You either love it or you hate it.
What is the first thought that goes through your mind when you are asked to stand and provide a one minute pitch about who you are and what you do? Excitement or dread?
As my clients are mostly micro & small business owners, I attend quite a lot of networking meetups, where I see so many people miss amazing opportunities to share information about themselves when they have the opportunity to pitch their business. Quite often they even forget their name in a rush to say what they do. And what they don’t realise is that the other people don’t really care what they do…they just want to know how what you do would benefit them.
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So how do you make your pitch memorable?
- Speak clearly – don’t mumble
- Use words a 12 year old can understand
- Don’t pitch benefits – pitch value
- Add a call to action
One of the foremost mistakes I see made by entrepreneurs is they try to sell their product or service without any genuine understanding of what the clients’ needs might be. This is very obvious at networking events where people spend the entire time explaining what their product does rather than finding out what their contact might need. I see this time & time again when entrepreneurs present their social pitch. It is often a mouthful of words that are filled with jargon and offering lots of solutions to problems that the listener may not have any interest. In other words unmemorable, or possibly memorable for the wrong reasons.
We will discuss pitches further in my book but keep in mind the reason most people attend networking events is to build their database of contacts but plenty also expect to make a sale. If you are expecting to make a sale at the first contact with a prospect then you most likely will be disappointed. This is good news. It now means you can network, cold-call etc. without any fear of rejection because you are not trying to sell anything. Read More in my Book “Good Girls Do Sell“
The point of pitching your business is for people to remember you and the value you offer. And if they don’t need your service or offer they might know someone who does, so make sure your pitch is memorable. The best way to guarantee this is to tell a story.
Remember…
- Always use a microphone if available
- Don’t use words everyone isn’t going to be able to understand
- State your specialty in the form of a story
“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking
of yourself less.” …Rick Warren
Best wishes till next time.
Janeen
Author of “Good Girls do Sell – The Modern Business Woman’s Guide to Authentic Selling”
