Many of us attend weekly or monthly networking meetings. Something common to all of them is the 60 second, or elevator pitch. This is the whole minute we are given to sum up our company, products, services, prove ourselves, entertain our audience and ask for referrals. That’s a lot of information to cram into one tiny minute.
You’d be surprised how effective 60 Seconds can be if done right. Here are 4 tips on how to get the most out of your 60 second pitches.
1) Make Your 60 Second Part of Your Marketing Plan
You probably do other marketing from month to month. Use your 60 second pitch as another outlet for whatever product or service you are focusing on this month. Consider using the same sales materials. If you have a one page sales sheet, bring a copy. If you have a landing page on your website, share that URL. Post the same message to your social media outlets. Get that message out as many times as you can. You’ll save time by crafting one very well thought out message rather than 4 different ones.
2) The Format
This is pretty standard for any 60 second presentation, so we’ll just cover the basics.
- Introduce yourself and your company. Create a catchy tagline or a funny quip to capture attention. Use a prop or visual aid.
- Introduce your product
- Explain the benefit of that product to consumers
- Explain what kind of customer would benefit and how to find them. This is how your fellow networkers will identify a referral
- End with a catchy line. it can be the same or a slightly modified version as the one you used in your intro.
Here are a few other resources to give you some ideas on how to structure your 60 Second Commercial
- Successful Networking: Mastering YOUR 60 Second Commercial – This one has some good thoughts on the format of your commercial
- Episode 182: “The Best 60-Second Presentation I Ever Heard” – Here’s a good one about using visual aides.
3) Repeat and Re-use
Thinking about our plan from step 1, we are probably trying to market one product or service for a period of time. Repeat the same 60 second pitch, or at least it’s theme, for the duration of your promotion. Repetition helps your fellow networkers remember what you are looking for. It’s also much easier for you to refine your pitch, getting better at it each week. If you do change it up, think about only changing a small part. For example add a testimonial or tell a story about how that product helped a customer. Perhaps refine who your looking for, getting more specific each week.
4) Practice and Timing
In some networking groups the 60 second time is strictly enforced, in others it’s more of a guideline. Either way, if you run over your likely rambling and ff your under you might be missing an opportunity. The night before your meeting grab a stopwatch. Stand in front of a mirror and run though your presentation 5 times. You’ll find out how the information flows and have an opportunity to modify and clean up your information.
When you show up with a well thought out and practiced 60 second commercial; you’ll look impressive and get more referrals because of it.