Master the elevator pitch

BeginnerVideoPitchingProspectingThe master sales series · Step 3 of 6

Estimated time · about 12 minutes|Required · A prospect to call

Outcomes

✓Explain what an elevator pitch is actually for, and what it is not

✓Build a pitch in six parts, from the goal through to rehearsal

✓Cut a pitch down until it survives the three-floor test

✓Reframe a pain the prospect already has instead of introducing a new one

Watch sales expert George Leith build an elevator pitch that earns the next meeting.

An elevator pitch does not close anything

A pitch has one job: deliver enough value that the other person wants to keep talking. Walk into that moment needing a signature and you have already lost the room.

Build it in six parts

Each part earns the next. Expand each one:

Reframe a pain they already have

The best pitches do not introduce a new problem. They reframe one the prospect is already living with.

Years ago a seller pitched a newspaper organization built entirely on print advertising, with no reason of their own to change. They did not open with "you need digital marketing." They opened with what the room already cared about:

The Fort Worth pitch

"You have sold a lot of advertising. I have too. And one thing we both know is that the advertising you sell is coming under attack. The client's first comment on the next call is always 'it isn't working like it used to.' It's not your ad that's the problem. It's that they've got broken listings, bad reviews, and a website that takes forever to load. What if the thing you sell could work better, because their virtual doorway finally matches the ad that sent someone looking for it?"

Nobody was asked to abandon what they were good at. The pitch named a pain the room already felt, advertising getting blamed for problems it did not cause, and pointed at a fix that made their existing product stronger. Five years later people who were in that room were still using a version of it.

If you sell more than one thing, you need more than one pitch: one per audience, one per problem you solve.

George closes the video by recommending Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath, on why some ideas survive and others do not. It is a good next read if pitch-craft is the part you want to get better at.

Try it now

Pick your next prospect and write the pitch out: the goal, the value in one sentence, your edge, and the question you will end on. Say it out loud. If it takes longer than three floors, cut it and say it again.

Knowledge Check

Four questions on what a pitch is for, and how to cut one down.

Congratulations, you completed this step!

The master sales series · Step 3 of 6

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