Beyond the Elevator Pitch: How Marketing Can Help Sales Build a High-Credibility Conversation

A companys initial contact with a prospective customer leaves little margin for error. The first conversation is the most critical and least forgiving point of the entire sales process. Within the first 20 seconds you must simultaneously establish relevancy and credibility—or you will be dismissed as just more marketing noise in the relentless barrage of sellers looking for attention.

Consider how your company’s salespeople respond when a prospect asks the simple question, “What do you do?” Do they respond with a cleverly crafted and crisply canned “elevator pitch”? All too often, listeners react to this kind of pitch by saying, “Oh, really … that’s interesting.” Of course, that polite response is a good indicator that they’re not interested at all. Indeed, in the prospect’s eyes, we diminish our own credibility by presenting ourselves as just another self-absorbed vendor. Opportunities simply never reveal themselves, because our introductory positioning statements shut them down.

If an opportunity is in fact real, the response we should be getting is: “That sounds like us. How do you do that?” Another positive outcome could be, “We’ve been discussing that problem. Maybe you should be talking to ….” The key to making this conversational transition is to describe what you do by describing what your current customers were experiencing before you helped them.

This is where marketing comes in. With its understanding of customers, marketing can help salespeople discuss issues that prospects may be experiencing, without coming across as certain that they are experiencing them or that your company can resolve them. If your prospects are indeed experiencing those issues, they will probably be very open to exploring them further with you. This is a powerful way of turning a brief opening monologue into a value-rich dialogue that leads to real business results. When your prospects believe that you understand their business, their responsibilities, and therefore their problem, they will likely believe that you have a solution to it. At that point, you will have established relevancy.

Consider that initial moment of contact. It must be carefully prepared, highly relevant, and thoroughly rehearsed. Here is an example of the format:

We work with companies that are facing escalating manufacturing costs and are looking at the possibilities of outsourcing. We help them analyze the risks and potential benefits of outsourcing and have the capabilities to provide the manufacturing services if their situation points to outsourcing as a best alternative.

This takes roughly 20 seconds to say, but it covers a lot of ground. Let’s break the statements down:

• We work with companies that are facing escalating manufacturing costs and are looking at the possibilities of outsourcing. This statement speaks to relevancy and positioning. You describe who you are by the type of company you serve and major symptoms the prospect might be experiencing. The customer now knows who you are and should be thinking, “That sounds like me.”
• We help them analyze the risks and potential benefits of outsourcing. We now introduce more specific relevancy via the concern they would typically be struggling with. Notice the balance of analyzing the “risks and potential benefits.”
• … and have the capabilities to provide the manufacturing services if their situation points to outsourcing as a best alternative. More relevancy. Here we state the value we can provide.

As you can see, this really isn’t a pitch in the conventional sense. There is actually a dialogue taking place within this short monologue. You are addressing, in sequence, the questions that are popping up in the customer’s mind. Who is this person? What does he do? Is this about me? Is it an issue I’m experiencing? When we establish relevancy, we are providing customers with the information they need to answer these questions, and they invariably agree to continue the conversation.

Unfortunately, too few companies take this matter very seriously. It is typically handled in an ad hoc, uncoordinated way and in a presentation format that salespeople have used so often with so many contacts that it becomes even more embedded and more problematic. Many times, introductions or “pitches” like these are multiplied across the sales force. Constantly undermining one’s credibility takes a major toll on market penetration and profitability for both the individual salespeople and the companies they represent.

Considering how much is at stake with regard to initial impressions and their impact on perceived credibility, it is surprising how few enterprises actually address this issue in a thoughtful and disciplined fashion. Marketing can take a lead role in helping sales craft a relevant introduction to the company, one that invites real dialogue. It must also ensure that all supporting marketing materials and sales collateral speak to customer issues rather than company capabilities.

There is much to gain—or lose—in the opening moments of a conversation. It is critical to take the disciplined steps necessary to build credibility in that initial contact, ensuring that the conversation continues and deepens. Otherwise, your prospective customer will always be just that.

Jeff Thull is president and CEO of Prime Resource Group, where he has worked with companies such as 3M, Microsoft, Shell, Siemens, Citicorp, IBM, and Georgia-Pacific as well as many start-up companies. He is also the author of a number of bestselling books, including his most recent, Exceptional Selling: How the Best Connect and Win in High-Stakes Sales. To download the first chapter of Thull’s new book, visit www.primeresource.com.

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