Sales Challenge #1: Differentiating and Making your Elevator Pitch Unique

Making your Elevator Pitch Unique

For top salespeople, Sales can be a rewarding and lucrative career. But (and it’s a big “but”) selling is not for everyone. The top performers have mastered many skills– they do all the important things “right.” Even the best of the best, though, struggle with what I see as the 3 biggest challenges in a sales career. Today, we will be discussing challenge #1.

Here’s the issue in a nutshell. Every salesperson has been taught to make an elevator pitch. So what can you really say in 15 seconds that fundamentally sounds different from your competitors? More importantly, what can you say in 15 seconds that allows prospects to mentally connect your company’s USP (Unique Selling Proposition) with their problem?

Let’s illustrate my point with a few examples:

• HR: “I help companies like yours manage their talent onboarding.”
• FinTech: “I sell customized software to specialty retailers for better cashflow management.”
• Accounting: “I’m a CPA specializing in the tax needs of smaller companies like yours.”

And that’s the issue. What you offer becomes so reduced to become a commodity…. and no one listens anymore.

Tips on Improving Your Elevator Pitch

When you make your pitch, you need to give the prospect a compelling reason to keep listening. Your words should provoke the message receiver to respond in one of three ways:

1. “That’s me!”
2. “How do you do that?”
3. “Tell me more.”

These responses can be mentally as well as verbally. The idea is to get at the core as to why clients have chosen you/your company/your products/your services in the past. What problem was it that they wanted to solve? What’s the pain point you addressed? What benefit were they looking for that you were able to give them?

Take that insight and create your “unique sales approach.”

Examples:

• Insurance: “I provide people buckets of money in the right amount, at the right cost, and at the right time.” (making them ask How do you do that?)
• Banking:  “My clients are companies that discovered that working with a bank should be more than just a place to get money or leave money.” (get’s them asking Tell me more.)
• Accounting:  “I’m in the business of helping small businesses that are sick and tired of sending the government more money and keeping less.” (makes them think That’s me!)

Speaking directly to their ultimate pain point allows your unique sales approach to land effectively and personally with your prospect.

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From Recruitment Specialist & Sales Development Expert, Alex Cole-Murphy