Straight to the top is a book by Sarah Archer about how to create killer elevator pitches in different areas. The book offers best-practice material and gives also great advice for entrepreneurs, business owners in order to have more influence with their pitches. Here are four advices from her book:
1. First things first
Find out the pain point of your customer with the five why`s method. First of all what is a pain point? People have problems that they want to be solved but often times there is another aim that they want to achieve in their life. In order to identify the real pain point of a customer you ask five times the question why? So why want people create killer elevator pitches? Because they want increase sales and earn money. Why do they want earn more money? So that their business is successful and grows. Why do they want this? Because they want spend less time on work. Why do they want this? Because they want spend more time with their family and travel more. So at the end we arrived at the pain point and you should always know about your target what their pain point is. In every niche it is different and your job is to research for it. Sarah Archer gives some tools in order to research for keywords in the internet and find out the pain point: Ninja search combination tool, SEO Book keyword Tools and Bing Webmaster toolbox
2. Spy your competition
A good starting point is always your competition and what they are selling to the market. Don’t be intimated when many people are selling in your niche, this doesn’t mean that you can`t do it. It is rather the opposite; it means that people are investing in your niche. So here are some tools in order to check who else is selling in your niche: SpyFu, Google trends, Google alerts
3. Pitch framework
Sarah Archer explains in her book basically two frameworks in order to create pitches. I`m going to introduce one of them: the Ice Cube framework.
I: Introduction — Who you are
C: Customer Pain Point — and how you solve it
E: Exactly — Keep the intro nice and short
C: Competition- How they fall short
U: Unique Selling Point — How you differentiate yourself
B: Beat Your Drum-Drive home your mission, passion and the value this creates for clients and customers
E: Engage — Open segue questions leading to conversation about their pain
This is the Ice Cube method and you should always remember this framework when you`re creating your pitch. Take the time and research for each topic in your niche.
4. Practice your pitch
Words account for only 7% of our communication; 93% of information gets communicated by body language and voice. So you have to train your pitch as often as possible. Exercise in front of a mirror, record your pitch on camera and watch it. Train also your voice and practice your pitch through a mobile phone and pitch your idea to friends and family. Do it until they are satisfied and you also feel good about your pitch. Only when you practice it until it becomes something natural people will recognize your pitch; so work on your presentation skill and practice as often as possible.
Straight to the top by Sarah Archer is a great book because it gives insights and best practice examples about how to structure your pitch. She gives detailed material about how to pitch for products, services and investors and shows what to say and how to structure your pitch for different audiences. If you need help for your coming pitch this book gives you valuable insights and is a must read for every entrepreneur and business person.
If you want more information about Straight to the top — How to create and deliver a killer elevator pitch by Sarah Archer than visit her website: www.Saraharcher.co.uk
Originally published at medium.com