Ditch the "Platitude Attitude"
If You Have Something MEANINGFUL to Say, Say it in a MEANINGFUL Way
Sometimes I’m just waiting for someone to say something intelligent-- to get straight to the point rather than trying to impress me with vague platitudes and empty generalities. I hear enough of that from my own marketing department.You tell me which elevator pitch is more compelling...
Improved Procurement
“…our total life cycle management approach provides greater efficiency during the procurement process…”
OR
“…a managed lifecycle purchase plan for an entire system of 6,000 PCs will result in savings of $123 per PC per year - saving $738,000/year in SG&A expense and $2.952M over the life of the PCs…”
Sales Productivity
“…your salespeople will be more productive by using the latest tools…”
OR
“…reduced PC downtime in the field sales force and contact center will yield 1% more sales productivity and $40M more revenue per year…”
Employee Satisfaction
“…employee satisfaction will be improved by providing the latest easy-to-use technology…”
OR
“…increased sales productivity will enable call center representatives to earn 5% more in sales incentives, resulting in a reduction in staff turnover of 7%, saving an estimated $1.2M in new employee training-related costs…”
Customer Service
If you try hard enough, and really care about being relevant from my point of view, you can even make a concrete, quantifiable pitch related to customer service. Instead of...
“…your improved productivity will lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction…”
TRY
“…reducing customer callbacks due to CRM system downtime (one of your key contact center metrics) by 10% will increase call center productivity resulting in the opportunity to reduce SG&A by 5% ($18.7M per year)-- another of your key strategic objectives-- while maintaining current revenue levels. In fact single-call resolution has been demonstrated to generate an average of 24% increase in cross-sell/up-sell revenues (based on higher close ratios and higher ASP), which could represent another $235M per year in revenue based on your current upsell mix…”
If you only have 30 seconds to hit me with an elevator pitch, don’t waste my time and yours trying to chat me up about the weather, my swell tie or even about how “great” you think my company is. Give me something meaningful to think about, a reason to believe you’re smart enough to know what matters most to me and that you’ve got the ability to talk to me about it.
Show me you know how to “Executalk.”
