ElevatorPitch.doc
Be, Be Persuasive
Being able to convince people that they should follow you is an essential
ingredient for every entrepreneur or intrapreneur. The three most important
things for an entrepreneur to do are sales, sales, sales. Most people have the
wrong impression about selling; they think selling is all about getting people
to buy things they don’t want or need. Selling is about providing the right
person with the right information about the right solution for their problem at
the right time. And to be successful, you need to be able to present your
information effectively. If you can’t do this, then you can’t sell and you
can’t be an entrepreneur, period.
Sir Winston Knew a Thing or Two about
Leadership and Persuasion
In the
I tell my CEO clients that they can never delegate responsibility for sales to someone else; they always need to be in that loop. If you have sales, your business will continue—it will attract financing, good quality employees will be attracted to the firm, customers will want to deal with that firm because they have confidence that the firm will deliver what’s promised and will last, etc., etc.
To be effective in sales means being effective in one on one or one on many situations—i.e., presenting well. My father, Professor O. J. Firestone told me many years ago (in the early 1980s) that if you had anything worthwhile to say to anyone, then you should say it face-to-face. I thought he was a bit old fashioned what with then new technologies arriving on the scene like … fax machines and voice mail. I soon found out how right he was. My success rate (in terms of sales) more than doubled after I adopted his philosophy.
If OJ were with us today, he would tell my students to prioritize their communications something like this:
If you can’t visit with someone face-to-face, then call him or her. If you can’t call them, then send an email. If you can’t email them, then fax them. If you can’t fax them, snail mail them. If you can’t snail mail them, then get in your car and drive over and visit with them—well actually, you’re back to priority one: meet people face-to-face. Have you ever noticed that if you’re in a dispute with someone, you can never resolve it unless you meet face-to-face. That you tell you something about the importance of presenting well.
I include a list of some D0s and DON’Ts below for my students preparing to present their business models when they have only two minutes to do so. Many of the same ‘rules’ apply to selling situations.
I always am surprised to hear from clients in the not-for-profit sector or the MUSH sector or in NGOs or in Government who tell me that selling is not important in what they do. Huh? If you can’t sell the Administration in your University on that new course description or if you can’t sell enough students to register for your new course or … well you get it, there will be no new course offering.
I tell my friends in charitable organizations that their most important mission is actually selling (they prefer the term fundraising). I mean how many good works can you do, if you have no resources?
Some
Tips for Your 2 Minute Elevator Presentation of Your Business Model
1. Remember to smile.
2. Remember to identify
yourself.
3. Remember to give your
business a name—so that it develops a life of its own.
4. Tell your audience the name
of your business or opportunity.
5. Verbalize your opportunity
to a trusted confidante.
6. Describe your business model
on ONE page.
7. Practice your presentation
at least two days before you present. Then sleep on it.
8. Practice the day before too.
9. Don’t read your work to your
audience.
10. Get something to eat and
some fresh air before going 'on'.
11. Five minutes before, go over
your first two or three points so you can get past the first five minutes.
12. Take a breath.
13. Take your time.
14. Highlight the key words so
if you get stuck you can remind yourself of the points you were trying to make.
15. Make eye contact with your
audience.
16. Use neutral words like
person-years rather than man-years.
17. Ask your audience a question
or two (as long as you know in advance what they are likely to say (like any
good trial lawyer) and it fits your purposes).
18. Explain in simple terms your
value proposition. Use terms that any reader of the business press would
understand.
19. Never say that something is
too complicated for the audience to understand—if you are truly an expert in
the subject (and you should be if you are going to launch a business in this
field), then you should be able to explain it succinctly.
20. Use an ‘objective’ measure
like the Business Model Scoring Test (http://www.dramatispersonae.org/BusinessModels/BusinessModelScoringTest.htm
) to rate your
proposal. Explain its score.
21. The three key elements of
the business model are—a) how goods and services flow from your supplier to you
and your customers and clients; b) how money flows from your customers and
clients to you and your suppliers in the opposite direction, and c) how you
will acquire customers and clients in a cost effective manner (i.e., how the
orthogonal dimension of marketing and sales will actually work).
22. Tell stories. People don’t
like bafflegab. People understand analogies and examples. There are usually two
ways to say things like: “Introducing spa services to my hairdressing salon
allows me to use differential pricing between client groups.” Compare that
statement with: “Introducing spa services to my hairdressing salon allows me to
offer free massages and facials and manicures to influential people like Betty
Smith at CJAK news or Sean Bates at SITY TV and perhaps get free mentions on
the air.”
23. Personalize things with words
like: "It is my belief that...”
“It is my view that…” This is a non-confrontational style that disarms people.
People like to buy from people they like.
24. When answering questions, if
you are not sure what to say, say so. Don’t guess. An answer like: “That’s a
good question. Can I think about that and get back to you with an answer?” is a
perfectly valid response.
25. Sometimes you will get a
person in the audience who is a critic or a heckler. Use humor to diffuse the
situation. Never lose your temper. Sometimes audience members will answer your
critic.
26. Sometimes your best answer
is no answer. Silence can be a powerful weapon and your critic can answer his
or her own question if you just hold your peace for a moment or two. You don’t
have to fill up every gap with endless chatter. Just sit there and smile and
look encouraging.
27. You should be able to
explain your value proposition in two minutes, comfortably. When we were
successfully presenting to the NHL a complex proposition re. Bringing Back the
Ottawa Senators to the National League after a 59-year absence (the Sens last
played a game in the NHL in 1933 and played their first game of the modern era
on October 6, 1992), we took 18 minutes to do it. We were given 20 and we had
time to spare. We even included a terrific six-minute video about
28. Some people don’t like to be
interrupted but I personally invite questions even during the presentation
phase too—I am in a hurry to get a ‘conversation’ going…
29. You need to be able to
think-on-your-feet: get a feel for the way your audience is reacting to you and
change direction if necessary. Ad-lib from time to time.
30. Use humor if appropriate but
never use off-color jokes or other
forms of humor that victimize or denigrate individuals or groups.
31. Resist criticizing the
competition and never say that there is no competition—either no one has done
what you are planning to do before because it is a bad idea or, if it is a good idea, you will have competition. Even though
the Ottawa Senators, for example, is a monopoly in its hometown, there is lots
of competition there for the entertainment dollar.
32. Presentation, of the
material and yourself, is very important. Dress appropriately, but comfortably.
If you are uncomfortable or fidgeting with something, the nervousness will
portray uneasiness about your content to the audience.
33. Know when to refuse a
project, when to stop trying to convince, when to put your foot down, when to
fire your client. Know what your limits are, what is important to you, what you
will not gamble. If you get stuck or forget where you are, tell the audience.
If necessary, ask for a short break even.
34. Talk downhill—ask some of
your friends to come to the meeting for moral support. "Stack" the
room.
35. Plant someone who is
familiar with the main idea you want to get across. Pre-cue your plant to ask a
question or reiterate a point of your presentation that will get the audience
more involved in your presentation. Once the ice is broken, others are more likely
to join in a Q&A session.
36. Leave before your story gets
old. In business meetings, know when it is time to stop. When you hear
"yes", it is time to stop.
37. Talk with the windows behind
you so that you can clearly see the faces of the other attendees.
38. Never drink alcohol the
night before or the day of a presentation. You should be like pilots: "48
hours between bottle and throttle." (Note: some airlines allow alcohol
consumption by their pilots less than 48 hours before takeoff but it is my view
that this is performance degrading. Humans need a full 48 hours with no drugs
or alcohol in their systems for peak performance.)
39. You get better with practice
and experience. I have done 1000s of presentations and I get better, I learn
new things and make mistakes all the time. And I still get nervous. That’s OK;
some nerves shows you care and people like to know
that too.
Dr.
Bruce M. Firestone, B.Eng.(Civil), M.Eng.-Sci., Ph.D.