Every business owner knows the importance of having an elevator pitch and a sales pitch. The sophisticated business owner also has an investor pitch. But there’s another pitch you need in your arsenal and most business owners rarely have spent any time working on it.
The Social Pitch
This would be the pitch you use when you are at a social gathering, or a networking event. It’s the answer to the all important question, “What do you do?” and it’s your most important pitch for your business.
Why? Because when you do a social pitch the right way, the person you offer it to walks away as a potential customer or sales person representing your company. Let me elaborate…
Have you ever heard the saying “the fruit doesn’t grow on the trunk of a tree?” This can relate to business and the fact that your wealth is unlikely to be attached to the people you already know. Rather, it will come from the people that they know, who talk about you to the people that they know. In fact, your biggest sales will typically come from people 3 separations from you. Now if you want to make sure your message gets to those people correctly, you’d better make sure you have a kick-ass social pitch.
When you deliver the perfect social pitch, the person listening will respond 1 of 2 ways:
“You need to meet my friend __________”
or
“We need to meet later to talk about this, you just described me!”
And here’s the message you DO NOT want to ever hear:
“Oh, that’s nice.”
When you nail your ‘social pitch,’ people will immediately know of someone who fits your ideal client. And if they don’t, when they do meet them in the future, they will remember you and send the business your way at that time. Of course, if they fit the bill themselves, you’ve immediately got a prospect ready to learn more.
Later this month I’m offering a contest in Tampa called The BIG Pitch and I’m providing a $25,000 cash prize to the best social pitch. But the irony is that the cash prize for the best pitch is the LEAST valuable part of the contest! The real value actually comes in having the platform to stand up in front of hundreds of people and pitch your business so well that those 400 people now are out looking for your customers in the community.
Here’s an example of the power of a social pitch. A few months back, I met with Eric Higgs, the CEO of LumaStream Inc. LumaStream is one of the most innovative lighting companies in the world and after our dinner I knew exactly who Eric’s perfect client would be. Within 10 days of that dinner I met 3 people who I knew would be a perfect fit and I introduced them to one another – the sale from just one of those 3 people alone could be worth over $100,000 in revenue. Eric didn’t have to pay me a commission, hire me or pay for my health care yet I am out there ‘working for him’ because I was so impressed by what his company can do that I am constantly referring him.
What would it be worth to YOU to have 10, 15, or even 100 people out in the community looking for the perfect customer for you? I imagine it would be a lot! So take the time to perfect your social pitch and then get out there in the world and start pitching!