What Is Your Elevator Pitch?
By Dave Brown
You are in an elevator, and you have 30 seconds to recruit someone for Square Dancing. What would you say that would convince that someone to join you in your favorite activity?
We call that an Elevator Pitch. To be effective on the fly, one needs to think fast. I don’t know anyone that can think on the fly that fast. OK… maybe a couple of people in my lifetime, but it’s very rare.
At this point, you don’t have enough time to “Get To Know, Like and Trust” anyone to develop a relationship. (in 30 seconds?) You must use an alternate tactic. To be properly executed, you should set up everything ahead of time, know what you’re going to say, and have props ready to hand out… After all, you have only 30 seconds.
Throughout our daily routines and activities, we tend to cross paths with many people, all the way from within the proverbial elevator, to your doctor, to showing the plumber where the pipe is leaking. All of these people can be prospects for Square Dancing. How do we appeal to them without turning them off, but instead to develop a curiosity?
In actual terms of our time, it is worth writing a well thought out script and memorizing it. Contrast this with the time a person spends on tripping over his/her words as the potential prospect spits back “I had to do that in school and I didn’t like it.” (The number 1 excuse told to me).
I have put up a web site, “LetsGetAroundTUIT.com”. This site is designed to sell your prospect when they are able to spend more time in the privacy of their home “checking it out”. The real trick here, is to get someone to go to the web site in their leisure time. I use a special business card that I had printed, where the word “TUIT” is in the center of a black circle on the front side of the card. When I’m in line somewhere, I start a conversation with small chit-chat and segway into showing the “Round TUIT” card to my prospect. As I hand it to them, I very deliberately say “Now, don’t let it be said that you never got a round TUIT”, then release it into their fingers. They usually laugh in realization of what they got. As I’m walking away, I say “Oh, By the way, the web address on the back is my hobby, have fun.” as I leave. The key here, is to never tell them what the hobby is. Let curiosity and the web site do the “Selling”.
As a second example of where this can be used is: I’m at a counter facing someone helping me in a store, and I’ll say… “Want to have some fun?”, as I show the Round TUIT card, “can you figure what this says?” I can draw this out by waiting for them to answer, or finish it for them to hurry up the card hand off for your walk away, leaving them with a smile.
Since I’m done in line by that point, we part ways. There is a better chance that the prospect will go home and look it up, than you, getting them to a beginner class a month away with only a short 30 second contact time. The card usually goes home with your prospect, because it was kind of a cool joke that can be played on someone else. With it’s novelty, it may hang around the desk at home for awhile and at least have a chance to be visited at a later date.
Contact me at any dance for more information. I may have some cards in my back pocket to show you, as I am constantly handing them out where ever I go.