At the beginning of every technical marketing project, I help business owners articulate their 1-minute marketing pitch. A 1-minute pitch is an instant summary of your business, you as a brand, or your big idea. A pitch isn’t what you’re selling, it’s what the customer is buying. That’s an important distinction.

Why do you need one?

• Your 1-minute pitch becomes the core strategy of the pitch deck or website.
• Your 1-minute pitch is a networking tool. Use it strategically to generate new leads, develop relationships and advance your career.
• The 1-minute pitch is a tool for business analysis. It requires you think about what you want prospects to understand about your competitive edge.
• The 1-minute pitch is a confidence builder that keeps you centered on what you do best. It’s a chance to look back at your achievements, and ahead to your goals.

What makes a good, 1-minute sales pitch?

1. It mustn’t SOUND like a sales pitch
2. It must spark conversation and interest
3. It should end with a call-to-action

Your pitch isn’t likely to be a situation where you’re in control, like a formal slide presentation!  Your prospect could be the guy in the elevator with you. The person stuck next to you in the queue. The lady at a working lunch. You have less than a minute of “face-to-face” talk time to pitch to the person who can change your career.

Let’s look at how to implement those three tips so they work for new business development

1️⃣ It mustn’t SOUND like a sales pitch

Speak your pitch out loud. Then take out words like “leverage” and “thought leader”, service excellence” or “superior performance”. Edit out anything that doesn’t fit into a cadence of human social chit-chat. Distill your message down to the FEELING that clients get when they use your service/product.

2️⃣ It must spark conversation and interest

Maybe your first statement is an interesting fact providing context about your industry. Maybe it’s a rhetorical question? What about asking a question that helps you instantly identify if the problem you solve actually bugs THIS person.

The best way to spark interest in someone, is to do something FOR them. Give them something. Tell them something useful that they didn’t know. Or listen to them – good listeners are rare and appreciated.

3️⃣ It should end with – “look give me your card, let’s meet next week!”

And your response to this is, “Oh my gosh, I have none left. Can I have YOUR card.”

That puts the next action in YOUR hands not theirs. It also gives you YOUR next step – to research their website and follow them on LinkedIn. So you can start to identify their needs.

It’s hard to evolve your own pitch…

I struggled for years to describe my business – I kept saying “it’s complicated”. I probably lost a lot of potential clients.  I eventually evolved my own “so what do you do” by listening to my clients. Their point of reference was not what I sold, but what they got out of working with me.

In 2021, a client gave me my tagline. She said “Your websites work. They just WORK.”

So don’t go it alone.

• Talk to your Mom. She’s smart, she’s sensible, but she’s not an industry insider
• Talk to a friend. Someone outside your field known for being blunt
• Talk to a current client or competitor’s client. Someone from your target audience.

How to deliver your 1-minute marketing pitch

• Don’t stare at your shoes. Direct eye contact conveys seriousness and attention.
• Don’t be creepy. Making direct eye contact only at key points can be another great way to emphasize them.
• Always smile while you are talking, even if you are giving your pitch over the phone.
• Try to stand when you talk, even over Zoom.
• Don’t make big gestures in small spaces, tiny gestures in huge rooms.
• Don’t enter someone’s personal space.
• Fidgeting is distracting, but so is standing so rigid you don’t move at all.

Practice with real people

Over the pandemic, I attended a weekly meeting of the GLDC (Global Learning & Development Group) on Zoom. Each week, they have 2 breakout rooms where you introduce yourself – the business version of speed dating.  In six months I tested 50 different “1 minute pitches”. I got used to the words, and the flow and saw when people looked more or less interested, and when they asked questions.

Most people don’t realize what they really sound, or look like, to others. That leads to poor delivery.

1. Record your voice only and listen to yourself – focus only on the way your voice sounds.
2. Then practice your pitch in front of the mirror and get your facial expression right.
3. Then video yourself. Look at your posture, body language and movements.

Over the course of simply practicing your pitch, you’ll perfect your wording, and you’ll feel much more comfortable delivering it.

Almost all these tips are content ideas to keep in mind for your website as well. It’s a communication medium that works best for businesses who get to the point quickly and confidently, and avoid buzzwords and gimmicks.

Would you like some “formulas” to help you evolve your pitch? Click on the link below…