks so much for dropping by Claire!
Thanks Bushra – that’s so kind to help me make it even better!
So:
You know how much of a downer it is when you don’t have enough energy to do even think past brushing your teeth, yet alone work on your biz and still have the time to do something enjoyable before you hit the sack at 9.30 in the evening, and you can’t quite remember the last time you didn’t need a coffee?
I’m Claire Stone, a nutritionist who gets you jumping out of bed in the morning full of energy with enough focus to write a book, plan your biz and hit the trail, all in the same day.
You have explained something that I was trying to understand from a very long time. How can we make a really effective elevator pitch. People say, summarize what you want to say, bla bla..
Bushra, you have absolutely nailed it. You are a brilliant teacher who can explain complex concepts in simple terms.
Let me try this out. Tell me if I got it right..
“You feel shady when you spend tons of money on advertising to drive traffic to your website buy nobody buys anything on their first visit.
Hi, I am the CEO of a Facebook re-targeting company that helps you to re-target all your old visitors on Facebook again and again until they make the decision to buy something from you.”
If I could have made this better, tell me. I could use some help from you.
Ahhh, just what I have been looking for! Thanks so much for this insight! Will get right at it (once the little one is in bed)
Your blogs are amazing! To the point! Thanks for sharing your insights!
Hey thanks Fabienne. I am glad I could help 🙂
A cool advice that I’m right now using to pitch my ideas to a bunch of folks.
Thanks
Fabulous advice. But I’m never sure how this works if you sell a luxury product. Usually we don’t have a pain point as such, we just want to treat ourselves when we buy something luxurious. This has always been my problem in trying to find the pain points of my customer 🙁 Any advice?
On a slightly different note, any thoughts on what you should say to someone who you don’t want to give the elevator pitch (as they aren’t your target audience, but maybe they might know someone who is and could tell them)? You still want to convince them you are rad at solving the target audience’s issue, even if it isn’t something they can relate to.
Oh I love this. Always struggle with elevator pitches and can never say the same one twice, because it feels so weird repeating myself. So let me give this a try: You know when you are pulling your hair out struggling with technology or feeling like you can throw your computer out the window because you can just not get it to work? I am a technology strategist and I help online entrepreneurs grow their business online by helping them setup all the techie bits.