Excellent businesses have a focus. They have a focus on specific people (target customers) who have specific problems and issues. And when they communicate, they have their own ‘One Minute Intro’ sorted and defined, focusing on target clients and benefits.

The ‘One-Minute Introduction’ is called different things by different people. It could be the one-minute intro, 30-second intro, audio logo, elevator statement, or elevator pitch. There are lots of variations on the basic theme of finding a way of effectively letting people know exactly what you can do for them.

However the process of establishing your ‘intro’ is about so much more than just figuring out what you say after you say “hello”. By working out your intro, you are thinking about how and why people should buy your product and why they should buy it from you. After all, if you are the same as the competition then why should people bother to buy from you? Working out your intro, your pitch, gets you to think about how all your business communications should be positioned. Brochures, websites and sales pitches should all focus on the customer’s ‘hurts’ and how you can sort it out for them.

Background

Most of us are particularly bad at introducing ourselves, and our business, to people. In fact I will go further than that, most of us are ghastly at all this networking stuff that so many people claim to be the new wave of the future.

The Typical Introduction or Elevator Pitch

The typical intro goes something like (and I quote from recent meetings):

‘Hello, my name is Gerald…I am… what I suppose… some people might call… an accountant.’

or another was

‘Hello, my name is Norman and I run a newsagent… it is very interesting because in 1992, me and my wife moved here from Chester because my wife’s brother-in-law was sent here during the war… anyway, we had been working together in the Post Office in Chester, well actually it wasn’t exactly in Chester so much as near Chester... and we felt that we could come here and start up our own newsagent so in the spring of that year we made a few enquiries…’ (It was at this point that I gave up the will to live!)

The reality is that you almost certainly cannot remember the last five business people you met at some event/party/networking meeting. And even if you remember the people, then I bet that you can’t remember what most of them did as a profession. The reason you can’t remember them is because they were not memorable! People spend most of their waking hours flogging their guts out to run a better business and then you can’t even remember them, never mind what their business does.

There is, however a fairly simple way of overcoming this. Piecing together your ‘elevator pitch’ or ‘one minute intro’ is a great way to start thinking about what you are trying to say about your business. Remember, people buy for one of two reasons, to be made happier or to be made richer. There is no other reason why people will buy, so why are they buying from you?

A one-minute intro is a succinct explanation of what you and your business does. It was originally called the ‘elevator pitch’ because you were meant to imagine that you walk into a lift (an elevator in America!) and there you were faced with Bill Gates and he says ‘Hi, what do you do, then?’ and you have until the tenth floor to tell him.

So how clearly would you explain your business?

Questions

How well can you explain what you do to a stranger? Do you convince the stranger about your business?

Your intro should be easily understandable. If you are in doubt about its simplicity, try the ’13-year-old test’. A 13-year-old child should easily understand your statement.

The Script

There is a formula to work to create a compelling One-Minute Intro and it goes as follows:

We work with…

Who have a problem with…

What we do is…

So that…

Which means…

As you will realise, it should last less than a minute, but most, I am afraid to say, last much longer!

So step-by-step, here goes…

‘We Work With…’

Be specific about who you work with

Type of business

Age of business

Type of person by

Sex

Colour

Creed

Religion

Geography

And so forth

‘Who Have A Problem With…’

Focus on what is wrong for them or what hurts. It is far more powerful. People listen up if you focus on what is wrong (their hurt) rather than focus on how nice it could be. People hear and respond to negatives better than they respond to positives.

Let me explain. The psychologists talk about two types of motivation: motivation towards something and motivation away from something. To get people to be decisive you need to work on their motivation away from before you talk about motivation towards.

If you can, figure out what your target customer’s ‘hurt’ is… then you can design the presentation of your offering around how you can relieve them of that hurt.

Be clear and be simple and use language that is easy to understand. This is not a sales pitch and you are not trying to prove how clever you are. All you are doing is giving them an easy-to-understand explanation of what you do.

Action Point

Write down your one-minute intro.

Instructions: You bump into a stranger as you get into an elevator at the airport. The stranger asks, ‘What does your company do?’ You have 30 seconds, maybe a few moments longer, to answer the question. Don’t tell them your job title but tell them what you do for people. Focus on benefits and proofs rather than the features of your trade. Write down your answer, now.