Selling Your Elevator Pitch in Just 118 Seconds [VIDEO]
We’ve all experienced what it is like to ride an elevator. When you ride in one for the first time, it can be sort of a surreal experience—there’s almost a feeling of weightlessness. But as the amount of elevator rides you take grow in number, that feeling of euphoria starts to fade away. It is substituted with feelings of impatience, waiting for the elevator to get to your destination.
Standing in the car with people can often make for an awkward situation—unless that cute girl from down the hall is in the elevator with you. So, what does all this talk about elevators have to do with you and your printing company?
As Jeffrey Hayzlett puts it, you have 118 seconds to give your pitch. What does 118 seconds have to do with anything? Well, the average elevator ride takes around 110 seconds, so you have 8 seconds to get your prospect through the door, and 110 seconds to get them to their destination.
Now the question you may be asking yourself is, “what do I do in that 118 seconds?”
8 Seconds: Hooking the Prospect
It’s common knowledge in the world of marketing and advertising that within the first line of an ad, you have to hook your audience. This stems from the fact that we as humans have a short attention span and will lose interest in something if it doesn’t grab our attention right away. This same mentality should be brought into every aspect of your printing company’s products and marketing.
But with regards to your pitch, you have to be the master of persuasion in that first 8 seconds to get your prospect on the hook. What’s something you have that no one else does? How can your prospect benefit from you where they wouldn’t benefit from anyone else? These are the questions you have to answer in order to grab their attention right away.
110 Seconds: Closing the Deal
A good car salesman exceeds at his job because he is a good communicator, personable and convincing. But the one quality that keeps business coming back and allows that car salesman to close the deal, is his guarantee that the customer can trust him and the product he is selling to them. When that guarantee is given, the car salesman knows that he is responsible for the satisfaction of that customer and is ready to deal with any complaint that is brought forward.
That’s what you have to do—as a printing company—to land a prospect. Once you have hooked them within those first 8 seconds, the last 110 seconds require you to give them the guarantee that the service or product they are about to purchase will not only reflect your trust you have in your product, but more so the trust the prospect has in you.
118 seconds doesn’t sound like a lot of time, and it really isn’t. That is why you have to use it all to your advantage and use it strategically. You don’t want to waste your prospects time, so make it worthwhile. Once you get your elevator pitch down, you will be able to lock up prospects one after the other.
On this metaphorical elevator, the only way to go is up.
What do you include in your 118 elevator pitch?
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