00:00:02Mastering the Elevator Pitch
00:10:10Crafting Effective Elevator Pitches for Networking
00:22:30Effective Elevator Pitch Strategies
00:31:29Sales and Marketing Playbook Unleashed
SOBRE ESTE EPISÓDIO
Crafting an Engaging Elevator Pitch: Networking Success through Authentic Connection:
Unlock the secrets to crafting an engaging elevator pitch as Evan Polin and I, Craig Andrews, dissect the finesse behind this networking powerhouse. Rather than a mere transactional tool, we reveal how a well-designed pitch can ignite meaningful conversations and lay the foundation for lasting business relationships. Through candid anecdotes and personal missteps, we illustrate the pitfalls of pitches that aim too high, too fast, and provide you with the strategies to connect genuinely with potential clients at networking events or on that first pivotal cold call.
Ever wondered why some pitches stick with you, while others fizzle out the moment the conversation ends? The answer lies in the ability to resonate with your audience, something Evan and I explore extensively. We'll have you chuckling as we recount our own encounters with relentless telemarketers, all while guiding you through the nuances of tailoring your message to captivate different industries and company sizes. Our episode offers a goldmine of tips on presenting your services' core benefits, ensuring your pitch remains authentic and engrossing in any setting.
We wrap things up by looking at the contrasting styles of sales pitches, underscoring the profound impact of customer-centric messaging. I emphasize the need to swiftly address the silent "What's in it for me?" question that listeners subconsciously ask, especially during cold calls. With a nod to the digital age, we discuss why geographical boundaries shouldn't limit your business aspirations. Evan and I are eager for your questions and feedback, ready to help you tackle any sales and marketing challenges with practical, down-to-earth advice. So, come join us and enhance your sales and marketing playbook for success in today's competitive marketplace.
We provide marketing strategies & services that increase in awareness, sales & engagement.
Polin Performance Group
We offer strategies to increase sales, maximize performance and increase revenue for businesses.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
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WEBVTT
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And welcome to the Sales and Marketing Playbook.
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Today, in Episode 7, we're going to talk about probably one of the most important elements of a networking event, or even a cold call.
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Evan's going to take the lead on this and, trust me, you want to stay tuned.
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Welcome to the Sales and Marketing Playbook Unleashed, the premier podcast for innovative growth strategies hosted by two seasoned experts.
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Meet Evan Poland, the president of Poland Performance Group, a master in sales coaching with over two decades of experience.
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Evan is not just a consultant.
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He's a force in sales, focusing on mindset planning and skill development.
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He's also the co-author of Selling Professional Services, the Sandler Way.
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Joining him is Craig Andrews, partner and CEO of Beholder Agency.
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An expert in growth marketing With 20 years under his belt, craig blends marketing creativity with strategy to propel businesses forward.
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Welcome everyone to the Sales and Marketing Playbook Unleashed.
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Welcome everyone to the Sales and Marketing Playbook Unleashed.
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I'm Craig Andrews and my partner in crime there, evan Polin.
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Today we're going to talk to you guys about probably one of the most important, one of the most important aspects of networking and or sales calls.
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And, evan, I'm not going to spoil it anymore, I'm going to give it to you, I'm not going to spoil it what is the most important thing when it comes to networking events?
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So, Craig, we're going to get to that in a second, but I got to admonish you a little bit.
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I thought we talked about this before we rolled out the episodes.
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We're supposed to set the bar low so that we can crawl right over it.
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You're saying hey, this is one of the most important things.
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Stay tuned.
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I'm feeling under a lot of pressure.
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You are under a lot of pressure.
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Yes, because you are the man and I got to make sure people know.
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So let's kind of illustrate the importance of the elevator pitch.
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Some people call it the elevator pitch 30 second commercial, however you may want to call it.
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But, craig, once you think back to a networking event, let me know if this has ever happened to you.
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You get to an event, somebody comes over, starts talking to you and their introduction turns into a three, four, five minute monologue.
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They haven't taken a breath yet.
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When somebody's coming up to you, somebody is really pitching you hard.
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When you're at an event, how do you feel?
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Confused, I would say that I'm going.
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Who else can I get to?
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help me get out of this conversation.
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So my pocket's got to be ringing or I've got to see somebody way over there who I need to talk to.
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A mistake that a lot of people make, whether it's networking events we'll talk about an elevator pitch a little bit as we get to cold calling as well is they are out there and people who aren't really sophisticated, people who are newer at sales, or sometimes people who are desperate at selling, they're trying to close somebody while they're at the appointment, somebody while they're at the appointment, while they're having the very first conversation with someone.
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The first thing we all need to keep in mind with an elevator pitch, with a 30-second commercial, it is a conversation opener and it is a relationship starter.
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Very few of us are going to close a deal in the first two to three minutes that we're having a conversation with somebody.
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The 30-second commercial, the elevator pitch, it's a way to open up the conversation.
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If I'm at a networking event, it's a way to quickly qualify or disqualify the person that I'm speaking with, to help me determine is this somebody that I want to spend more time with and is this a potential customer, or is this a really nice person but somebody who's really not going to be a good fit for me.
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And again, if I'm at a networking event, I may know to very quickly move on from that conversation.
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So, Craig, question for you how quickly in your career?
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have you closed the deal within the first three minutes of meeting somebody for the first time?
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There was that time Never, no, never once.
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I'm disappointed.
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I thought you were good.
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No, I'm not that good.
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I'm not that good.
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So for the overwhelming majority 99.5% of people out there, we're not going to close a deal in the first two to three minutes.
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We're talking to somebody, we're making that first impression, we're kind of sharing with folks who we are, what we do really important, how we help our potential clients, and that's really what we need to focus on when we're doing our elevator pitch.
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So real quick, kevin, when that has happened, when you've really found somebody who does it well other than yourself.
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What type of feedback have you heard from that?
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So when somebody does a really good 30-second commercial, the way you'll know if you're doing a good 30-second commercial, if somebody stops you halfway through and goes well, wait a second, Craig, can you tell me a little bit more about that?
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Wait, how do you do that, Geez, we're running into a lot of those kinds of things.
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That's when you know you've got them hooked and you've really started the conversation.
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An analogy that I use all the time when talking about an elevator pitch or a 30-second commercial it's like a resume for somebody looking for a job.
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The resume is never going to get the person the job.
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It's going to get the potential employer interested enough to want to learn more, to call somebody in for an interview to learn more about the candidate, to see if they might want to hire them.
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It's the same thing with the elevator pitch.
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Almost nobody out there is going to close.
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The same thing with the elevator pitch Almost nobody out there is going to close a deal based on the elevator pitch.
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But it's going to get that prospect to go.
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Do I want to spend three, four, five minutes talking with this person to learn a little bit more about what they do, to see if their product, to see if their service is something that we might be able to use?
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So that's really the ultimate goal with this elevator pitch is to start the conversation and either get somebody to raise their hand and go wait a second, tell me a little bit more about that, how do you do that?
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We might need that or for them to go.
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Yeah, geez, none of that really resonates with me.
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None of those things are problems that I really have, and then now we know that we may quickly want to move on and talk to the next person.
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So you know, I would say in kind of a bit of a contrast slightly slightly off topic you know we would use those as from a marketing perspective, as good feeders right From a from an online perspective and so forth.
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I know that a lot of times when you're talking about elevator pitches or sales pitches, a lot of that work would have been done somewhat beforehand from a marketing perspective.
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But you're talking about actually being there in front of them and kind of supporting that marketing message, right.
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Supporting that marketing message and actually you bring up an excellent point.
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When at all possible, before I launch in and talk to somebody about what I do, when I can I will ask them what they do first.
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Because, almost like getting some of that marketing information.
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If I can learn that they are the managing partner of a law firm versus the owner of a manufacturer distribution company versus an individual contributor sales rep, I can now tailor that elevator pitch to my audience and to who I'm speaking with.
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If I'm not asking that question up front, if I can't learn about that up front, I'm shooting in the dark a little bit and we can talk a little bit about how you may have a more general commercial when you're shooting in the dark and have a more general commercial when you're shooting in the dark and you don't really know who you're talking to, versus having a really fine, tuned, honed in elevator pitch if you know exactly who it is you're speaking with.
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But if you can know that up front for those of you out there who may be making lots and lots of cold calls, if you can do just a tiny bit of research before you make that call, identify what type of client you're reaching out to and, again, if your marketing has done a really good job kind of creating those different avatars, you should know up front before you pick up the phone exactly what avatar you're reaching out to, if you can be really specific with the elevator pitch, it's going to get you much better results, which actually goes to one of my first tips.
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With the elevator pitch, with the 30-second commercial, you do not want to just have one commercial.
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You don't want to memorize a commercial, you don't want to read off a script.
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If so, you will sound scripted and you will turn off the other person.
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You need to be very conversational, have a couple of bullet points, and let me give you an example.
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And Craig, unfortunately I think this is going to age us out a little bit to some audience.
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But, I think it's something important.
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Do you remember when you know going back 15 years ago here?
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Do you remember when you know going back 15, 20 years ago here?
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Do you remember getting that telemarketing call at home before we all had caller ID, before there was the five to 10 second delay in terms of, yeah, that person's voice popping up on the phone when you picked up the phone?
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How long did it take for you to identify that it was somebody cold calling you when you picked up the phone?
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It was very difficult to know I wouldn't have known years ago, really, because when I would get a telemarketing call, I'd be able to pick that up in three seconds.
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I wouldn't even know what the person was selling, correct.
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I could tell that they were either reading off of a script or they had memorized the script and I did one of two things.
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Yeah, when I got that tonality first, if it was just a regular day, I'd just hang up again they could have been selling me something I really needed at half of what I was paying.
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I never let them get that far because I felt salesperson automatically clicked to mentally covering my wallet, going to hang up the phone.
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Yeah, yeah.
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I'm a little bit bored.
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Days when I had more time I'd hand the phone over to my three-year-old and let that salesperson try to sell to my three-year-old for a couple of minutes before hanging up the phone.
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So you were an active torturer of telemarketers, is what you're telling me Potentially.
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Okay.
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So torture may be a little strong, but I'd like to help them make their days a little bit more interesting.
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Now you're telling me that you never gave them sales advice when you caught one of them on the line.
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No, you know, they just never seem to be open to feedback and hearing suggestions.
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Okay, one or two times when I gave them a couple tips and suggested they call back a day or two.
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I never got that return phone call.
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Okay, well, that's one way to do it, yes.
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So, going back to the main thread, though, we don't want to memorize our elevator pitch or 30-second commercial.
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We want to keep in mind okay, what problems do I solve for my clients?
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How can I help what's going to resonate with the other person and then make sure that your messaging follows through with that?
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I've been doing what I'm doing now for more years than I want to admit maybe 23, 24 years.
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My elevator pitch, my introduction, never sounds exactly the same any two times.
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I'll fumble over a couple of words, which is perfectly fine, Makes you come across as a real life human being and not kind of a robo caller, telemarketer, Absolutely.
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But I really just focus on the problems that I solve and for me personally and for all of you, I want you to think about the different audiences you're in front of.
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I can work with small businesses and solopreneurs and I can work with really large organizations.
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The elevator pitch for an individual, for me, sounds a lot different than it does for a large company.
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I work with service firms like law firms, accounting firms, financial services companies.
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I work with distributors.
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The elevator pitch for a service business sounds a lot different than the elevator pitch for a distributor.
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So for me personally again, especially if I can find out a little bit about the person before I start talking, which again is, if at all possible, when I'm in a live event, I'm going to ask them what they do first.
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I can then modify what I'm going to say based on the industry the person's in, based on the size of the organization.
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If I'm talking to a president, the things that matter to a president or a business owner were much different than what matters to an individual salesperson.
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So I am really molding my message to who I'm speaking with.
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And if you can start to do that and it takes some time and it takes some practice you will find that you're going to have more people raise their hand and say wait, Craig, tell me a little bit more about that.
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How do you help them?
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Geez, we're running into the same problems.
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Tell me a little bit more about that.
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How do you help them?
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Geez, we're running into the same problems and you're off to the races in terms of starting to build that relationship, qualify that opportunity and this may be a good well, first a question for you, and then what I may do is kind of model a couple of different commercials.
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But, craig, from the marketing side, for different companies, might they want to show up differently based on the medium where they're advertising, and may they want their website to look a little bit different than their LinkedIn presence, which might look a little bit different to what they're doing on Facebook and with targeted ads, might one set of ads look one way for one kind of avatar of a client, but if they're also looking for another one, might that look different?
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Without a doubt I mean similar to what we talked about in other episodes you have different avatars who are on different mediums.
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For instance, myself, I might be more an Instagram lover, somebody else might be more of a LinkedIn lover, somebody else might be on Twitter most of their time, and so your message has to kind of cater to who those people are, and so it kind of piggybacks on to your point in terms of how you would speak to a CEO is different how you might speak to a salesperson, for sure.
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Yeah, and again with elevator pitches and there's different.
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But I have a client right now that I'm working with, a managed services provider, an IT company they're focusing on.
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They work within schools and school systems, they work with manufacturing companies, they work with nonprofits, they work with law firms and accounting firms.
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All different avatars.
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All different avatars, all completely different messages, so it's important that they have the right message for the right audience.
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Absolutely, and even their pains that they would have so technically okay.
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So I'm gonna play a little devil's advocate here a little bit.
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So, technically, going back to the point that you said before.
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Before you said, in terms of messaging, that you need to be in a situation where you don't memorize it.
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Now, theoretically, you have some feeds or some threads between there, that's all consistent to allow people not to have to memorize it, correct.
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Correct.
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For most people I work with.
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They're never shocked at why a client works with them.
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There's typically three or four or five problems that their product or their service solves for their client.
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So I just need to keep in mind okay, why do people work with me?
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What are the major problems that I solve?
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And again, it might sound a little bit different, you might use different words based on different industries, but for the most part it's going to be the same three to five.
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So that's how you're able to just kind of keep in mind okay, these are the five or six different problems that I solve.
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If I'm talking to this industry, I'm going to pull these three.
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If I'm talking to this industry, I'm going to pull these three.
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And the other thing that I know that you and your firm work with professional services firms as well.
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The other thing that I'll sometimes work with my clients on is let's say that I'm working with an attorney and let's say that that attorney is in litigation.
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Well, it's really hard to go out to a networking event and go up and ask if people have just been sued or they're ready to sue someone.
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But if they are with a firm that's got multiple different practice areas.
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They may go in with their elevator pitch and talk about one or two problems that they help their clients with when it comes to litigation, but then they may mention two or three problems that the firm solves for their clients.
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That way, if somebody doesn't have a litigation matter right away, they might say well, oh, wait a second.
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You guys are a full service firm, why don't you be able to help me with X, y, z?
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And now that attorney can identify an opportunity that may be great for the firm that they can hand off to one of their partners.
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But if they'd gone in with such a narrow focus that I'm only looking for people who need litigation, the chances that they come out of those events with work would be few and far between.
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Got it.
00:17:23.436 --> 00:17:32.873
So you want to keep it broad enough so that when you get to the situation of the 30-second commercial in the networking event, you have a reason to do the follow-up call once you get back to your office.
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Absolutely.
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Or even better, if you're doing it right, you can have had then the next five to seven minutes of a conversation with somebody to go you know what.
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That's not the right person for me to follow up with because, based on what I shared, they don't run into any of those issues.
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They don't run into any of those problems.
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So, really nice person.
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Maybe I'll see them if I go back to that organization, but no need to follow up with that one.
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But this person over here, their eyes lit up when I talked about how I help different clients and they started sharing with me how they're running into a couple of those issues.
00:18:06.444 --> 00:18:27.076
So if we didn't schedule an appointment right there and then because these days everybody's got their mobile devices with them, you know that within the next day or two and best practice we don't want to wait more than 48 hours hours we're going to follow up with that specific person with specific talking points.
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Based on the conversation that we had with them and the issues that we identified that they may be running into, that we can help them with.
00:18:32.556 --> 00:18:33.397
That makes a lot of sense.
00:18:33.778 --> 00:18:38.357
So you touched upon something that I thought was very valid and I want to make sure it gets the emphasis it deserves.
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Part of the elevator pitch is to determine if they don't qualify for what you're going to, right, so that should be your little red ticker that says this person may not be one wrong word valuable, but time spent on them in that networking event you need to spend less time with is ultimately the point.
00:18:57.849 --> 00:18:59.574
Absolutely For me personally.
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I'm bringing a pen into an event with me and, again, if somebody's physically giving me a card, I'm writing on the back yeah, one or two notes.
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Hey, this is what they look like.
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Hey, these were the problems that they have and this is what we talked about to know, to follow up with them.
00:19:16.031 --> 00:19:19.117
Or, hey, Craig was a nice guy.
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There's really no fit, no need to follow up.
00:19:21.722 --> 00:19:33.696
Maybe I'll put them into the CRM so that if we've got a newsletter or something like that that goes out and if things change for him, maybe he reaches out, but not one that makes sense to actively reach out to.
00:19:34.298 --> 00:19:34.880
That makes sense.
00:19:35.580 --> 00:19:42.019
Craig, do you think it would be helpful for me to kind of give a very traditional elevator pitch that has some of the mistakes that people make?
00:19:42.801 --> 00:19:43.343
I'm up for it.
00:19:43.343 --> 00:19:44.263
I'm up for the challenge.
00:19:44.263 --> 00:19:44.565
Let's go.
00:19:45.691 --> 00:19:47.718
So so what I'm going to do is model two things.
00:19:48.239 --> 00:19:48.400
Okay.
00:19:48.829 --> 00:19:50.718
First is a traditional elevator pitch.
00:19:50.718 --> 00:19:58.156
Then I'll give the kind of elevator pitch that I typically give to see if you can notice any differences between the two.
00:19:58.679 --> 00:19:58.900
Okay.
00:19:59.651 --> 00:20:06.201
To really help folks with again some of the nuances that they might want to consider when they're out there talking to folks.
00:20:06.201 --> 00:20:12.462
Ok, ok, so my first elevator pitch this will be a very traditional pitch.
00:20:12.462 --> 00:20:17.479
May, yeah, man, may get you that person.
00:20:17.479 --> 00:20:19.262
That starts to kind of fade out a little bit.
00:20:19.262 --> 00:20:24.731
But a very traditional elevator pitch might sound like this and I'll do it for myself and my own firm.
00:20:24.731 --> 00:20:30.544
So a traditional elevator pitch might sound like this Hi, my name is Evan Poland.
00:20:31.190 --> 00:20:33.355
I'm the president of Poland Performance Group.
00:20:33.355 --> 00:20:38.013
Poland Performance Group is located in South Jersey, right outside of Philadelphia.
00:20:38.013 --> 00:20:46.882
I have a sales coaching and sales consulting firm and I work with people who are looking to grow and increase their businesses.
00:20:46.882 --> 00:20:57.404
So I will work with people and provide coaching, consulting, training around how do we get in front of more of the right opportunities and what should that sales plan look like?
00:20:57.404 --> 00:21:02.363
I'll work with folks on how do we best qualify or disqualify opportunities.
00:21:02.363 --> 00:21:07.557
I'll help teach people how they can do a better job getting referrals and introductions.
00:21:07.557 --> 00:21:15.337
I'll work with people individually, I'll work with people in groups and I'm really looking to work with companies and work with firms if they're looking to drive revenue.
00:21:15.337 --> 00:21:19.000
So if you know of anybody who's looking to bring in more business.
00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:21.317
I'd love to have a conversation with them.
00:21:21.317 --> 00:21:23.115
So that's a traditional pitch.
00:21:23.115 --> 00:21:24.464
That's traditional, okay, I'd love to have a conversation with them.
00:21:24.464 --> 00:21:25.069
So that's a traditional pitch.
00:21:25.430 --> 00:21:26.153
That's traditional.
00:21:26.153 --> 00:21:27.076
Okay, I'm with you.
00:21:28.692 --> 00:21:31.361
Okay, let me give you the kind of pitch that I typically give.
00:21:33.092 --> 00:21:35.298
This is a pitch that you would normally give when you're out.
00:21:36.191 --> 00:21:39.539
This is what I might do if I'm out in a networking event out of the trade show.
00:21:39.539 --> 00:22:00.154
Okay, and again, after I've asked the other person what they do, I'll say hey, my name's Evan, my firm is Poland Performance Group and I help business owners and managing partners of small to mid-sized firms who are frustrated because they're just not growing their business as quickly as they would like.
00:22:00.154 --> 00:22:10.383
A lot of the firms and the companies I help they know that they do great work, but when they meet new prospects it takes way longer than it should to close a deal.
00:22:10.383 --> 00:22:18.777
They're getting all kinds of pushback on their fee and on their rates, and there's a lot of firms and companies that I've helped that do great work.
00:22:18.777 --> 00:22:25.061
Their clients say great things about them and they're just not getting as many referrals and introductions as they know they should be getting.
00:22:25.061 --> 00:22:28.298
Which of those are challenges that you guys are running into?
00:22:28.298 --> 00:22:34.492
So did you notice any difference between the two pitches?
00:22:35.461 --> 00:22:40.051
Now I'll say this I'm a marketer now, so take it easy on me, all right.
00:22:40.051 --> 00:22:48.320
But what I'll say for sure is that the first one seemed to be a little bit more what's the word?
00:22:48.320 --> 00:22:53.250
A little bit more individualistic, or about the salesperson Right, more individualistic or about the salesperson right?
00:22:53.250 --> 00:23:00.859
The second one was a little open right.
00:23:00.859 --> 00:23:02.166
So unfortunately, I can see it best from a marketing perspective.
00:23:02.166 --> 00:23:03.894
The second one gave me a little bit more from a vision perspective of how I can fit.
00:23:03.894 --> 00:23:09.579
So I guess it's talking a little bit more about the customer in a sense, where the first one's talking more about the salesperson.
00:23:09.660 --> 00:23:11.965
Me, me, me right, me, me, me.
00:23:11.965 --> 00:23:16.913
Let me tell you about what I do, let me tell you about why I'm great and, yeah, this is why you should be working with me.
00:23:16.913 --> 00:23:19.021
And these are all my products, these are all my services.
00:23:19.021 --> 00:23:23.260
The second one you're absolutely right, it's all about the other person, the customer.
00:23:23.260 --> 00:23:23.902
Yeah.
00:23:23.902 --> 00:23:28.531
Now question for you yeah, yeah, what is the other person care more about?
00:23:28.531 --> 00:23:36.490
Do they care more about problems of theirs that they can be helped with, or do they care more about the litany of all of my products and services?
00:23:37.192 --> 00:23:40.544
I got news for you, especially if it's a commercial right, and I'm sitting in that working event.
00:23:40.544 --> 00:23:42.150
I'm not worried about you, unfortunately.
00:23:42.150 --> 00:23:44.286
I'm worried about what you could do for me.
00:23:44.326 --> 00:23:45.288
I thought we were friends.
00:23:48.040 --> 00:23:50.829
No offense, but I'm there to figure out for myself for sure.
00:23:51.780 --> 00:23:56.320
I'll go back to something we brought up in an earlier episode the, the, the with them, the.
00:23:56.320 --> 00:24:04.180
What's in it for me If I can't hit on that, what's in it for me for that other person in the first 20 to 30 seconds?
00:24:04.180 --> 00:24:06.519
I'm going to get that head on a swivel.
00:24:06.519 --> 00:24:08.666
They're looking for anybody else in the room to talk.
00:24:08.666 --> 00:24:11.201
Talk to Yep, by the way.
00:24:11.201 --> 00:24:24.260
For those of you making cold calls, you really need to punch somebody in the face with the problems that you can help them with and how it's all about them, because if you don't do it in the first 10 to 15 seconds, they're hanging up on you or they're hiring you off the phone.
00:24:24.260 --> 00:24:34.553
So it's got to be all about the other person and what's in it for them and how they may be helped and how they may be benefited if they talk to you for the next two or three minutes after that.
00:24:35.560 --> 00:24:36.825
And so to piggyback on that.
00:24:36.825 --> 00:24:39.050
The same thing is true for marketing.
00:24:39.050 --> 00:24:45.491
I can't sit there and give them a list of features and benefits if I haven't figured out what their problem is in that industry.
00:24:45.491 --> 00:24:46.554
So that makes sense.
00:24:46.554 --> 00:24:50.911
I think the other thing that I picked up out of it that you were slightly disqualifying yourself as person one.
00:24:50.911 --> 00:24:54.160
Right, you're limiting yourself from a size perspective and I talk about this that you were slightly disqualifying yourself as person one.
00:24:54.160 --> 00:25:00.221
Right, you're limiting yourself from a size perspective and I talk about this from a marketing perspective all the time, unfortunately.
00:25:00.221 --> 00:25:03.811
Fortunately, post-covid, we all have expanded our wings a little bit.
00:25:03.811 --> 00:25:16.450
So if I sit back and say I think you were saying you're from South Jersey or something of that fashion I've limited to my scope of it and I'm automatically thinking well, you can't help me over here in Texas, or you can't help me over here in Texas or you can't help me in Florida, right?
00:25:16.670 --> 00:25:27.948
So the second person quote unquote persona reached out further and wider and again considered my problem, because I don't know what resources you have.
00:25:27.948 --> 00:25:31.074
So the second person created a picture, created a vision of that pain.
00:25:31.074 --> 00:25:34.664
I didn't care about where you were sitting at at that point created a vision of that pain.
00:25:34.684 --> 00:25:40.653
I didn't care about where you were sitting at at that point, right, and I've got to tell you, especially post-COVID, things are much different.
00:25:40.653 --> 00:25:50.825
People tend not to care where I'm from, and if they do, then they will ask me and then we can have that conversation.
00:25:50.825 --> 00:25:53.028
But I got to tell you, most people don't ask me.
00:25:53.028 --> 00:26:00.082
My last two clients one's located out in San Diego, one's located in Israel they didn't care.
00:26:00.082 --> 00:26:04.031
When I was located doing everything over Zoom and Teams didn't matter.
00:26:04.031 --> 00:26:10.012
But if I had led with that better chance I would have gotten myself disqualified early on.
00:26:10.012 --> 00:26:11.739
They didn't care.
00:26:11.739 --> 00:26:15.740
They didn't ask as long as time frame set up in terms of when we could meet.
00:26:15.740 --> 00:26:17.365
That's all they cared about.
00:26:18.067 --> 00:26:19.771
Makes perfect sense, makes perfect sense.
00:26:19.771 --> 00:26:23.507
And then the final piece I want to add to it is person two.
00:26:23.507 --> 00:26:26.402
They kind of ended with an open conversation.
00:26:26.402 --> 00:26:33.263
Right, they ended from a perspective of let's continue this, because we got to remember this is a 30-second commercial.
00:26:33.263 --> 00:26:43.892
It's very easy to get locked in, it's very easy to stay in that conversation like, oh, I got them hooked, but the reality is you got to leave them with a little something so that way you can have a deeper conversation later.
00:26:43.892 --> 00:26:46.840
I learned that taking your course right, I learned that very quickly.
00:26:48.041 --> 00:26:51.404
And it will make your job way easier If somebody goes.
00:26:51.404 --> 00:26:53.846
Hey, wait a second, craig, tell me a little bit.
00:26:53.846 --> 00:26:55.969
How do you drive more people to people's websites?
00:26:55.969 --> 00:27:01.232
And now you know what they want to talk about, rather than you guessing?
00:27:01.232 --> 00:27:05.616
Hmm, out of all of the different services, let me pick one and hope that one sticks.
00:27:05.616 --> 00:27:13.839
Once somebody self-identifies, hey, this is what I want to learn more about.
00:27:13.839 --> 00:27:15.623
Now they're going to be hooked into that conversation selfishly.
00:27:15.623 --> 00:27:18.108
From a sales perspective, now I can be more locked in.
00:27:18.108 --> 00:27:23.390
Rather than being really wide, I can get more narrow in terms of some of the questions I'm asking to.
00:27:23.390 --> 00:27:30.619
Again, at the end of the day, better qualify or disqualify that person I'm talking to, and so that they can do the same with me.
00:27:31.381 --> 00:27:41.895
So as a quick question here, have you ever had moments in a networking event or sales call where you almost over filtered them to the point where it made the next call difficult?
00:27:43.740 --> 00:27:46.410
So typically it's the opposite.
00:27:46.410 --> 00:27:52.940
If I don't filter them down, when we have a follow up call, it's like OK, well, what are we going to talk about?
00:27:52.940 --> 00:27:54.527
And yeah, you are a nice person.
00:27:54.527 --> 00:28:01.113
When I really filter it down, it was hey, Craig, when we met at the event, you were telling me a little bit about XYZ.
00:28:01.113 --> 00:28:03.507
Did you want to talk more about that?
00:28:03.507 --> 00:28:19.050
And now we can get into exactly what their issues are, what their challenges are, which I am a much better salesperson when the other person tells me what their problems are and what issues they're running into, rather than me trying to guess.
00:28:19.861 --> 00:28:21.144
So I'm going to put you on the spot here.
00:28:21.144 --> 00:28:22.410
I apologize in advance.
00:28:23.221 --> 00:28:24.163
Twice in one episode.
00:28:24.183 --> 00:28:28.309
this is getting a little ridiculous, I'm feeling good about myself, evan, so I'm going to give it to you Ready.
00:28:28.309 --> 00:28:30.865
What are the top three things?
00:28:30.865 --> 00:28:35.109
And it might be a reminder what are the top three things to remember about an elevator pitch?
00:28:35.109 --> 00:28:36.041
So I want them to leave.
00:28:36.041 --> 00:28:42.953
When they leave this podcast, I want them to have a very clear one, two, three steps of an elevator pitch Go.
00:28:44.700 --> 00:28:46.828
Top three things that you need for an elevator pitch.
00:28:46.828 --> 00:28:48.944
Tonality is key.
00:28:48.944 --> 00:28:52.429
You need to be conversational and not salesy.
00:28:52.429 --> 00:29:06.383
As you're talking to somebody, I don't care if you're making a cold call, I don't care if you're at a networking event you should be talking to somebody like you're talking to a friend over a cup of coffee Very relaxed, not formal, very conversational.
00:29:06.383 --> 00:29:17.631
Two, you want to focus on the problems that you solve and what problems the other person may be running into that your product or your service could help them resolve.
00:29:17.631 --> 00:29:24.182
Again, it's the what's in it for them and can you help them with something If you can.
00:29:24.201 --> 00:29:27.191
They're going to be engaged and want to continue the conversation.
00:29:27.191 --> 00:29:30.690
If not, then they're going to want to move on to the next person.
00:29:30.690 --> 00:29:35.471
The last thing end with that open-ended question.
00:29:35.471 --> 00:29:40.751
Ask them a question, because this should be a conversation starter, not a conversation stopper.
00:29:40.751 --> 00:29:55.122
A mistake that I see a lot of people make is at the end they'll either ask a yes-no question and if the answer is no, that's it, we're done, or they'll just talk and talk and talk and then finish and hope the other person kind of picks up the conversation.
00:29:55.122 --> 00:30:06.601
If you can stop, finish with an open-ended question, it's either going to get the other person to respond and talk more, which is going to help you either qualify or disqualify that.
00:30:06.601 --> 00:30:08.444
That may be a good prospect for you at this time.
00:30:09.267 --> 00:30:11.271
There you go people, there you go.
00:30:11.271 --> 00:30:14.926
He gave you the top three things and I delivered on what I promised.
00:30:14.926 --> 00:30:20.305
The most important thing in a networking event, mr Evan Poland has given it to you now.
00:30:20.305 --> 00:30:23.573
If you weren't listening, you need to be watching our podcast.
00:30:23.573 --> 00:30:27.369
So, evan, coming up, I'm going to take this part from you.
00:30:27.369 --> 00:30:29.625
We're going to start having people come in.
00:30:29.625 --> 00:30:31.151
We're going to start talking to other people.
00:30:31.151 --> 00:30:38.788
You're not going to be able to see our beautiful faces, only it's going to be more people.
00:30:38.788 --> 00:30:43.904
We're going to try and engage more people and ask them the questions that they have from a sales and a marketing perspective and how we can make this a better educational piece for you.
00:30:43.904 --> 00:30:47.073
Did you have anything you wanted to add to this, evan?
00:30:48.181 --> 00:30:57.750
I would just say that I would strongly encourage people, once this gets posted, to give us your feedback, let us know what you think are the most important pieces of an elevator pitch.
00:30:57.750 --> 00:31:07.311
Maybe you can even share funny stories, horror stories, things that you've seen other people do, that it's like, oh my God, how does that person still have a role in sales or business development?
00:31:07.311 --> 00:31:24.525
Or you know some tidbits, some pieces of advice that you could give to other people in terms of what's worked for you personally when you've been out there whether making cold calls, going to trade shows, networking events but what's really worked for you in your own personal career with your elevator pitch.
00:31:25.406 --> 00:31:25.768
All right.
00:31:25.768 --> 00:31:29.539
So this is the sales and marketing playbook unleashed.
00:31:29.539 --> 00:31:42.584
You can find us on our YouTube link, you can find us on all the major podcast formats and we are going to continue to deliver information and results and information that you guys can take in hand and run with.
00:31:42.584 --> 00:31:47.663
If you have any questions, if you have any concerns, don't be afraid to add into the comments.
00:31:47.663 --> 00:31:51.116
Evan and I are not fearful of anything you guys can deliver to us.
00:31:51.116 --> 00:31:54.326
We are going to deliver the answers to you, whether you like it or not.
00:31:54.326 --> 00:31:56.511
We're going to give it to you straight, because that's what we do.
00:31:56.511 --> 00:32:01.832
I'm Craig Andrews, that's Evan Poland, and we will talk to you guys next time.
00:32:06.820 --> 00:32:11.299
Thank you for joining us on this exhilarating journey through the world of sales and marketing.
00:32:11.299 --> 00:32:15.708
Remember, the playbook is in your hands and the possibilities are limitless.
00:32:15.708 --> 00:32:22.767
Keep exploring, experimenting and innovating, and watch as your business reaches unprecedented levels of success.
00:32:22.767 --> 00:32:33.808
Don't forget to subscribe to the Sales and Marketing Playbook Unleashed on all major podcast platforms and follow us on YouTube, facebook and LinkedIn for even more exclusive content.
00:32:33.808 --> 00:32:41.513
Until next time, keep hustling and keep winning.
00:00:02.626 --> 00:00:04.732
And welcome to the Sales and Marketing Playbook.
00:00:04.732 --> 00:00:11.714
Today, in Episode 7, we're going to talk about probably one of the most important elements of a networking event, or even a cold call.
00:00:11.714 --> 00:00:15.210
Evan's going to take the lead on this and, trust me, you want to stay tuned.
00:00:33.619 --> 00:00:36.893
Welcome to the Sales and Marketing Playbook Unleashed, the premier podcast for innovative growth strategies hosted by two seasoned experts.
00:00:36.893 --> 00:00:42.990
Meet Evan Poland, the president of Poland Performance Group, a master in sales coaching with over two decades of experience.
00:00:42.990 --> 00:00:44.783
Evan is not just a consultant.
00:00:44.783 --> 00:00:49.118
He's a force in sales, focusing on mindset planning and skill development.
00:00:49.118 --> 00:00:53.067
He's also the co-author of Selling Professional Services, the Sandler Way.
00:00:53.067 --> 00:00:57.685
Joining him is Craig Andrews, partner and CEO of Beholder Agency.
00:00:57.685 --> 00:01:05.522
An expert in growth marketing With 20 years under his belt, craig blends marketing creativity with strategy to propel businesses forward.
00:01:05.522 --> 00:01:08.745
Welcome everyone to the Sales and Marketing Playbook Unleashed.
00:01:28.161 --> 00:01:30.987
Welcome everyone to the Sales and Marketing Playbook Unleashed.
00:01:30.987 --> 00:01:34.207
I'm Craig Andrews and my partner in crime there, evan Polin.
00:01:34.207 --> 00:01:41.992
Today we're going to talk to you guys about probably one of the most important, one of the most important aspects of networking and or sales calls.
00:01:41.992 --> 00:01:50.021
And, evan, I'm not going to spoil it anymore, I'm going to give it to you, I'm not going to spoil it what is the most important thing when it comes to networking events?
00:01:51.123 --> 00:01:54.531
So, Craig, we're going to get to that in a second, but I got to admonish you a little bit.
00:01:54.531 --> 00:01:57.246
I thought we talked about this before we rolled out the episodes.
00:01:57.246 --> 00:02:01.203
We're supposed to set the bar low so that we can crawl right over it.
00:02:01.203 --> 00:02:03.787
You're saying hey, this is one of the most important things.
00:02:03.787 --> 00:02:04.448
Stay tuned.
00:02:04.448 --> 00:02:06.772
I'm feeling under a lot of pressure.
00:02:06.811 --> 00:02:08.174
You are under a lot of pressure.
00:02:08.354 --> 00:02:15.419
Yes, because you are the man and I got to make sure people know.
00:02:15.419 --> 00:02:19.802
So let's kind of illustrate the importance of the elevator pitch.
00:02:19.802 --> 00:02:22.789
Some people call it the elevator pitch 30 second commercial, however you may want to call it.
00:02:22.789 --> 00:02:28.525
But, craig, once you think back to a networking event, let me know if this has ever happened to you.
00:02:28.525 --> 00:02:37.713
You get to an event, somebody comes over, starts talking to you and their introduction turns into a three, four, five minute monologue.
00:02:37.713 --> 00:02:39.823
They haven't taken a breath yet.
00:02:39.823 --> 00:02:43.367
When somebody's coming up to you, somebody is really pitching you hard.
00:02:43.367 --> 00:02:45.510
When you're at an event, how do you feel?
00:02:47.514 --> 00:02:50.264
Confused, I would say that I'm going.
00:02:50.264 --> 00:02:52.468
Who else can I get to?
00:02:52.930 --> 00:02:54.673
help me get out of this conversation.
00:02:57.021 --> 00:03:01.590
So my pocket's got to be ringing or I've got to see somebody way over there who I need to talk to.
00:03:01.590 --> 00:03:28.627
A mistake that a lot of people make, whether it's networking events we'll talk about an elevator pitch a little bit as we get to cold calling as well is they are out there and people who aren't really sophisticated, people who are newer at sales, or sometimes people who are desperate at selling, they're trying to close somebody while they're at the appointment, somebody while they're at the appointment, while they're having the very first conversation with someone.
00:03:28.627 --> 00:03:40.325
The first thing we all need to keep in mind with an elevator pitch, with a 30-second commercial, it is a conversation opener and it is a relationship starter.
00:03:40.325 --> 00:03:48.582
Very few of us are going to close a deal in the first two to three minutes that we're having a conversation with somebody.
00:03:48.582 --> 00:03:54.322
The 30-second commercial, the elevator pitch, it's a way to open up the conversation.
00:03:55.243 --> 00:04:13.751
If I'm at a networking event, it's a way to quickly qualify or disqualify the person that I'm speaking with, to help me determine is this somebody that I want to spend more time with and is this a potential customer, or is this a really nice person but somebody who's really not going to be a good fit for me.
00:04:13.751 --> 00:04:18.666
And again, if I'm at a networking event, I may know to very quickly move on from that conversation.
00:04:18.666 --> 00:04:23.379
So, Craig, question for you how quickly in your career?
00:04:23.821 --> 00:04:27.350
have you closed the deal within the first three minutes of meeting somebody for the first time?
00:04:28.961 --> 00:04:31.329
There was that time Never, no, never once.
00:04:32.920 --> 00:04:33.584
I'm disappointed.
00:04:33.584 --> 00:04:34.406
I thought you were good.
00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:36.745
No, I'm not that good.
00:04:36.745 --> 00:04:37.567
I'm not that good.
00:04:39.459 --> 00:04:48.394
So for the overwhelming majority 99.5% of people out there, we're not going to close a deal in the first two to three minutes.
00:04:48.394 --> 00:05:05.473
We're talking to somebody, we're making that first impression, we're kind of sharing with folks who we are, what we do really important, how we help our potential clients, and that's really what we need to focus on when we're doing our elevator pitch.
00:05:06.660 --> 00:05:11.730
So real quick, kevin, when that has happened, when you've really found somebody who does it well other than yourself.
00:05:11.730 --> 00:05:14.187
What type of feedback have you heard from that?
00:05:15.459 --> 00:05:27.307
So when somebody does a really good 30-second commercial, the way you'll know if you're doing a good 30-second commercial, if somebody stops you halfway through and goes well, wait a second, Craig, can you tell me a little bit more about that?
00:05:27.307 --> 00:05:31.627
Wait, how do you do that, Geez, we're running into a lot of those kinds of things.
00:05:31.627 --> 00:05:36.607
That's when you know you've got them hooked and you've really started the conversation.
00:05:38.050 --> 00:05:47.613
An analogy that I use all the time when talking about an elevator pitch or a 30-second commercial it's like a resume for somebody looking for a job.
00:05:47.613 --> 00:05:50.988
The resume is never going to get the person the job.
00:05:50.988 --> 00:06:00.665
It's going to get the potential employer interested enough to want to learn more, to call somebody in for an interview to learn more about the candidate, to see if they might want to hire them.
00:06:00.665 --> 00:06:03.767
It's the same thing with the elevator pitch.
00:06:03.767 --> 00:06:05.934
Almost nobody out there is going to close.
00:06:05.934 --> 00:06:08.689
The same thing with the elevator pitch Almost nobody out there is going to close a deal based on the elevator pitch.
00:06:08.689 --> 00:06:10.814
But it's going to get that prospect to go.
00:06:11.761 --> 00:06:21.781
Do I want to spend three, four, five minutes talking with this person to learn a little bit more about what they do, to see if their product, to see if their service is something that we might be able to use?
00:06:21.781 --> 00:06:34.988
So that's really the ultimate goal with this elevator pitch is to start the conversation and either get somebody to raise their hand and go wait a second, tell me a little bit more about that, how do you do that?
00:06:34.988 --> 00:06:37.581
We might need that or for them to go.
00:06:37.581 --> 00:06:41.069
Yeah, geez, none of that really resonates with me.
00:06:41.069 --> 00:06:47.927
None of those things are problems that I really have, and then now we know that we may quickly want to move on and talk to the next person.
00:06:48.848 --> 00:06:59.891
So you know, I would say in kind of a bit of a contrast slightly slightly off topic you know we would use those as from a marketing perspective, as good feeders right From a from an online perspective and so forth.
00:06:59.891 --> 00:07:09.439
I know that a lot of times when you're talking about elevator pitches or sales pitches, a lot of that work would have been done somewhat beforehand from a marketing perspective.
00:07:09.439 --> 00:07:15.353
But you're talking about actually being there in front of them and kind of supporting that marketing message, right.
00:07:16.019 --> 00:07:19.170
Supporting that marketing message and actually you bring up an excellent point.
00:07:19.170 --> 00:07:28.495
When at all possible, before I launch in and talk to somebody about what I do, when I can I will ask them what they do first.
00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:32.843
Because, almost like getting some of that marketing information.
00:07:32.843 --> 00:07:53.451
If I can learn that they are the managing partner of a law firm versus the owner of a manufacturer distribution company versus an individual contributor sales rep, I can now tailor that elevator pitch to my audience and to who I'm speaking with.
00:07:53.451 --> 00:08:14.810
If I'm not asking that question up front, if I can't learn about that up front, I'm shooting in the dark a little bit and we can talk a little bit about how you may have a more general commercial when you're shooting in the dark and have a more general commercial when you're shooting in the dark and you don't really know who you're talking to, versus having a really fine, tuned, honed in elevator pitch if you know exactly who it is you're speaking with.
00:08:14.810 --> 00:08:47.922
But if you can know that up front for those of you out there who may be making lots and lots of cold calls, if you can do just a tiny bit of research before you make that call, identify what type of client you're reaching out to and, again, if your marketing has done a really good job kind of creating those different avatars, you should know up front before you pick up the phone exactly what avatar you're reaching out to, if you can be really specific with the elevator pitch, it's going to get you much better results, which actually goes to one of my first tips.
00:08:49.264 --> 00:08:55.023
With the elevator pitch, with the 30-second commercial, you do not want to just have one commercial.
00:08:55.023 --> 00:08:59.441
You don't want to memorize a commercial, you don't want to read off a script.
00:08:59.441 --> 00:09:03.788
If so, you will sound scripted and you will turn off the other person.
00:09:03.788 --> 00:09:09.982
You need to be very conversational, have a couple of bullet points, and let me give you an example.
00:09:09.982 --> 00:09:15.453
And Craig, unfortunately I think this is going to age us out a little bit to some audience.
00:09:16.320 --> 00:09:17.941
But, I think it's something important.
00:09:17.941 --> 00:09:20.142
Do you remember when you know going back 15 years ago here?
00:09:20.142 --> 00:09:24.065
Do you remember when you know going back 15, 20 years ago here?
00:09:24.065 --> 00:09:39.273
Do you remember getting that telemarketing call at home before we all had caller ID, before there was the five to 10 second delay in terms of, yeah, that person's voice popping up on the phone when you picked up the phone?
00:09:39.273 --> 00:09:45.636
How long did it take for you to identify that it was somebody cold calling you when you picked up the phone?
00:09:46.417 --> 00:09:57.090
It was very difficult to know I wouldn't have known years ago, really, because when I would get a telemarketing call, I'd be able to pick that up in three seconds.
00:09:57.090 --> 00:10:01.639
I wouldn't even know what the person was selling, correct.
00:10:01.639 --> 00:10:10.004
I could tell that they were either reading off of a script or they had memorized the script and I did one of two things.
00:10:10.004 --> 00:10:20.520
Yeah, when I got that tonality first, if it was just a regular day, I'd just hang up again they could have been selling me something I really needed at half of what I was paying.
00:10:21.121 --> 00:10:28.346
I never let them get that far because I felt salesperson automatically clicked to mentally covering my wallet, going to hang up the phone.
00:10:28.746 --> 00:10:29.950
Yeah, yeah.
00:10:30.029 --> 00:10:31.153
I'm a little bit bored.
00:10:31.153 --> 00:10:42.150
Days when I had more time I'd hand the phone over to my three-year-old and let that salesperson try to sell to my three-year-old for a couple of minutes before hanging up the phone.
00:10:42.720 --> 00:10:47.130
So you were an active torturer of telemarketers, is what you're telling me Potentially.
00:10:47.130 --> 00:10:47.732
Okay.
00:10:48.341 --> 00:10:53.289
So torture may be a little strong, but I'd like to help them make their days a little bit more interesting.
00:10:53.620 --> 00:10:57.806
Now you're telling me that you never gave them sales advice when you caught one of them on the line.
00:10:57.826 --> 00:11:04.461
No, you know, they just never seem to be open to feedback and hearing suggestions.
00:11:04.461 --> 00:11:10.177
Okay, one or two times when I gave them a couple tips and suggested they call back a day or two.
00:11:10.177 --> 00:11:12.140
I never got that return phone call.
00:11:12.662 --> 00:11:14.264
Okay, well, that's one way to do it, yes.
00:11:15.912 --> 00:11:22.403
So, going back to the main thread, though, we don't want to memorize our elevator pitch or 30-second commercial.
00:11:22.403 --> 00:11:27.456
We want to keep in mind okay, what problems do I solve for my clients?
00:11:27.456 --> 00:11:36.182
How can I help what's going to resonate with the other person and then make sure that your messaging follows through with that?
00:11:36.182 --> 00:11:42.142
I've been doing what I'm doing now for more years than I want to admit maybe 23, 24 years.
00:11:42.142 --> 00:11:49.697
My elevator pitch, my introduction, never sounds exactly the same any two times.
00:11:49.697 --> 00:11:58.592
I'll fumble over a couple of words, which is perfectly fine, Makes you come across as a real life human being and not kind of a robo caller, telemarketer, Absolutely.
00:11:58.592 --> 00:12:07.546
But I really just focus on the problems that I solve and for me personally and for all of you, I want you to think about the different audiences you're in front of.
00:12:08.551 --> 00:12:13.802
I can work with small businesses and solopreneurs and I can work with really large organizations.
00:12:13.802 --> 00:12:19.549
The elevator pitch for an individual, for me, sounds a lot different than it does for a large company.
00:12:19.549 --> 00:12:25.010
I work with service firms like law firms, accounting firms, financial services companies.
00:12:25.010 --> 00:12:27.277
I work with distributors.
00:12:27.277 --> 00:12:34.215
The elevator pitch for a service business sounds a lot different than the elevator pitch for a distributor.
00:12:34.936 --> 00:12:45.813
So for me personally again, especially if I can find out a little bit about the person before I start talking, which again is, if at all possible, when I'm in a live event, I'm going to ask them what they do first.
00:12:45.813 --> 00:12:55.222
I can then modify what I'm going to say based on the industry the person's in, based on the size of the organization.
00:12:55.222 --> 00:13:05.600
If I'm talking to a president, the things that matter to a president or a business owner were much different than what matters to an individual salesperson.
00:13:05.600 --> 00:13:09.380
So I am really molding my message to who I'm speaking with.
00:13:09.380 --> 00:13:20.124
And if you can start to do that and it takes some time and it takes some practice you will find that you're going to have more people raise their hand and say wait, Craig, tell me a little bit more about that.
00:13:20.124 --> 00:13:21.086
How do you help them?
00:13:21.086 --> 00:13:22.820
Geez, we're running into the same problems.
00:13:22.820 --> 00:13:23.705
Tell me a little bit more about that.
00:13:23.725 --> 00:13:24.288
How do you help them?
00:13:24.288 --> 00:13:37.580
Geez, we're running into the same problems and you're off to the races in terms of starting to build that relationship, qualify that opportunity and this may be a good well, first a question for you, and then what I may do is kind of model a couple of different commercials.
00:13:37.580 --> 00:14:07.535
But, craig, from the marketing side, for different companies, might they want to show up differently based on the medium where they're advertising, and may they want their website to look a little bit different than their LinkedIn presence, which might look a little bit different to what they're doing on Facebook and with targeted ads, might one set of ads look one way for one kind of avatar of a client, but if they're also looking for another one, might that look different?
00:14:08.499 --> 00:14:14.341
Without a doubt I mean similar to what we talked about in other episodes you have different avatars who are on different mediums.
00:14:14.341 --> 00:14:34.796
For instance, myself, I might be more an Instagram lover, somebody else might be more of a LinkedIn lover, somebody else might be on Twitter most of their time, and so your message has to kind of cater to who those people are, and so it kind of piggybacks on to your point in terms of how you would speak to a CEO is different how you might speak to a salesperson, for sure.
00:14:35.875 --> 00:14:39.758
Yeah, and again with elevator pitches and there's different.
00:14:39.758 --> 00:14:46.581
But I have a client right now that I'm working with, a managed services provider, an IT company they're focusing on.
00:14:46.581 --> 00:14:55.244
They work within schools and school systems, they work with manufacturing companies, they work with nonprofits, they work with law firms and accounting firms.
00:14:55.664 --> 00:14:56.524
All different avatars.
00:14:57.024 --> 00:15:05.307
All different avatars, all completely different messages, so it's important that they have the right message for the right audience.
00:15:05.849 --> 00:15:10.937
Absolutely, and even their pains that they would have so technically okay.
00:15:10.937 --> 00:15:12.440
So I'm gonna play a little devil's advocate here a little bit.
00:15:12.440 --> 00:15:15.730
So, technically, going back to the point that you said before.
00:15:15.730 --> 00:15:22.471
Before you said, in terms of messaging, that you need to be in a situation where you don't memorize it.
00:15:22.471 --> 00:15:31.613
Now, theoretically, you have some feeds or some threads between there, that's all consistent to allow people not to have to memorize it, correct.
00:15:32.355 --> 00:15:32.716
Correct.
00:15:32.716 --> 00:15:35.243
For most people I work with.
00:15:35.243 --> 00:15:38.350
They're never shocked at why a client works with them.
00:15:38.350 --> 00:15:45.344
There's typically three or four or five problems that their product or their service solves for their client.
00:15:45.344 --> 00:15:49.299
So I just need to keep in mind okay, why do people work with me?
00:15:49.299 --> 00:15:51.957
What are the major problems that I solve?
00:15:51.957 --> 00:16:00.840
And again, it might sound a little bit different, you might use different words based on different industries, but for the most part it's going to be the same three to five.
00:16:00.840 --> 00:16:07.600
So that's how you're able to just kind of keep in mind okay, these are the five or six different problems that I solve.
00:16:07.600 --> 00:16:11.115
If I'm talking to this industry, I'm going to pull these three.
00:16:11.115 --> 00:16:14.130
If I'm talking to this industry, I'm going to pull these three.
00:16:14.854 --> 00:16:19.311
And the other thing that I know that you and your firm work with professional services firms as well.
00:16:19.993 --> 00:16:28.460
The other thing that I'll sometimes work with my clients on is let's say that I'm working with an attorney and let's say that that attorney is in litigation.
00:16:29.461 --> 00:16:36.191
Well, it's really hard to go out to a networking event and go up and ask if people have just been sued or they're ready to sue someone.
00:16:36.191 --> 00:16:41.160
But if they are with a firm that's got multiple different practice areas.
00:16:41.160 --> 00:16:54.922
They may go in with their elevator pitch and talk about one or two problems that they help their clients with when it comes to litigation, but then they may mention two or three problems that the firm solves for their clients.
00:16:54.922 --> 00:17:00.270
That way, if somebody doesn't have a litigation matter right away, they might say well, oh, wait a second.
00:17:00.270 --> 00:17:03.557
You guys are a full service firm, why don't you be able to help me with X, y, z?
00:17:03.557 --> 00:17:11.454
And now that attorney can identify an opportunity that may be great for the firm that they can hand off to one of their partners.
00:17:11.454 --> 00:17:22.233
But if they'd gone in with such a narrow focus that I'm only looking for people who need litigation, the chances that they come out of those events with work would be few and far between.
00:17:23.135 --> 00:17:23.436
Got it.
00:17:23.436 --> 00:17:32.873
So you want to keep it broad enough so that when you get to the situation of the 30-second commercial in the networking event, you have a reason to do the follow-up call once you get back to your office.
00:17:33.674 --> 00:17:34.195
Absolutely.
00:17:34.537 --> 00:17:48.070
Or even better, if you're doing it right, you can have had then the next five to seven minutes of a conversation with somebody to go you know what.
00:17:48.090 --> 00:17:50.563
That's not the right person for me to follow up with because, based on what I shared, they don't run into any of those issues.
00:17:50.563 --> 00:17:51.405
They don't run into any of those problems.
00:17:51.405 --> 00:17:51.847
So, really nice person.
00:17:51.847 --> 00:17:56.424
Maybe I'll see them if I go back to that organization, but no need to follow up with that one.
00:17:56.424 --> 00:18:06.444
But this person over here, their eyes lit up when I talked about how I help different clients and they started sharing with me how they're running into a couple of those issues.
00:18:06.444 --> 00:18:27.076
So if we didn't schedule an appointment right there and then because these days everybody's got their mobile devices with them, you know that within the next day or two and best practice we don't want to wait more than 48 hours hours we're going to follow up with that specific person with specific talking points.
00:18:27.076 --> 00:18:31.614
Based on the conversation that we had with them and the issues that we identified that they may be running into, that we can help them with.
00:18:32.556 --> 00:18:33.397
That makes a lot of sense.
00:18:33.778 --> 00:18:38.357
So you touched upon something that I thought was very valid and I want to make sure it gets the emphasis it deserves.
00:18:38.357 --> 00:18:57.042
Part of the elevator pitch is to determine if they don't qualify for what you're going to, right, so that should be your little red ticker that says this person may not be one wrong word valuable, but time spent on them in that networking event you need to spend less time with is ultimately the point.
00:18:57.849 --> 00:18:59.574
Absolutely For me personally.
00:18:59.574 --> 00:19:09.920
I'm bringing a pen into an event with me and, again, if somebody's physically giving me a card, I'm writing on the back yeah, one or two notes.
00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:11.691
Hey, this is what they look like.
00:19:11.691 --> 00:19:16.031
Hey, these were the problems that they have and this is what we talked about to know, to follow up with them.
00:19:16.031 --> 00:19:19.117
Or, hey, Craig was a nice guy.
00:19:19.117 --> 00:19:21.722
There's really no fit, no need to follow up.
00:19:21.722 --> 00:19:33.696
Maybe I'll put them into the CRM so that if we've got a newsletter or something like that that goes out and if things change for him, maybe he reaches out, but not one that makes sense to actively reach out to.
00:19:34.298 --> 00:19:34.880
That makes sense.
00:19:35.580 --> 00:19:42.019
Craig, do you think it would be helpful for me to kind of give a very traditional elevator pitch that has some of the mistakes that people make?
00:19:42.801 --> 00:19:43.343
I'm up for it.
00:19:43.343 --> 00:19:44.263
I'm up for the challenge.
00:19:44.263 --> 00:19:44.565
Let's go.
00:19:45.691 --> 00:19:47.718
So so what I'm going to do is model two things.
00:19:48.239 --> 00:19:48.400
Okay.
00:19:48.829 --> 00:19:50.718
First is a traditional elevator pitch.
00:19:50.718 --> 00:19:58.156
Then I'll give the kind of elevator pitch that I typically give to see if you can notice any differences between the two.
00:19:58.679 --> 00:19:58.900
Okay.
00:19:59.651 --> 00:20:06.201
To really help folks with again some of the nuances that they might want to consider when they're out there talking to folks.
00:20:06.201 --> 00:20:12.462
Ok, ok, so my first elevator pitch this will be a very traditional pitch.
00:20:12.462 --> 00:20:17.479
May, yeah, man, may get you that person.
00:20:17.479 --> 00:20:19.262
That starts to kind of fade out a little bit.
00:20:19.262 --> 00:20:24.731
But a very traditional elevator pitch might sound like this and I'll do it for myself and my own firm.
00:20:24.731 --> 00:20:30.544
So a traditional elevator pitch might sound like this Hi, my name is Evan Poland.
00:20:31.190 --> 00:20:33.355
I'm the president of Poland Performance Group.
00:20:33.355 --> 00:20:38.013
Poland Performance Group is located in South Jersey, right outside of Philadelphia.
00:20:38.013 --> 00:20:46.882
I have a sales coaching and sales consulting firm and I work with people who are looking to grow and increase their businesses.
00:20:46.882 --> 00:20:57.404
So I will work with people and provide coaching, consulting, training around how do we get in front of more of the right opportunities and what should that sales plan look like?
00:20:57.404 --> 00:21:02.363
I'll work with folks on how do we best qualify or disqualify opportunities.
00:21:02.363 --> 00:21:07.557
I'll help teach people how they can do a better job getting referrals and introductions.
00:21:07.557 --> 00:21:15.337
I'll work with people individually, I'll work with people in groups and I'm really looking to work with companies and work with firms if they're looking to drive revenue.
00:21:15.337 --> 00:21:19.000
So if you know of anybody who's looking to bring in more business.
00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:21.317
I'd love to have a conversation with them.
00:21:21.317 --> 00:21:23.115
So that's a traditional pitch.
00:21:23.115 --> 00:21:24.464
That's traditional, okay, I'd love to have a conversation with them.
00:21:24.464 --> 00:21:25.069
So that's a traditional pitch.
00:21:25.430 --> 00:21:26.153
That's traditional.
00:21:26.153 --> 00:21:27.076
Okay, I'm with you.
00:21:28.692 --> 00:21:31.361
Okay, let me give you the kind of pitch that I typically give.
00:21:33.092 --> 00:21:35.298
This is a pitch that you would normally give when you're out.
00:21:36.191 --> 00:21:39.539
This is what I might do if I'm out in a networking event out of the trade show.
00:21:39.539 --> 00:22:00.154
Okay, and again, after I've asked the other person what they do, I'll say hey, my name's Evan, my firm is Poland Performance Group and I help business owners and managing partners of small to mid-sized firms who are frustrated because they're just not growing their business as quickly as they would like.
00:22:00.154 --> 00:22:10.383
A lot of the firms and the companies I help they know that they do great work, but when they meet new prospects it takes way longer than it should to close a deal.
00:22:10.383 --> 00:22:18.777
They're getting all kinds of pushback on their fee and on their rates, and there's a lot of firms and companies that I've helped that do great work.
00:22:18.777 --> 00:22:25.061
Their clients say great things about them and they're just not getting as many referrals and introductions as they know they should be getting.
00:22:25.061 --> 00:22:28.298
Which of those are challenges that you guys are running into?
00:22:28.298 --> 00:22:34.492
So did you notice any difference between the two pitches?
00:22:35.461 --> 00:22:40.051
Now I'll say this I'm a marketer now, so take it easy on me, all right.
00:22:40.051 --> 00:22:48.320
But what I'll say for sure is that the first one seemed to be a little bit more what's the word?
00:22:48.320 --> 00:22:53.250
A little bit more individualistic, or about the salesperson Right, more individualistic or about the salesperson right?
00:22:53.250 --> 00:23:00.859
The second one was a little open right.
00:23:00.859 --> 00:23:02.166
So unfortunately, I can see it best from a marketing perspective.
00:23:02.166 --> 00:23:03.894
The second one gave me a little bit more from a vision perspective of how I can fit.
00:23:03.894 --> 00:23:09.579
So I guess it's talking a little bit more about the customer in a sense, where the first one's talking more about the salesperson.
00:23:09.660 --> 00:23:11.965
Me, me, me right, me, me, me.
00:23:11.965 --> 00:23:16.913
Let me tell you about what I do, let me tell you about why I'm great and, yeah, this is why you should be working with me.
00:23:16.913 --> 00:23:19.021
And these are all my products, these are all my services.
00:23:19.021 --> 00:23:23.260
The second one you're absolutely right, it's all about the other person, the customer.
00:23:23.260 --> 00:23:23.902
Yeah.
00:23:23.902 --> 00:23:28.531
Now question for you yeah, yeah, what is the other person care more about?
00:23:28.531 --> 00:23:36.490
Do they care more about problems of theirs that they can be helped with, or do they care more about the litany of all of my products and services?
00:23:37.192 --> 00:23:40.544
I got news for you, especially if it's a commercial right, and I'm sitting in that working event.
00:23:40.544 --> 00:23:42.150
I'm not worried about you, unfortunately.
00:23:42.150 --> 00:23:44.286
I'm worried about what you could do for me.
00:23:44.326 --> 00:23:45.288
I thought we were friends.
00:23:48.040 --> 00:23:50.829
No offense, but I'm there to figure out for myself for sure.
00:23:51.780 --> 00:23:56.320
I'll go back to something we brought up in an earlier episode the, the, the with them, the.
00:23:56.320 --> 00:24:04.180
What's in it for me If I can't hit on that, what's in it for me for that other person in the first 20 to 30 seconds?
00:24:04.180 --> 00:24:06.519
I'm going to get that head on a swivel.
00:24:06.519 --> 00:24:08.666
They're looking for anybody else in the room to talk.
00:24:08.666 --> 00:24:11.201
Talk to Yep, by the way.
00:24:11.201 --> 00:24:24.260
For those of you making cold calls, you really need to punch somebody in the face with the problems that you can help them with and how it's all about them, because if you don't do it in the first 10 to 15 seconds, they're hanging up on you or they're hiring you off the phone.
00:24:24.260 --> 00:24:34.553
So it's got to be all about the other person and what's in it for them and how they may be helped and how they may be benefited if they talk to you for the next two or three minutes after that.
00:24:35.560 --> 00:24:36.825
And so to piggyback on that.
00:24:36.825 --> 00:24:39.050
The same thing is true for marketing.
00:24:39.050 --> 00:24:45.491
I can't sit there and give them a list of features and benefits if I haven't figured out what their problem is in that industry.
00:24:45.491 --> 00:24:46.554
So that makes sense.
00:24:46.554 --> 00:24:50.911
I think the other thing that I picked up out of it that you were slightly disqualifying yourself as person one.
00:24:50.911 --> 00:24:54.160
Right, you're limiting yourself from a size perspective and I talk about this that you were slightly disqualifying yourself as person one.
00:24:54.160 --> 00:25:00.221
Right, you're limiting yourself from a size perspective and I talk about this from a marketing perspective all the time, unfortunately.
00:25:00.221 --> 00:25:03.811
Fortunately, post-covid, we all have expanded our wings a little bit.
00:25:03.811 --> 00:25:16.450
So if I sit back and say I think you were saying you're from South Jersey or something of that fashion I've limited to my scope of it and I'm automatically thinking well, you can't help me over here in Texas, or you can't help me over here in Texas or you can't help me in Florida, right?
00:25:16.670 --> 00:25:27.948
So the second person quote unquote persona reached out further and wider and again considered my problem, because I don't know what resources you have.
00:25:27.948 --> 00:25:31.074
So the second person created a picture, created a vision of that pain.
00:25:31.074 --> 00:25:34.664
I didn't care about where you were sitting at at that point created a vision of that pain.
00:25:34.684 --> 00:25:40.653
I didn't care about where you were sitting at at that point, right, and I've got to tell you, especially post-COVID, things are much different.
00:25:40.653 --> 00:25:50.825
People tend not to care where I'm from, and if they do, then they will ask me and then we can have that conversation.
00:25:50.825 --> 00:25:53.028
But I got to tell you, most people don't ask me.
00:25:53.028 --> 00:26:00.082
My last two clients one's located out in San Diego, one's located in Israel they didn't care.
00:26:00.082 --> 00:26:04.031
When I was located doing everything over Zoom and Teams didn't matter.
00:26:04.031 --> 00:26:10.012
But if I had led with that better chance I would have gotten myself disqualified early on.
00:26:10.012 --> 00:26:11.739
They didn't care.
00:26:11.739 --> 00:26:15.740
They didn't ask as long as time frame set up in terms of when we could meet.
00:26:15.740 --> 00:26:17.365
That's all they cared about.
00:26:18.067 --> 00:26:19.771
Makes perfect sense, makes perfect sense.
00:26:19.771 --> 00:26:23.507
And then the final piece I want to add to it is person two.
00:26:23.507 --> 00:26:26.402
They kind of ended with an open conversation.
00:26:26.402 --> 00:26:33.263
Right, they ended from a perspective of let's continue this, because we got to remember this is a 30-second commercial.
00:26:33.263 --> 00:26:43.892
It's very easy to get locked in, it's very easy to stay in that conversation like, oh, I got them hooked, but the reality is you got to leave them with a little something so that way you can have a deeper conversation later.
00:26:43.892 --> 00:26:46.840
I learned that taking your course right, I learned that very quickly.
00:26:48.041 --> 00:26:51.404
And it will make your job way easier If somebody goes.
00:26:51.404 --> 00:26:53.846
Hey, wait a second, craig, tell me a little bit.
00:26:53.846 --> 00:26:55.969
How do you drive more people to people's websites?
00:26:55.969 --> 00:27:01.232
And now you know what they want to talk about, rather than you guessing?
00:27:01.232 --> 00:27:05.616
Hmm, out of all of the different services, let me pick one and hope that one sticks.
00:27:05.616 --> 00:27:13.839
Once somebody self-identifies, hey, this is what I want to learn more about.
00:27:13.839 --> 00:27:15.623
Now they're going to be hooked into that conversation selfishly.
00:27:15.623 --> 00:27:18.108
From a sales perspective, now I can be more locked in.
00:27:18.108 --> 00:27:23.390
Rather than being really wide, I can get more narrow in terms of some of the questions I'm asking to.
00:27:23.390 --> 00:27:30.619
Again, at the end of the day, better qualify or disqualify that person I'm talking to, and so that they can do the same with me.
00:27:31.381 --> 00:27:41.895
So as a quick question here, have you ever had moments in a networking event or sales call where you almost over filtered them to the point where it made the next call difficult?
00:27:43.740 --> 00:27:46.410
So typically it's the opposite.
00:27:46.410 --> 00:27:52.940
If I don't filter them down, when we have a follow up call, it's like OK, well, what are we going to talk about?
00:27:52.940 --> 00:27:54.527
And yeah, you are a nice person.
00:27:54.527 --> 00:28:01.113
When I really filter it down, it was hey, Craig, when we met at the event, you were telling me a little bit about XYZ.
00:28:01.113 --> 00:28:03.507
Did you want to talk more about that?
00:28:03.507 --> 00:28:19.050
And now we can get into exactly what their issues are, what their challenges are, which I am a much better salesperson when the other person tells me what their problems are and what issues they're running into, rather than me trying to guess.
00:28:19.861 --> 00:28:21.144
So I'm going to put you on the spot here.
00:28:21.144 --> 00:28:22.410
I apologize in advance.
00:28:23.221 --> 00:28:24.163
Twice in one episode.
00:28:24.183 --> 00:28:28.309
this is getting a little ridiculous, I'm feeling good about myself, evan, so I'm going to give it to you Ready.
00:28:28.309 --> 00:28:30.865
What are the top three things?
00:28:30.865 --> 00:28:35.109
And it might be a reminder what are the top three things to remember about an elevator pitch?
00:28:35.109 --> 00:28:36.041
So I want them to leave.
00:28:36.041 --> 00:28:42.953
When they leave this podcast, I want them to have a very clear one, two, three steps of an elevator pitch Go.
00:28:44.700 --> 00:28:46.828
Top three things that you need for an elevator pitch.
00:28:46.828 --> 00:28:48.944
Tonality is key.
00:28:48.944 --> 00:28:52.429
You need to be conversational and not salesy.
00:28:52.429 --> 00:29:06.383
As you're talking to somebody, I don't care if you're making a cold call, I don't care if you're at a networking event you should be talking to somebody like you're talking to a friend over a cup of coffee Very relaxed, not formal, very conversational.
00:29:06.383 --> 00:29:17.631
Two, you want to focus on the problems that you solve and what problems the other person may be running into that your product or your service could help them resolve.
00:29:17.631 --> 00:29:24.182
Again, it's the what's in it for them and can you help them with something If you can.
00:29:24.201 --> 00:29:27.191
They're going to be engaged and want to continue the conversation.
00:29:27.191 --> 00:29:30.690
If not, then they're going to want to move on to the next person.
00:29:30.690 --> 00:29:35.471
The last thing end with that open-ended question.
00:29:35.471 --> 00:29:40.751
Ask them a question, because this should be a conversation starter, not a conversation stopper.
00:29:40.751 --> 00:29:55.122
A mistake that I see a lot of people make is at the end they'll either ask a yes-no question and if the answer is no, that's it, we're done, or they'll just talk and talk and talk and then finish and hope the other person kind of picks up the conversation.
00:29:55.122 --> 00:30:06.601
If you can stop, finish with an open-ended question, it's either going to get the other person to respond and talk more, which is going to help you either qualify or disqualify that.
00:30:06.601 --> 00:30:08.444
That may be a good prospect for you at this time.
00:30:09.267 --> 00:30:11.271
There you go people, there you go.
00:30:11.271 --> 00:30:14.926
He gave you the top three things and I delivered on what I promised.
00:30:14.926 --> 00:30:20.305
The most important thing in a networking event, mr Evan Poland has given it to you now.
00:30:20.305 --> 00:30:23.573
If you weren't listening, you need to be watching our podcast.
00:30:23.573 --> 00:30:27.369
So, evan, coming up, I'm going to take this part from you.
00:30:27.369 --> 00:30:29.625
We're going to start having people come in.
00:30:29.625 --> 00:30:31.151
We're going to start talking to other people.
00:30:31.151 --> 00:30:38.788
You're not going to be able to see our beautiful faces, only it's going to be more people.
00:30:38.788 --> 00:30:43.904
We're going to try and engage more people and ask them the questions that they have from a sales and a marketing perspective and how we can make this a better educational piece for you.
00:30:43.904 --> 00:30:47.073
Did you have anything you wanted to add to this, evan?
00:30:48.181 --> 00:30:57.750
I would just say that I would strongly encourage people, once this gets posted, to give us your feedback, let us know what you think are the most important pieces of an elevator pitch.
00:30:57.750 --> 00:31:07.311
Maybe you can even share funny stories, horror stories, things that you've seen other people do, that it's like, oh my God, how does that person still have a role in sales or business development?
00:31:07.311 --> 00:31:24.525
Or you know some tidbits, some pieces of advice that you could give to other people in terms of what's worked for you personally when you've been out there whether making cold calls, going to trade shows, networking events but what's really worked for you in your own personal career with your elevator pitch.
00:31:25.406 --> 00:31:25.768
All right.
00:31:25.768 --> 00:31:29.539
So this is the sales and marketing playbook unleashed.
00:31:29.539 --> 00:31:42.584
You can find us on our YouTube link, you can find us on all the major podcast formats and we are going to continue to deliver information and results and information that you guys can take in hand and run with.
00:31:42.584 --> 00:31:47.663
If you have any questions, if you have any concerns, don't be afraid to add into the comments.
00:31:47.663 --> 00:31:51.116
Evan and I are not fearful of anything you guys can deliver to us.
00:31:51.116 --> 00:31:54.326
We are going to deliver the answers to you, whether you like it or not.
00:31:54.326 --> 00:31:56.511
We're going to give it to you straight, because that's what we do.
00:31:56.511 --> 00:32:01.832
I'm Craig Andrews, that's Evan Poland, and we will talk to you guys next time.
00:32:06.820 --> 00:32:11.299
Thank you for joining us on this exhilarating journey through the world of sales and marketing.
00:32:11.299 --> 00:32:15.708
Remember, the playbook is in your hands and the possibilities are limitless.
00:32:15.708 --> 00:32:22.767
Keep exploring, experimenting and innovating, and watch as your business reaches unprecedented levels of success.
00:32:22.767 --> 00:32:33.808
Don't forget to subscribe to the Sales and Marketing Playbook Unleashed on all major podcast platforms and follow us on YouTube, facebook and LinkedIn for even more exclusive content.
00:32:33.808 --> 00:32:41.513
Until next time, keep hustling and keep winning.
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