As I’m sure most of you know from reading this blog, truly great sales professionals maintain a quiver of well-rehearsed elevator pitches that can be used in a variety of situations. While it’s important to perfect the words you choose to use, it’s equally important to practice delivering your pitches. To deliver a great elevator pitch, you must find a balance between clarity, pacing, and energy.
Clarity and pacing: It does little good to have a great elevator pitch if you are so nervous when delivering it that you trip over the words. Keep in mind that in many cases you are going to be doing a pitch for a small group of people. There may be a lot of background noise, people bumping into you, loud music playing, and so forth. If you’re at a networking event, there may even be alcohol involved. Bottom line, stay calm, pace yourself, and deliver the pitch in a way that your listener is not struggling to hear every third word.
Energy: Keeping the above suggestions in mind, you also want to sound excited and be excited. In fact, I tell all our ninjas and soon-to-be-ninjas that they need to look for one sentence out of their prospect’s mouth. The sentence is something like, “Wow, you are so passionate about what you do!” Or, “You must really like what you do.” When you get that kind of feedback from your prospect, you know you are on the right track.
So, develop a quiver of stellar elevator pitches, find a balance between understandability and energy level, and you’ll be golden.
