The Elevator Pitch

It was a freezing morning in an hotel in Nairobi Kenya. Temperatures were close to zero degrees and I was in the hotel elevator riding down to breakfast   which naturally was being served at the restaurant. Me and an associate began a discussion and before we reached the restaurant floor, the other occupant of the elevator said in somewhat accented English: "You are West African, either, Nigerian or Ghanaian! Being born in England but stayed so many years in Ghana and Nigeria, I may have picked up some of the English pronunciations of both nations. My analyst, was able to place me in such a short time and what he did reminded succinctly of the elevator pitch. 
At a recent conference of training the trainers at the Nigerian Institute of Management I told colleagues who attended that marketing consultancies of whatever kind require both a plan and spontaneity. Spontaneity is the ability to market your product, especially if its intangible at the drop of a hat, no matter where you Find yourself. The Elevator Pitch is a concept that pressures you to be able to market in the shortest time possible, putting your best foot forward. The technical term is presenting the person you are selling to with your Unique Selling Proposition. What is so special about your product? Why should I buy it and not go to the competition? It takes just minutes for an elevator to swish its occupants to their destination on one of the floors, what can you do or say by way of convincing the prospect to patronize you before he gets to his floor or you get to yours?
There has to be a central point of reference about your product. A kind of script that you can zoom into and get the message across. If it is concise, well rehearsed and in your head it could work wonders. Now working from a script does not mean you should be dogmatic and inflexible, because often you have to size up your prospect and try to determine what his needs would likely be and how your product can meet those needs.
Everyone who needs to sell a product, service or personality needs to understand the pitch. The bottom line of course is connecting with your audience as quickly as possibly without beating about the bush..The Elevator Pitch is a good verbal tool to use for the selling of an intangible product to a group of restless people. Often it takes four to five minutes for a group of restless people to decide whether they like what they hear or not and whether they are buying or not. We often give the illustration in our classes: Suppose you have a group of the most influential business men at your sales presentation. You only have 15minutes to do a damn good presentation that would sell the product what do you do? Of course you have to start with the elevator pitch from the perspective of the audience. What would be their immediate needs? Everyone has a need no matter how rich, affluent or well to do they are. For the rich and famous, the need is often prestige, style and recognition so if your product can bring them that or if it can make them richer, they will certainly buy.Once they buy, tonnes of people would likely follow them because often it is the rich and famous that set the standards and vogue going in a society.
The elevator pitch is easy to construct. All we need to know is the strengths of our product and the psychology of the people we are trying to sell it to. The beautiful thing about this pitch is even though you may not sell the product within the restricted time, you will certainly make an impression and get an appointment where you will be able to sell it..