The Elevator Pitch is Dead. Long Live the Story. (Sales Series, Part 4)

Last week, we hosted Sessions at Home, the industry’s only virtual sales conference for distributors and suppliers, and during the conference, an interesting opportunity turned into a massive challenge for nearly all attendees.

Halfway through the event, everyone participated in a net+working moment, a half-hour lightning round where each person was asked to share their “elevator pitch” in 3-min windows of time with a rotating group of fellow attendees. Paired with five different peers, participants had an opportunity to practice their pitch and share their unique value proposition: what truly distinguishes them from the competition. 

The surprising part: nearly everyone -pros and newbies alike- struggled with this exercise. 

Why did everyone struggle with this and why do you struggle with answering the simple question: Who are you and what do you do? After all, it shouldn’t be that hard. You work in this business day-in and day-out. It’s your profession, it’s what you give your life to, and it’s the simplest question to answer. 

Truth is, we all struggle with answering this question because we strive to not be seen as a commodity. But in our attempt to be creative with our response, we end up just confusing the listener and finally ... mumbling a weak reply to try and make sense of it all (something like, “mugs, hats, pens with your logo on it” or “creative branded merch”), which immediately labels you as a commodity. 

Our mental hangup is that we think there is one simple answer to this question. There isn’t. The answer is not in a formulaic equation. It’s not in a mission statement, nor a vision statement. The way to answer this question is surprisingly very simple and there are two secrets to solidly sharing a successful, creative pitch and they are:

I) Lead with a provocative, but short opening line:

In this opening line, you are setting the stage, you want to be compelling, somewhat mysterious. Surprising even. But above all, you want to be brief. Because this line serves as a bridge between you and your listener, but an important bridge, something that entices your audience to want to follow you across to discover what’s on the other side. Journalists call this “the lede” a lead statement that sets the tone, the mood, it’s the hook: it grabs your audience’s attention. And you want to lead with a statement that is electric with emotion. For our industry, here are some examples of a lead statement:

• We create memorable moments. 

• We surprise and delight! 

• We make branded products simple. 

• We are professional motivators.

• We create calls-to-action!

• We are the make-things-happen medium! 

• We are a fan factory! 

Now, you might be thinking: Those don’t seem magical enough, and they certainly don’t answer -entirely- what we do. Of course, they don’t. But your lead statement isn’t the answer, it should create in the buyer’s or prospect’s mind curiosity: “Tell me more” should be their internal response.

In her book Everybody Writes, Ann Handley writes that when it comes to the lede, the lead, you could also “Start with a quote. Use an analogy. Make a bold statement. Whatever you do, do it up - because your lead sentences are among the most important words you’ll string together.” Ann’s talking about writing here but the same logic (“do it up”) can be applied to a verbal opener.

You’ll come up with better ones than my list above, but just remember, the statement is the lead, what follows the lead is far more important, and the reason why your audience will actually remember what you share...

II) Don’t follow the lead with a pitch; follow it with the simplest reply of all … 

Even the most experienced writer will tell you, words are clumsy bricks. Language has limits, it’s not as malleable as we’d like, and our communication is never as concise as we’d hope. Many of us struggle with clearly communicating what we do because what we do is complex. We contain a treasure trove of details, from thousands of products to hundreds of decoration techniques. These details swirl around in the mind-stew of our memory. When called upon to pluck a few morsels from this mind-stew and serve a simple dish that delivers what we do, we choke, or, rather, we vomit a dozen unnecessary details on the plate, and we lose our audience.

Which is why the simple act of sharing a story is a super-secret for both the pro and the amateur. 

For the pro, a story diverts the deluge of details swirling in your head into a beautiful stream of thought. For the amateur who doesn’t have experience and therefore not enough history, they are actually better off than the pro, they won’t overcomplicate what is really a simple task: telling a story about a cool project that you and your team accomplished for a client. 

After you open with a line that whets their appetite, you tell a story that fits that particular audience best and works in that particular moment in time. Telling the right story at the right time is the real secret to enticing your audience. Depending on the sales situation you find yourself in, you could pivot to a story about a complex, near-impossible kitting project you pulled off for a customer. Or, you could share a story (with images) of a beautiful, one-of-a-kind merchandise collection you created that no one else can emulate. Each year, you create hundreds of compelling projects, you have a vast reservoir of stories to draw upon (to help with this, we created a worksheet to unlock your most powerful stories). 

The key to remember: the story you share must make an emotional connection with your audience. Storytellers call this connection empathy, and the best storytellers are empathetic narrators: you want your audience to identify with the characters and the situation in the story, in other words: your audience needs to see themselves at the center of the narrative. Kendall Haven, an expert in story science and story structure calls this motive matching: the character’s motive in the story must match that of the intended audience.

Seth Godin, in a post on why the elevator pitch doesn’t work, wrote “Too often, we feel rejected when in fact, all that’s happened is a mismatch of needs, narratives and what’s on offer.” 

Seth states that we should, instead, ask questions, make the customer the center of the conversation by seeking how you can help. I agree with Seth that the “elevator pitch” is the wrong way to approach a one-to-one conversation. But there are still moments, many moments, where you are placed in a position to “tell your story,” whether on a zoom call with a new buying committee or on a phone call with a few prospective clients. 

In Seth’s post and in our suggestion here, what we are recommending is that you communicate in a way that allows the client to see themselves -not you- as central to your solution. It’s the most powerful way to build rapport with your audience because it’s about them and their needs, not you and your sales. 

For example, if the audience you’re speaking to is interested in creating a one-of-a-kind merchandise collection and you, instead, tell a story about a complex kitting project, you’re missing the point of why the client is even there, they won’t listen or care. This is why many of our stories miss their mark: the audience you’re speaking to needs to identify with the problem. 

As a former distributor, I loved the prospecting process. I loved sharing what we could do for customers and I particularly loved those tense moments in front of a cold, prospective buyer, but I only learned to do this well after doing it poorly for so long. One important thing I had to my advantage was -because of our hyper-targeted mission due to our focus on shops- I knew what most of my audience was interested in accomplishing. 

For example, I was often talking to a large bank with multiple branches or a franchise system with franchisees, or a big corporation with thousands of employees. They each had the same general problem: purchasing and managing branded products for their company was overly-complicated and utterly confusing. Which is why my lead statement was simple but powerful, I would open with: “We make branded products simple.” And then I would follow with a story. If my audience was a bank, I would share a banking story. If my audience was a franchisor, I would share a franchise story. And because they identified with the challenges that the main characters in my story overcame (with our help), they could see themselves at the center of the story (i.e., buying our solution). 

For an impactful statement that resonates, you don’t need to compile the most creative definition in the industry. You don’t need to summon from the heavens a sleek mission statement. You don’t have to utter poetic words that move your audience. It’s not the magic of the words you choose nor your eloquent speech, but the power of the right story told to the right audience at the right moment in time. 

Robert McKee, Hollywood’s most sought-after story advisor, wrote that stories are the currency of human contact. And at commonsku, we believe that what we do as an industry is both art + commerce, and that what we accomplish for our clients is a beautiful and elegant symmetry of complicated production processes and beautiful branding that delivers real ROI. Moreover, what we -you and I- do, every day, is deliver results for the people behind the brands we serve and this makes for a compelling and artful form of narrative. It’s why the real secret to making a connection with your audience is not to pitch a UVP at all, but to share the richness of a simple story.