Elevator Speech

RainMaker

OK, I must be sleeping at the switch. I forgot to include the link: 9 Tips For Creating Your Powerful Elevator Speech

RainMaker

AZ, this brings you different results than if you said: "I'm a realtor"?



I enjoyed the exercise of creating my elevator speech because it helped me to focus on my primary benefits, but I see it as just that...a mental exercise. Here is what I think is wrong with the elevator speech: No one cares about what I do, really. If they ask, they are mostly being polite OR they are in sales, too, and have already read Bob Burg's book: Enless Referrals where they have learned to talk LESS about themselves and re-direct the conversation to the OTHER person.

Do you know what I a say when someone asks? I say "Website marketing" which is grossly overgeneralized, but people know what websites are, so they get the gist. I am not going to try to cram a need/benefit statement into one sentence to try to grab someone's attention--when in reality they are probably only half listening, anyway. I think this is too much, too soon.

I gloss over what I do and instantly ask a question about them. NOW they're interested in having a conversation.

The more experience I get out in the field, the more I realize: SALES IS ALL ABOUT LISTENING, NOT SELLING.

Agent Smith

Yikes! IMO, an attitude that reflects those thoughts will poison a sales career.

RainMaker

To pretend otherwise is naive.

I'll have my next of kin send you an invitation to my funeral, if you are correct. It'll be in the mail (just like the check).

RainMaker

I have had a real revelation lately. I have read much about technique and closing, etc. Let me say, that selling is a skill that can be honed, but mostly I don't use any of it. I live by one rule: Give them what they want--and do it honestly. Everything I say or do is filtered through that rule and selling becomes easy. Most people are so leary of salemen because they are terrified they will somehow be manipulated and sold "a bag of goods."

Here are a couple examples of how I mold to them:

• I know they want to know how much it will cost, so the FIRST thing I do is tell them how much is costs BEFORE I even sell the benefits. (shocking, I know).
• Here's my fancy close: "So, what d'ya think?" And then they tell me.
• My business card states: "no bull--just results...or you money back."
• They tell me they're in a hurry... I say: "Do you want the 5-minute bottom line version or do you want me to come back?" I don't care if I wasted gas and time if I have to come back because they remember it later. I am the one who is easy to work with, gets to the point, and gives them what they want. (After my 5-minute bottom line version, I had a guy tell me to come back next week when he gets back in town for the check and order.)

I'd write a book about it, but it would be the world's shortest book.

Gary Boye

RM, your post is the most powerful, streetsmart, and savvy post on selling that I have ever read on a forum--or for that matter, anywhere else.

You'll get resistance to your thoughts--as you already have--but be assured that there are perhaps hundreds of members here, who don't post, but who can take what you have shared right to the bank.

Agent Smith

Does this mean that you are of the opinion that holding the belief "no one cares about what I do" does not have a negative impact on your sales career?

RainMaker

Yes, Agent Smith. That is exactly what I am saying.

That is not to say they NEVER care what I do (or they would probably never buy). What I am saying is they don't care what I do at introduction--when they first meet me--so I don't waste my breath trying to tell them.

They only care what you do as it relates to them. You cannot know what you do as it relates to them, until you find out more about them. When I first meet prospects, I talk as little about myself and my product as possible. I listen and I learn what they want--then I make sure my product delivers what they want and I sell it to them.

If it DOESN'T deliver what they want, I don't waste my time trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Instead, I give them my honest opinion: "This doesn't seem to really line up with what you are looking for right now...." Then I ask for a referral--the next best thing to a sale.

If you want to see strangers go to bat for you, see how they react when they watch a saleman NOT try to sell them their goods. I flip an unproductive meeting into a new possiblity as I walk away from a sale that never would have worked anyway.

Agent Smith

That sounds a little better.

That's interesting. How do you "sell it to them"?

Other members have asked about how to word such a request. What has been the most poductive wording for such a request in your experience?

Can you give an example of this from your own experience... a stranger going to bat for you because you didn't try to sell them your goods?

RainMaker

Agent Smith: Perhaps you forgot the context of my original statement: Here is what I think is wrong with the elevator speech: No one cares about what I do, really.

An elevator speech is used AT INTRODUCTION. That is the whole point of it.

I don't "sell" it to them, I "offer" it to them and they take it because it is what they want/need.

They become instantly "endeared" to me (not literally, but for lack of better term) when they see I do not want to sell my product to them if it is not right for them. They can usually see the value of it for OTHERS--even if it is not right for them. I close by thanking them, and almost as an afterthought, I say something like: "I'm sorry our program isn't quite right for you. It is a great program and I have many subscribers who get great results from it and have been with me for years. It particularly works well for business that ____[brief description]______. Can you think of any who owns a business who could take advantage of our program and might like to learn more about it?"

They always take a minute and think. They give me a name or two (some even offer suggestions of businesses they think would be good--even if they don't know them personally) or they say "Gee, I really can't think of anyone." I thank them and leave.