Imagine that you are standing by the elevator on the top floor of a 30-story office building. The elevator arrives. You step in. Just as the doors are closing, another person jumps in beside you.

"Hi!" they say, "What do you do?"

You've now got until the elevator reaches the ground floor to tell them and (maybe) sell them.

What do you say?

You give them your 'elevator speech'. The elevator speech is a 30 second sales talk. It is used whenever you are AMBUSHED.

Yikes!

You can be ambushed in the elevator, in a checkout queue, on the bus, by your old school friend, aunt, future client or by ANYBODY who says, out of the blue "And what do you do?"

You can also ambush others with your elevator speech. It is the BEST thing to say to a voicemail robot or an executive's screener who won't allow you to talk to 'the MAN'.

And the TRUE elevator speech offers your SOLUTION to a PROBLEM.

As we all agree in the Community, modern sales -- especially modern adsales -- revolves around solving problems for your client. If they don't have a problem which you can solve, then they don't need you – do they?

This is not just true of adsales but all products and services.

If you've just put a new set of tyres on your car, then you don't need a set of tyres, do you? If you've just insured the contents of your house for more than they are worth, then you don't need ANOTHER house contents insurance policy ... and so on.

Which is why the first step in the DIPADA sales method which we use in the Community is :
D – DEFINE the problem

(The next steps go on to solve it).

So the first step of any 'elevator speech' is to define the problem which you SOLVE BEST.

Then create your script with two parts:

1. Part one. ALWAYS begins "You know how ... (STATE THE PROBLEM)"

Or

"You know how ... (DESCRIBE THE PAIN)"

2. Part two. "Well, I fix that." ("What I do is ... I solve that problem" or "You know, I cure that pain and make it go away FOREVER").

This can be used by all salespeople:

For selling products: "You know how some people find that every time that they bend down, they get a shooting pain up their spine? Well, we have a pill which can cure this pain ..."

For selling services: " You know how people suffer every year when the time comes to work out their taxes? Well, we take away that suffering by doing it for them ..."

And for advertising salespeople? With nearly all adspace sales, the problem we solve BEST is 'Not Enough Customers'.

Most people advertise because they want to find MORE people to sell their 'stuff' to (whatever their stuff is).

Which means that the very first words YOU say are:

"You know how most business owners today are desperate to find new customers, so that they can grow and prosper, expand the business and help more people -- instead of going bust ...?"

The Other Guy: "Yes"

You: "Well, I help businesses find new customers -- and make more new sales, and more profits than they ever have before."

The Other Guy: Oh.

Then one of two things happens. If The Other Guy is a business person who also needs some new customers he'll say:
"Wow! Could you find some for me?"

Or

If The Other Guy is a school teacher or fire inspector or a business person who DOESN'T want any new customers, they'll say: "How interesting." Then they'll walk away.

Why is this so powerful?

It's powerful because you have just Cold Called the other guy. You've checked him out -- but without asking him for business. You have laid out what you do and invited him to respond. He can do so or not, without pressure.

Take the elevator script for get-away-car-drivers: "You know how when you're robbing a bank, and you burst out onto the pavement clutching the loot  -- you can never find a taxi when you need one? Well, I sit there with my car and can get a heist out of town quicker than you can yell "Cops!".

If you're a stick-up guy looking for a driver you say: "Tell me more". If you're not, you just say: "How interesting" and walk away. V e r y   g e n t l y.

This is the basic elevator speech. Now let's add some twists. The first time I heard the speech (long, long before you were born little grasshopper) it came at me from an insurance salesman. We were standing around at a party, and the quickest way of emptying the room at ANY party is to say "Hi. I sell insurance".

"You know" he began, "how people hate buying insurance. The hassle, the pushy salespeople, the hundred different policies and hidden clauses ..."

Me: "You bet!"

Him: "Well I BUY insurance for people, to save them the grief."

Me "Wow."

Pause.

Him: "Would you like me to buy some for you?"

Aaagh! Gotcha! He was, of course, an insurance salesman who worked for a broker, rather than a life company. His TWIST was the: "Would you like me to buy some for you."

You can also use this, when you believe that you are dealing with a genuine prospect.

You: "You know how it's critical to get consumers INTO a store so that they can see what's on offer? If they don't come in -- they can't buy, can they? Well what I do is: find truckloads of the right consumers and bring them into stores, so that the store owners can sell to them!"

Pause.

"Would you like me to find some for you?"

HOW you will bring in the punters is then the subject of your full sales conversation (coming up in bite-sized chunks over the next few weeks). The 'elevator speech' is your Attention-grabbing and Quick-qualifying script. You briefly describe a problem, and state that you can solve it.

Again. You describe a problem or pain and say you can fix it. That's all. If the person you are talking to has the problem, they'll ask you to tell them some more. If the problem you solve is irrelevant to them -- they won't. No fuss, no muss.

That's your plain vanilla 'elevator script'. Of course as an adsales expert, you'll add some tasty flavours to it. Either:

Juice up the problem. Or. Add spice to your solution.

Warning. You DON'T want to make your 'workday' elevator script too exotic. Don't add the extras to the elevator script you use to a total stranger in a low-key setting. The extras can make it sound 'salesy', like a high-pressure pitch. If you're running a marathon and somewhere around the 14 mile point another runner dressed as a white rabbit pulls up alongside and asks 'What do you do?' just stick with the plain vanilla facts: "You know the XXX problem? I fix it".

BUT. Imagine you're at a sales convention or some high-energy event and there's some serious bragging to be done. Everybody looks at you and EXPECTS you to put some major spin on the ball. Now what?

You just juice up the problem.