When you go to a business meeting you are on a lookout for the business contacts and prospects. But how do you introduce yourself to someone whom you are meeting first time.
How do you ensure that the person you are meeting gets interested in listening to you? What do you say so that your prospect listens to you and you get a favorable response from your prospect?
Your 30 second elevator pitch is the Gateway to the Future Sale. Your elevator pitch states who you are and what company you represent. The elevator pitch creatively tells your prospect what do you do.
Your elevator pitch is the most important tool for any networking meeting you go to. The elevator pitch helps you generate a lead there and then during your interaction with your prospect in a networking meeting.
The most important aspect of your elevator pitch is that you say a little, but you ask a lot. You must start by asking one power question which should be able to engage your prospect immediately and he should start sharing some important information with you. Your elevator pitch starts with a powerful statement that tells how you can help others and why the prospect should act now, in favor of your product or service
The objective of asking the power question after delivering your sales pitch is that they will allow you to formulate an impactful response to show that how you can help. These questions must be open ended and must get your prospect thinking. An open-ended question means that the question should invoke a response which is elaborate and just not in yes or no.
There is no reason to tell a prospect how you can help until you have uncovered what kind of help, they need…Geffery Gitomer
The power question is the most critical part of this process because it qualifies the prospect and sets up power response and make the prospect think.
You must have the following objectives while formulating the power questions from your network partnership-
- You should be clear about the information you want to get by asking questions
- You should be able to qualify your prospect after getting response.
- Do you need to ask some more questions to get the desired information?
- You should be able to make your prospect think after asking your question.
- By asking questions you should be able to you differentiate yourself from your competitors.
You should have a list of at least 25 questions and ask appropriately so that you make the prospect think and give the information to you. On the basis of these responses you should be able to qualify the prospect and move forward in your sales process.
Let me discuss my personal example. I need business consultant. If someone ask me in my network what do you do, I have a choice to tell them that I am a business consultant. But this does not help much. In place of this I prefer to say a as given below.
My name is Rakesh Sharma. I empower the business owners and salespeople to scale up their business and maximize their profit. I help you systematize your business so that you can run and grow your business on an autopilot mode. Most of my clients have experienced more than 40{4bef4454739284c4ce381e5f3b718c0d691a36d433f413f54b1c6429a0846e24} growth in the first year and many of them have doubled their business by the end of second year.
When I deliver this statement to my prospect his attention is drawn towards me. And he wants to know more.
But before he starts asking his questions, I ask few questions to to qualify whether he is a fit candidate for my Consulting Services?
Some questions which I ask are as-
· Do you think all your employees are producing the results as they should be?
· Do you think if your salespeople start working more effectively, they can produce some wonderful results?
· Have you ever thought that why is it that they are not producing the desired results?
· How do you ensure that you get the best possible results from your team members month after month?
· Does your sales go up one month and down next month?
· Does your business produce predictable and repeatable revenue month after month?
· Would you like to get a system which will help you get the best results from your team members?
· What is the kind of revenue you have been earning on yearly basis?
· Has your business been growing as per your expectations year after year?
If I find that that I am speaking to a qualified prospect, I propose him for follow up meeting by saying that why do not we meet on next Friday at 11:00 a.m. at Radisson Blue at Faridabad. I should be able to decide if I can help you or not.
You can use the above example for preparing your own elevator pitch and your power questions. But only writing the elevator pitch is not enough. You also need to prepare yourself for using it for future network meetings.
Thank you very much for reading. Happy selling!
