Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If someone were to
ask you right now, what do you
do, would you have a clear,confident and compelling answer?
If not, you're not alone.
Many business owners andentrepreneurs struggle to
articulate what they do in a waythat grabs people's attention
and leaves a lasting impression.
I know for us, even after 22years of being in business, as
(00:21):
of this recording, I stillstruggle with this, mainly
because we didn't need to createan elevator pitch in the
beginning, and then also becausewe do so many things for
clients, it's really hard tomake that concise and compelling
and easy to remember.
But this is where an elevatorpitch comes in.
Today, we're talking about howto create an elevator pitch that
gets people excited about yourbusiness and why having one is
(00:43):
absolutely essential for yourbusiness, and even if you
already have one, it may beworth a listen just to make sure
you aren't missing one of thesekey components to your elevator
pitch.
Welcome to the e-commerce madeeasy podcast.
I'm your host, keri Saunders.
When we started this business,all I had was a couch, a laptop
and a nine monthmonth-old mymain goal To help others.
(01:04):
Now, with over 20 years in thee-commerce building industry and
even more than that in webdevelopment, I have seen a lot.
I love breaking down the hardtech into easily understandable
bits to help others besuccessful in their online
business.
Whether you're a seasonede-commerce veteran or just
starting out, you've come to theright place.
So sit back, relax and let'sdive into the world of
(01:27):
e-commerce together.
Welcome back to the e-commercemade easy podcast.
Today, we're talking about oneof the most important tools of
our business, for anyentrepreneur, which is the
elevator pitch.
Think of it as your verbalbusiness card.
It's a concise, compelling wayto explain what you do and why
it matters.
And you need this to be reallyconcise and memorable too.
(01:47):
So that's why we want to makesure it's short and formulaic,
and whether you're pitching to aclient, networking with others
or even chatting with somebodyat the coffee shop, your
elevator pitch can open doorsyou didn't even know were there.
So let's craft a pitch thatmakes people say tell me more.
We're going to go through someof those steps here in this
episode.
So, first off, we've alreadytouched on why an elevator pitch
(02:10):
is so important, but let's gothrough those points right now.
So in today's fast-paced world,people's attention spans are
short.
We all know this right.
You have just a few seconds tocapture someone's interest
before they tune out and move on, and that's where your elevator
pitch comes in.
So there's some key elements ofa great elevator pitch.
(02:33):
One, it creates clarity.
It forces you to distill yourbusiness's value into a clear
and concise message.
And second, it createsconfidence.
Having a pitch prepared meansyou'll never stumble over your
words when someone asks you whatyou do.
I know I sometimes stumble overmy words when somebody asks us
(02:54):
what we do.
It's a very hard concept for meand something we're working on,
myself like regularly workingon making it better and better.
Another key benefit is itcreates opportunities.
So, whether you're in anetworking event, pitching to an
investor, a medium potentialclient, your elevator pitch can
open that door to newopportunities, as we talked
about.
(03:14):
So we want to think of it likethis your elevator pitch is a
spark that starts the fire.
It creates that interest.
It makes somebody think oh wait, I kind of want to learn more
about this.
I'm not quite sure what youmean.
Well, you might know what theymean, but you're like I kind of
know what they mean, but I wantto learn more.
So it really draws them in, iswhat it's meant to do, piques
(03:34):
their attention and it creates alittle bit of a memorable
moment about you and they willtend to remember you a bit more.
So let's go into a few thingsthat make a great elevator pitch
, because they're not allcreated equal.
And a great elevator pitch, aswe've alluded to, is clear,
concise and tailored to youraudience too.
So you should communicate threethings who you are, what you do
(03:59):
and why does it matter.
So some key ingredients of anelevator pitch are one you could
create a hook, where you'rebasically creating a statement
or question that grabs attention.
So you want to do this toreally like make them their ears
perk up and start to listen toyou.
So for our business, I could saydid you know that 70% of small
(04:22):
businesses websites fail toconvert visitors into customers?
That's an alarming rate, right?
That really piques yourattention and gets you listening
up, doesn't it?
Then you also want to have avalue proposition there.
You want to clearly explainwhat you do and the problem you
solve.
For example, we could say Ihelp small businesses transform
(04:43):
their websites into highconverting sales tools.
That's pretty clear, right, and, honestly, that covers pretty
much everything we do here, eventhough we have so many skills
at our business and we can do somany things around websites and
technology.
That really makes it veryconcise and value proposition.
Let me read that again.
I help small businessestransform their websites into
(05:06):
high converting sales tools Veryconcise and direct, right.
And then, lastly, a call toaction is great to have in with
a step or invitation to continuethe conversation.
This can be up to you whetheryou want to do this type of call
to action or not, but here's anexample.
If you're struggling withconversions, I'd love to share a
few tips.
Are you open to that?
(05:27):
So that's really great whenyou're really talking to a
potential prospective client, todo a call to action at the end
of your elevator pitch.
So you want to adjust yourelevator pitch and have a few
different versions depending onwho you're talking to.
But these are some greatelements you can have in it and
it needs to feel natural,conversational and authentic and
(05:47):
, like I said, we want to haveit memorized, but it shouldn't
sound like a memorized salesscript too.
So that's why I want you tocreate a few different versions
so you can make it fluid on thedifferent pieces you pick from
each of the versions to make itbe more natural in your
conversation with the personyou're talking to.
So now that you know what makesa good and great elevator pitch
(06:11):
, let's figure out how we, howdo we, actually create this.
So some few steps we want to dois one we want to identify our
audience and this is why I'msuggesting we have a few
different versions that arereally similar and it's not
going to really trip you up tofigure out which one to use.
So we want to figure out one.
Who are we speaking to?
So your pitch can be based uponwhether you're talking to a
(06:33):
potential client, an investor, anetworking contact who might be
able to help bring business toyou through their contacts.
So, for example, for a client,you might want to focus on how
you solve their problem.
If you're talking to apotential client, for an
investor, you might highlightthe unique value or scalability
of your business.
Because you're talking to apotential client.
For an investor, you mighthighlight the unique value or
scalability of your businessbecause you're wanting them to
(06:53):
invest in your business and helpyou grow and scale.
For a networking person, youmight want to tailor it to you
know how you guys can mutuallypotentially benefit each other
in each other's businesses.
And then, step number two wewant to define our value.
So what problem do you solveand why does it matter?
Use simple, jargon-free languageto describe your value
(07:15):
proposition.
For example, instead of weleverage innovative solutions to
optimize conversion metrics,say something like we help
businesses get more sales fromtheir websites.
Let me say that again becausethat first one is something that
you might hear kind offrequently in an elevator pitch,
but then, if you really thinkabout it, what does that really
(07:37):
mean?
So let me read that one againwe leverage innovative solutions
to optimize conversion metrics.
Yeah, that's a lot of fluff inthere, right?
We don't want to have the fluffin there.
Instead, something like we helpbusinesses get more sales from
their websites.
It's so much more clear,concise, honestly, easier to
remember and easier for theother person who you're speaking
(07:59):
to to remember as well.
And then we want to add a hook.
As we've talked to you before,start with something that grabs
attention, like a surprisingfact, ask a question or a bold
statement.
For example, most businessowners are sitting on a goldmine
and don't even know it theirwebsite.
Now, for me, that's not reallyquite my style.
(08:19):
I don't think I wouldnecessarily word it like that,
but it does grab your attention.
So I would probably usesomething close to that, but not
quite like that.
It's just like I said, it's notquite my style.
So when you add your hook, makesure it's still within your
branding and your business style, because that example I gave to
you on purpose isn't quite ourbusiness style, because I wanted
(08:41):
to make a point there thatWhile this is an elevator pitch
and we're trying to like reallygrab somebody's attention, make
sure it still sticks within youand your brand and it feels
comfortable for you.
And then step number four is wewant to practice your delivery.
So we want to practice this onpeople.
So get some people that youknow decently well you can do it
(09:02):
with some of your businessfriends and things like that and
practice it.
Because I know that I havecreated elevator pitches before
and I still stumbled over mywords when I went to need to say
it on a Zoom call or even typeit in the chat of a Zoom call,
or if I was at a coffee shop andsomebody asked me what do I do.
Because that actually happenedlike a couple months ago and I
(09:24):
was like I didn't know how tosay it, and even though this is
something I've been working on,I still stumbled on my words
because I just haven't done itenough.
So when you practice it, you'regoing to get a lot more
comfortable with it, because wewant to make sure that we're
sounding natural when we'redoing it.
So there's a few suggestions onhow you can practice with it.
(09:44):
So let me, you know, recap intolike a full example elevator
pitch based upon what we talkedabout here.
So here's the full one.
Did you know that most websiteslose 80% of their visitors?
And under 15 seconds, I helpsmall businesses turn their
visitors into paying customersby creating websites that are
(10:05):
designed to convert.
If you're struggling withgetting sales online, I'd love
to share a few strategies.
Are you open to that?
Or you could end it with youknow, would you like to hear
more information?
You know, make it friendly, noobligation.
You know we're just talking.
You know wanting to helpsomebody out, so let's talk
about briefly some commonmistakes to avoid, though, and
(10:27):
we touched on some of these aswe've gone through the examples,
but I want to bring it into onegroup here on our podcast.
One of them is being too vague,so if your pitch doesn't clearly
explain what you do, peoplewon't know how to engage with
you.
Their minds will be like kindof racing and being like OK, now
what do I say next?
Because that wasn't very clearon what I was and what they're
(10:49):
talking about.
And then that's going to makethem stumble and it's going to
be a creative quite the awkwardconversation.
So don't be too vague whenyou're doing this.
And secondly, we want to keep itshort.
We don't want to overload itwith details.
We want to keep it at about 30to 60 seconds long.
We want to save those detailsfor later conversations because
our brains can only absorb somuch verbally, especially when
(11:13):
we first met somebody or firstlearning what they do.
So we really want to keep thisnice and short and concise.
And then a third we want tofocus on yourself, not your
audience.
So we want to not do that.
That's one of the mistakes wewant to avoid is we don't want
to focus on ourself, not youraudience, so we want to not do
that.
That's one of the mistakes wewant to avoid is we don't want
to focus on ourself and not onour audience.
We want to flip that script.
(11:34):
So your pitch should center onthe problem you solve for others
, not just you and your business.
So talk about what are youdoing for others in your pitch.
Okay, so let's do a quick recap.
So a great elevator pitch isclear.
It explains who you are, whatyou do and why it matters.
And again, we're talking moreabout the person you're talking
(11:57):
to when you're saying thiselevator pitch, rather than you
yourself Focus on their problem.
Two, we want to make sure it'sconcise.
We want to get straight to thepoint in about 30 to 60 seconds.
Something nice and brief andquick and easy to process and
remember.
And number three, we want tomake sure it's compelling.
We want to hook our audience,get their attention and leave
(12:19):
them wanting more informationtoo.
So make sure it's compelling.
And so by creating a greatelevator pitch and practicing it
, you're going to feel a lotmore confident and prepared to
make the most of any opportunitythat you run to, whether it's
in a grocery store, coffee shop,you're on a Zoom call and they
unexpectedly go around the roomin the Zoom call right and ask
(12:42):
each one of you what do you do?
And you know.
Then you're not caught offguard, you've got this prepared
and ready and you're going tofeel more confident and you're
going to make a lot betterlasting impression on others
from that.
So I challenge you, afterlistening to this podcast, maybe
re-listen to it or go to oure-commerce made easy podcastcom
website and look at the shownotes and really craft that
(13:05):
elevator pitch.
And honestly, we would love itif you emailed it to us.
We would love to see whatelevator pitches you come up
with from here.
You never know.
We may even be able tocollaborate some on with our
customers and some of ourprojects.
So feel free to drop that topodcast at bcsengineeringcom.
And that's all we have for youwith this episode of the
(13:27):
e-commerce made easy podcast.
I hope it was super helpful andI will be going back through
these notes and also redoing myelevator pitch because I feel
like we always can be improvingthis.
This actually is a good pointhere is we want to be doing this
probably about once a yearbecause our businesses evolve
over the years, so make sureyou're revisiting this.
(13:48):
Maybe it's your December task.
Always in December you'rereevaluating your elevator pitch
for the new year and we willsee you next week on the
e-commerce made easy podcast.