Recently the Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal published an article titled “Debunking the elevator speech.” I respectfully offer a differing opinion in support of this vital business tool, based on my thousands of sales calls over the 25 years I have been selling. Recently named the top salesperson in my company for the second year in a row, I attribute part of my success to the “Elevator Speech.”

Here is why you need this powerful and essential selling tool. People in a position to buy goods or services be they professional purchasing agents or consumers are typically very busy and faced with many supplier options. In today’s economy the pros often wear multiple hats for their company. This creates short attention spans on the part of those buying, making every minute of a sales presentation critical. Furthermore research shows that most people form an initial opinion on both a sales person and/or product/service in less than a minute. First impressions are indeed lasting ones!

Enter the “Elevator Speech” to articulate your value proposition. Top sales professionals know they must learn to condense a sales offering to its bare essentials and quickly and clearly articulate it. Properly executed, this summary honors the prospects time and still gets the sales hook set or their curiosity up enough to pursue more information. Poorly done, the prospects’ eyes glaze over and their mind moves on, relegating the hapless salesperson to the scrap heap of lost sales!

The essential nature of the “Elevator Speech” is to open the door and establish credibility to meet a need. It is all about offering to take excellent care the prospect. Once this happens the critical relationship building process can begin in earnest ultimately closing the sale.

Finally the “Elevator Speech” is ideally suited for the back of business cards or other marketing purposes such as networking. You may be surprised as I was at just how challenging it is to craft an elegant “Elevator Speech,” ideally consisting of no more than a few sentences. One of the most famous value propositions often cited in the literature is the original Dominos Pizza slogan. Founder Tom Monaghan’s “Elevator Speech”: “You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less — or it’s free.” No doubt at all what he is selling or what value he offers.

Regardless of what you are selling, I urge you to develop and use this powerful business tool to increase your sales performance.