The Perfect Elevator Pitch - Best Examples and Templates

Summary

In this video by Marcus Chan, he emphasizes the importance of a strong elevator pitch for making immediate impacts in first impressions. He introduces two key components: the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and the Hero's Journey. Chan guides viewers on crafting a captivating USP using a simple formula that highlights the value you bring. For more extended conversations, he suggests integrating the Hero's Journey, a story-telling format that emotionally engages prospects by illustrating a relatable problem, action, and result scenario. Chan provides templates and examples specific to sales professionals, emphasizing storytelling's power to connect and persuade.

Highlights

• The first impression counts; a strong pitch makes you memorable 🎤
• USP: Describe your value clearly and quickly 🚀
• Hero's Journey: Use storytelling to enhance your pitch when time permits 📚
• SPAR Storytelling Method: Situation, Problem, Action, Results 🧩
• Shift focus: Make the customer the hero in your story 🦸‍♀️

Key Takeaways

• A strong elevator pitch leaves a lasting first impression 🎤
• Use a simple USP formula: 'I help [target market] achieve [desired result] by [your solution]' 🔄
• Combine USP with the Hero's Journey for a compelling story when time allows 📖
• A story arouses interest and helps simplify complex ideas 💡
• See prospects as the hero in the Hero's Journey; not yourself 🦸‍♂️

Overview

In the fast-paced world of business, making a remarkable first impression can set you apart from the competition. Marcus Chan, in his insightful video, shares strategies to master the art of elevator pitches, focusing primarily on the power of the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and storytelling through the Hero's Journey. This dynamic duo is your ticket to win over your audience in a heartbeat!

Chan introduces a simple yet impactful formula for crafting your USP—'I help [target market] achieve [desired result] by [your solution]'. This approach ensures clarity and succinctness, making your value proposition irresistible. However, if the conversation allows for more depth, the Hero's Journey comes into play, drawing in the listener by narrating a problem-action-result scenario that resonates deeply.

From transforming technical jargon into captivating narratives to making your prospect the star of the story, Chan demonstrates the effectiveness of weaving stories into pitches. The Hero's Journey isn't just storytelling; it's a strategic approach to showcasing how taking action (your solution) leads to success and growth. In essence, these strategies not only help in retaining attention but also in building meaningful connections with your audience.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Elevator Pitch The chapter emphasizes the importance of making a strong first impression with a well-crafted elevator pitch. It introduces two main components of an elevator pitch: the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and the Hero's Journey. The chapter notes that depending on the time available, one might only use the USP if only a few seconds are available to explain who you are and what you do.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Unique Selling Proposition (USP) The chapter introduces the concept of the Unique Selling Proposition (USP), emphasizing its importance in communicating the unique value a business offers to its customers. A USP is defined as a one-line sentence that succinctly explains what a business does and the value it brings to its target market. The chapter suggests a simple formula for creating a USP: 'I help [target market] achieve [desired result] by doing [your solution].' Examples provided include helping sales professionals increase their earnings by mastering a refined sales process. The chapter sets the stage for further exploring the hero's journey, which can build on the foundation of a strong USP.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Examples of USP This chapter discusses the concept of Unique Selling Propositions (USPs) by giving examples. It explains how straightforward and impactful a well-crafted USP can be, using instances like a Watchdog software for security or an Employee Engagement software to attract and retain top talent. The chapter suggests that a strong USP can intrigue listeners, prompting them to ask further questions about its functionality. Additionally, it hints at the next step, the 'hero's journey,' as a follow-up for more detailed discussions when one has more time.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Introduction to Hero's Journey The chapter 'Introduction to Hero's Journey' begins by emphasizing the importance of storytelling in engaging an audience, especially in corporate or technical environments. Rather than merely focusing on features or solutions, which can be dull, it suggests leveraging short stories to captivate listeners and simplify complex ideas. It introduces a storytelling format called SPAR: Situation, Problem, Action, and Results, outlining how this method can effectively convey a message. An example given involves selling a sales CRM using this structured narrative approach, illustrating how a story can enhance the presentation of a product's value.
• 02:00 - 02:30: Using USP with Hero's Journey This chapter discusses how to use a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) in conjunction with the Hero's Journey framework, particularly aimed at industrial manufacturing businesses. It begins with a scenario where manufacturing facilities currently rely on basic tools like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets for managing prospects, deal flow, forecasting, and closing sales. Then, it shifts to emphasize the importance of transitioning these businesses to a dedicated CRM system. The USP is introduced as a way to articulate the benefits of this shift: helping industrial manufacturers close more deals, enhancing forecasting accuracy, and boosting profitability through a simple CRM solution. Furthermore, the chapter suggests wrapping this USP into a narrative akin to the Hero's Journey, mentioning a hypothetical CEO, Bob, to illustrate the point and make the narrative more relatable.
• 02:30 - 04:00: Example of Hero's Journey In this chapter titled 'Example of Hero's Journey', the narrative delves into the protagonist's initial success in the manufacturing business. The hero began as the sole salesperson but eventually expanded the business, requiring the formation of a sales team of ten members. Initially managing using a straightforward Excel sheet, the protagonist faced challenges as the business grew, including dealing with multiple Excel sheets and having a lack of insight into the sales team's activities, such as calls and emails. Despite these operational struggles and reliance on an outdated list of prospects, the business continued to remain profitable.
• 04:00 - 05:00: Importance of Storytelling This chapter highlights the importance of storytelling in sales and management through the example of Bob, whose lack of data insight and understanding of his sales processes led to inefficiencies and missed opportunities. The implementation of a CRM system provided Bob with the necessary data visibility, allowing his team to improve efficiency, close more deals, and enhance sales forecasting.
• 05:00 - 05:30: Conclusion and Next Steps The chapter titled 'Conclusion and Next Steps' discusses the positive outcome of a business strategy that led to better decision-making, increased profits, reduced stress levels, and substantial business growth. The team expanded to 20 representatives and added two sales managers as a result. The narrative emphasizes the importance of presenting the problem, action, and result structure in a relatable manner, mentioning a storytelling technique known as the hero's journey, where the prospect is the hero. The chapter notes that extensive details about the solution are unnecessary, focusing instead on the action taken and the subsequent problem resolution.

The Perfect Elevator Pitch - Best Examples and Templates Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 you only get one first impression and that is why I have a strong elevator pitch is vital in this video I'm gonna break down the perfect elevator pitch so you can make an immediate impact within the first 30 seconds of meeting complete strangers or prospects and there's gonna be two parts to this number one the USP the unique selling proposition and then number two the hero's journey now you won't always use both because you'll have times when you literally only have a few seconds to explain who you are and what you do in which then you'll just use the USP but then there will be times where you have a little more time to
• 00:30 - 01:00 elaborate so you can still start the USP and then go into the hero's journey so let's start with number one unique selling proposition this is simply a one-line sentence that explains what you do and the value you'll bring them here's a really simple formula I help target market achieve desired result by doing your solution so for instance here I help sales Pros earn an additional hundred thousand dollars a year in commissions by mastering refined sales process or I helped ctOS eliminate 100
• 01:00 - 01:30 of the security threats through a proprietary Watchdog soft or I helped CEOs attract and retain top talent through our Employee Engagement software so you can see how simple to understand that is each replace those core elements so whether it's literally in an elevator and someone asks you what you do or Prospect asks you after dropping the USP it's very clear and if it's a really solid USP they may even say wow how does that work how do you do that now if you have more time that is where the next step the hero's journey comes into play now most start just talking about the
• 01:30 - 02:00 features or how great the solutions the company Etc that's pretty boring if you're going to lose a lot of interest versus if you tell a short story it'll hook them in more and they'll be more connected to it it can also help you take a very complex idea and make it very simple especially if you sell something very technical so the way you do that is you start with your USP and you simply bolt on the story right after and the story can follow really simple format I call Spar s-p-a-r the situation the problem the action the results so let me give you a very simple example let's say I sell a sales CRM like
• 02:00 - 02:30 HubSpot 2 industrial manufacturing facilities let's say they're simply using the Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets to manage prospects deal flow forecasting closing in all that sales Jazz and I want to shift them from doing that actually having a CRM so I can do that with a short story and why it's important so I can start with a very simple USP I help industrial manufacturers close more deals improve forecasting accuracy and improve profitability by leveraging a simple CRM solution next I'll go into the hero's journey here's how that might sound for instance Bob the CEO over at Bob's
• 02:30 - 03:00 manufacturing had a really successful business in the past and grew it from him being the only salesperson to a sales team of 10. when he started the business he was able to manage all his accounts and process the really simple Excel sheet but as he grew and it hired sales people he started running issues of having to manage multiple Excel sheets on top of that you had no idea what calls or emails what sales activities team were actually doing the annual assistant for follow-up or tracking anything except for an outdated list of prospects but it seemed to be okay as they're still profitable and
• 03:00 - 03:30 growly even though sales cast were always completely off he was kind of like driving with a blindfold on then the recession hit and sales slowed down drastically but the problem was that Bob had no idea where the issues actually were and what to focus on and to fix Bobby reached out to us because he knew he had a systemic problem that was leading to his team underperforming we implemented a simple CRM solution I checked everything for him every single lead call email sales activity and deal his team became more efficient and started closing more as a result on top of that the forecasting actually went way up as now he had better data to make
• 03:30 - 04:00 better decisions profits went up and stress levels went down in fact the business has grown so much it actually scaled the team to 20 reps and now two sales managers too so let's pause now you can see how I outlined the situation the problem action and results it's relatable to the person I'm talking with including drama as part of the hero's journey now side note the hero is the prospect for taking action not the salesperson also note that I didn't go into crazy detail about the solution that's not really the point the point is to Showcase that the project took action and then solved a big problem had it had
• 04:00 - 04:30 some awesome benefits benefits that the audience wants such as closing more profits going up the team is scaled up and stress levels down so you can see here how the slight tweak is so much more powerful than just talking about the solution for instance if I just met you and I'm like hey I got the CRM solution it's awesome it'll make you more money and it's cool you're probably not gonna listen because it feels like a pitch when you tell it as a story and include their symptomatic pains they'll connect with them more and they'll be more apt to listen to the solution so here's what you do next number one write out your unique selling proposition and
• 04:30 - 05:00 two write out your hero's journey you can swap things up to fit you but this allows you to craft the perfect elevator pitch now if you want to learn how to handle any closing objection I'll see in this next video right here