Hello Friend! I am so glad you've stopped by the blog today!! It is my one goal with this blog to bring you practical tips & training to help you along your direct sales journey. I love to daily encourage busy direct sellers (like you!) in our social media community, and give them tools that they can use to see their business grow to new levels, while maintaining professional consistency no matter what level they're at. In fact, I created an app that helps them do exactly that!!
Did you see what I just did there?
I'm hoping that I piqued your interest, as I told you briefly and succinctly what I do & the thing that I have to offer you. I'm hoping that you heard something in what I said that made you feel like, "Hey, I could use some of that!" (Maybe you even clicked that link to join our social community & get some of that daily direct sales encouragement! Wink wink.)
I want to share with you this same method for crafting and perfecting YOUR perfect elevator pitch, so that when the opportunity arises for you to answer the question "So, what do you do?", your business will shine! This is vastly better than awkwardly blurting out something like: Uh.. I sell brownie pans and what not...do you want a catalog?
Whether your "elevator pitch" happens in person while you're out & about, or via a text message or a conversation that takes place online, you need to be ready to give an answer to those who are curious to know more about what you do! Don't wait until the opportunity arises to figure out what you will say, prepare now so you will always be ready.
So let's talk about the ingredients for a great elevator pitch!
It needs to be quick (hence the name - elevator speech - about the time taken to get your point across before they get off at their floor!) Keep it interesting & compelling, make them want to know more! Think of it like a commercial for your business.
I will keep with the "brownie pan" consultant theme as I give some examples below.
Write your Elevator Pitch
1. What you do
Don't ever start by saying "I sell for {insert company here}! People just do not ever want to be "sold to". They are however always interested to hear how they can find solutions to the problems they face in life. Humans are a bunch that love comfort and the path of least resistance, so think of your job in terms of how you can make your customers life easier! You might say instead: "I help busy women get dinner on the table for their families quickly & easily every night".
2. What you offer
Once again, this is not the part where you gush over your company (that's salesy), consultants are a dime a dozen for anyone who is on social media these days!! Instead, represent your company with YOUR own unique brand and let this potential customer or host know what YOU bring to the table. For example: "I specialize in teaching easy recipes using ingredients you already have in your kitchen with amazing time-saving tools.
3. What problem you solve
You've got to make sure to mention the problem, because this is where the lightbulb goes off for the person you're talking to. When you say "Evenings are so busy for families these days...", (or whatever the problem is that you're solving) they can instantly relate. So then when you finish by saying: "...so my customers love having a way to get dinner on the table in under 30 minutes", you now have an audience who is intently waiting for the next important piece of information from you!
4. Ask them an open ended question
This is the part for you to hush & let them talk for a minute! If you have an INTERESTED audience, they will probably speak up and say something like "Oh my gosh, YES, nights are crazy at my house!" but if they are shy you could always ask a question that gets them talking about their individual struggles in this area. Listening is a great skill to have here, because it allows you to hear how you can best serve this particular customer. (If your audience is completely UNINTERESTED that is ok too, not everyone is your customer. Just smile & tell them you are so glad they have this problem so well under wraps! If you made a great impression on them, maybe they will refer a friend to you down the line.)
5. Offer them something of value in exchange for a way to contact them
Be sure to keep some "take-aways" in your purse with you for opportunities such as this so your prospect has something to take with them. You might have a business card with your link & social media group on it, or a mini-catalog to hand them. But always keep something back that you can give them later: for example, you can email them a coupon for their first order, or they will be able to access a particular recipe when they go join your facebook group. This allows you to obtain a way to contact them & FOLLOW UP on this opportunity in a few days. If you miss this step, you may as well have not bothered to stop & chat with them to start with!! I guarantee, they will not remember to go home & immediately join your group or contact you at the email you provided on your business card, but if YOU took down their email, or offered to text them the coupon right there on the spot, the ball is now in your court to be able to follow-up, and gain a new host or customer.
Now, Practice Practice Practice!
Start by memorizing your pitch and then practice in the mirror. Yes, you will feel like a goofball, but it is better to work out any awkward body language or mistakes of missing important parts HERE, than when you have a real opportunity in front of you! Next practice with your spouse or a team member and let them give you some feedback!
Once you get good, I would recommend having several different pitches ready for different goals. You wouldn't pitch busy sports-practice filled evenings to an older retired lady with grown children, but you no doubt have products to help her too, so learn to tweak your "commercial" to suit the person you are talking with. You will also want to have options for tweaking your outcome - you may get an instant vibe that this person will be a great recruit, so your pitch changes from "helping get meals on the table" to "helping busy moms earn some extra money for their family". The best way to be ready for these encounters is to prepare ahead of time!
Follow-Up with all those Prospects!
All these new leads won't make one bit of difference to your business if you never follow up with any of them. ALWAYS reach out within a couple days to say how much you enjoyed chatting with them & make sure they got whatever it was you promised them. Ask them if there's any way that you can serve them right now, tell them about an upcoming sale/new product reveal/etc if they say no, and let them know you will put them on your list to be the first to know. This leaves the door open to follow up with them again in the near future!
Follow-Up can be tricky when you leave it to chance, and in our research from many reps, we've learned that so SO many leads end up slipping through the cracks because consultants forgot to follow up in a timely manner. (If you make a habit of lifestyle-prospecting like this, it is easy to let some fall through the cracks due to the busy lives we all lead these days!) This is one of the reasons I created my app, This is Dot. It provides a beautiful way for a new prospect to pop their own info right into your Dot dashboard if you hand them your phone while chatting, and even better, it provides you a way to add a follow-up reminder that will show on your daily to-do list on the day you wish to follow up with them! Never let a lead go to waste again. You can begin a 30 day free trial of our app to give this handy feature (and many others!) a whirl yourself!
I hope this Elevator Speech tutorial has been helpful! I'd love to hear yours - come leave us a comment on this instagram post and I will give you my best tips and feedback on it!
Come visit again soon!
Kristen xx
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