How good is your 60 second pitch? Whether it be to present an idea to a manager or your community service organisation, ask for a loan, or promote your business - the 60 (or so) second pitch is essential to get right.

Don't take this 60 seconds lightly. We all know the importance of a good first impression.

If you're still not convinced read this "Five Ways to Screw Up Your Sales Pitch"

This is something that needs to be scripted, practised and ready to deliver to different audiences.
Yet, it needs to sound natural, relaxed and engaging.

Your elevator pitch MUST be: clear, concise, tell a story, aimed for a specific audience and grab your listener's interest and makes them want to know more.

An elevator pitch should clearly but simply state what you are, how you are different and why your listener should care-throw in some numbers if you can and always leave them wanting more.

When I started Marketing Workouts last year, delivering, practising and refining our 60 second pitches was the first thing we did each week and I was absolutely chuffed at how everyone improved.  The pitches improved in content and delivery.  So you would think that I would have mine absolutely polished and I felt quite confident until I went to a business breakfast last week and had to stand up and deliver.

I hadn't practised in a while. I hadn't thought about who this particular audience would be.  I just thought I would be fine to deliver "off the cuff". 

Then as it came around the group to me I started to feel more nervous, stopped listening and started thinking, then delivered a very average 60 seconds that would have inspired no-one.

So I thought it time to go back and do some research to help myself and others refine their 60 second pitch.

9 Tips for Writing your 60 second Sales Pitch

1. Start writing each pitch with your audience in mind
   
2. Start with a greeting, your name and business name
   
3. Outline the problem/s you solve for people
4. Describe your solution
5. Define your model of delivery
6. Make it clear why you are different
7. Finish with what action you want that person/people to take
8. Find a trusted friend/colleague to give you honest feedback and play the devil's advocate
9. Avoid jargon - if you can't help your audience understand what you do, don't expect them to make the effort to work it out

Try this fun online tool to help - after some tweaking, my results are below.

3 Tips for Delivering your 60 second Sales Pitch

1. Establish rapport - read more here if you don't know what I mean by this
2. Stick to your script - don't start rambling and lose their interest
3. Include a pause at the end for the other person to respond - avoid the "oversell"

Have a go and I would love you to share your pitch below with a link to your website.

Here are my results from the online pitch tool above:

Answer to "What do you do"
I help small to medium businesses with their marketing especially when they don't know where to start.

Elevator Pitch
I offer a broad range of marketing solutions, so let me share a recent client success.

A business owner approached me through referral because they needed help with marketing their newly aquired business.

They joined my 6 month 1:1 Coaching program that involved me coaching and teaching them what they needed to know to market their own business. Within 3 months sales started to become more consistent, at the end of 6 months they had a plan of action and felt confident they could implement it.  I'm still helping with the odd technical issue, specific projects when they get too busy and happy to give advice over the phone or email.

My name is Marian MacLucas from Marketing Hat and if you want to avoid the costly mistakes I see other businesses make with their marketing when they're not really sure what they need, hand me your business card today for an obligation free chat over coffee.

What's the difference and how do you know what you need?

Ideally your business would have all three, or a least a Marketing Coach and Marketing Consultant, if you were willing to learn and become the Marketing Practitioner of your business.

Let's look at the role of each:

Marketing Coach: Like coaches in other fields (sport, business, health, life) it is the coach's role to find out what you want to achieve, then guide, encourage and motivate you to do so within the time frame you set. This is a relationship you have over a longer time frame that starts with a strategy session that creates the map of where you are heading and the steps it will take to get there.  

A marketing coach can help you to find clarity around your service or product offering, target market and key messaging as well as work with you on self belief and having the ability to charge correct value for what you do.  

With a Marketing Coach you will develop regular and consistent communications for your business. Over time your sales should start to even out and lose that roller-coaster effect that comes with inconsistent marketing.  

Another great benefit of having a Marketing Coach is to have someone creative and business minded to call and discuss or brainstorm your ideas.

A Marketing Coach will:

• guide, encourage, motivate
• provide clarity and focus
• address limiting beliefs
• relieve overwhelm
• brainstorm and create a plan of action
• assist with workflow management

Marketing Consultant: Normally someone with a number of years of experience in the profession that can give strategic and expert practical advice.  Depending on where their experience lies, a Marketing Consultant may specialise in high level strategy for big business, or understand the practical day-to-day challenges of a small business owner.  A Marketing Consultant will be able to write up your Marketing Plan based on your business objectives which will include advice on advertising budgets and various media platforms that will communicate to your target audience.

A Marketing Consultant will:

• evaluate your current position and business goals
• research and write your marketing plan
• give advice on systems and various media platforms
• provide training

Marketing Practitioner:  A practitioner has the ability to implement the marketing plan or strategies with knowledge across traditional media (Newspapers, radio, TV) and digital media (Facebook, Google Adwords).  They may also have the ability to build or do website updates, create great email campaigns, use online design tools and across it all, maintain consistent branding.

A Marketing Practitioner will:

• implement your marketing plan
• create and implement advertising campaigns (digital and traditional)
• write and send media release
• set up social media profiles and schedule posts
• have basic design skills
• have a working knowledge of branding
• have basic website update skills
• basic SEO skills
• coordinate and project manage marketing specialists (eg graphic designers, website developers, signwriters)

In summary,
A Marketing Coach will teach you how to market your own business
A Marketing Consultant will advise you on what needs to be done
A Marketing Practitioner will do the marketing work you need done but are too busy to do

I hear at least once a month a story of a business owner that hasn't been clear on exactly what they wanted and ended up paying a lot of money and being disappointed with the end result.

I hope this clarifies in your mind what you are looking for and saves you time and money.

At Marketing Hat we offer coaching packages and project rates for practitoner work. 
www.marketinghat.com.au