Successful salespeople know the importance of brevity. They understand that in the field they have a very short period of time to make a lasting impression on their prospects. However, those same salespeople often fumble in job interviews when they must give an overview of themselves to the hiring manager. Interviewers want to see strong elevator pitches from their potential salespeople, but knowing just what to say can be a challenge for many professionals.
The Common Elevator Pitch Cue
Just when is it time to give your elevator pitch? Typically, it happens at the start of the conversation when the interviewer says, “Tell me about yourself.” This is your cue. This is absolutely not the time to respond by saying, “What do you want to know,” or “Where should I begin?” These types of questions are a surefire way to start the interview off on the wrong foot.
You typically have 15-30 seconds to get your pitch out. This means summing up your entire career in just a few sentences. It sounds daunting, but when you know what hiring managers are looking for, you can craft a concise pitch that will leave the interviewer wanting to know more about you.
Sell Your Benefits, Not Your Features
The most common mistake people make when they give an elevator pitch is to go through a list of their skills and qualifications. Think like a salesperson. When pitching products and services to potential clients, you know that you should provide benefits, not features. The same holds true with your elevator pitch. Your skills are your features. Your benefits are the things that make you an asset to an employer. If you have consistently raised your clients’ average spend over the last five years, for example, that’s a benefit.
How to you identify your biggest benefits? The best way is block out some time to write. Sit down and ask yourself what you would say to an interviewer if you had unlimited time to tell them about yourself as a sales professional. Write out each achievement, skill, and impressive anecdote. It might be helpful to brainstorm in two or three separate sessions so that you are sure to remember everything.
Next, go through your list and make note of what you have. You’ll start to see patterns emerge. You may not have realized that over the course of your career, you’ve become exceptional at reviving cold leads dropped from other salespeople, or you’ve consistently improved overall client retention rates. As you spot these patterns, these are your benefits as an employee. Pick your strongest, and create your elevator pitch from there. Make sure it includes where you have been, what you bring to the table, and how you will leverage that benefit to achieve your goals in the future.
Practice Makes Perfect
Elevator pitches can be awkward, especially if you do not practice. If you haven’t spent time learning your pitch and saying it over and over, you may end up rambling during the interview and straying into laundry list territory. You want to reach the point where the pitch just rolls of your tongue naturally.
Practice alone at first. Record yourself and set a timer until you’ve got the pitch down to 30 seconds. Listen to yourself deliver the pitch. Does it sound natural? Do you seem authentic? Once you’re comfortable with it, practice with a spouse, friend, or relative. You can never give your elevator pitch to too many people.
If you are a professional salesperson in the enterprise software field and you are actively seeking out new and exciting opportunities, the recruiters at Strategic Search Solutions would love to talk to you. As a full-service recruiting firm that focuses solely on enterprise software sales, we work closely with some of the most innovative companies in the marketplace, and those companies are looking for strong sales talent. Contact us today to learn more about our opportunities, and the ways in which we can help you take your career to the next level.