Take your Pitch UP a Notch with Expert Barbara Lopez

Have you ever been at an event, mixer or out in public where you had to tell someone or a group of people about you and your business?  Have you been so sick about it and so scared that you completely made a fool of yourself?  Have you ever forgotten someones name or even what you were saying when you met someone new? Barbara Lopez  not only helps you craft the perfect “pitch”, she coaches you on tips to take the jitters away.  Barbara Lopez of Brightfarm Introductions has the BEST system for kicking your pitch up a notch and if you schedule a coaching session with her and mention RAISING CEO KIDS you will get $50 off! That is a SCREAMING deal!  Also be sure to sign up for her weekly e-tips that will be mailed directly to your e-mail box.  I have gotten them for months and they are fabulous!

You can find Barbara on her website , Twitter, and MANY other places!

I recently interviewed Barbara and asked her questions about how to write and deliver the best introduction possible about your business.  I asked her for specific tips for CEO Kids.  You will love the things she shared with me.

Here is her entire interview and you can hear the audio by clicking on her name in the Audio Section of the site for members:

Sarah – I have heard you say many times “When your mouth is open, so is your business. When your mouth is closed, so is your business.” What does that mean and how does relate to the importance of an elevator pitch and what is it?

Barbara – Yes, I heard that quote several years ago at a conference for home based businesses.  The speaker was pointing out that if we wanted people to know we were open for business, we needed to talk about our business. Six years ago when I started my business I considered myself a pretty outgoing person, but I did notice that (especially in the early years) when it came to talking about my business in my daily travels, I tended to hold back a little. When I think about why, I think that I assumed people didn’t want to hear about my business; that maybe they wouldn’t be interested, or that I’d somehow be bugging them. Yet, as I searched for ways to grow my business, I realized that I did in fact need to talk about my business. And not just a little, but a lot. An elevator pitch is simply what I affectionately call an “old school” business term that is used for giving a 30-second introduction. If you were in an elevator with someone, and they turned to you and asked you “What do you do?”, you’d have the length of the elevator ride to tell them, usually about 30-seconds. Nowadays, especially with home based businesses, the likelihood of being in an elevator with someone and that question being raised is pretty unlikely. Instead, while the term is still popular in the business world, it’s more important to think of an elevator pitch as a 30-second verbal commercial; a simple introduction of your business. After all, in most cases when you meet someone new, your elevator pitch is the first information they learn about what you have to offer.

Sarah – You are famous for a system called the FARM system.  Will you tell us what that stands for and how that system has help entrepreneurs and how it can help CEO Kids?

Barbara – The F.A.R.M. System™ is an acronym for what I believe are the 4 key ingredients of an effective elevator pitch – it’s the key points that people WANT to hear about you and your business.  I call it the FARM System for two reasons – one, it is obviously a little play on words for our business name Brightfarm Introductions, but when I really thought about what professionals are trying to do when networking, I felt farm was a really good analogy. When you’re promoting your business, you’re planting little seeds about your business everywhere you go or have a presence. And then hopefully, you will cultivate those seeds and harvest new customers and opportunities. Let me break down the FARM System for you:

F: Find their pain point

It’s easier to pique someone’s interest from the get-go if you can immediately share  a problem that your product or service solves. A good thing to remember is that you want to be as general as possible, because the person you’re speaking to, or who may be reviewing your website, on-line shop, or marketing materials, may not have the pain point you’ve addressed, but there’s a good chance that they might know someone who does.  So you want to be very general. Or, they may have that pain point you address in the future, and you want them to recall YOU to go to when they have that problem. Chances are your CEO Kids went into business because they saw a need that they could fill. That means it’s most important to start an elevator pitch WITH the problem you solve. So, when thinking about the pain point you solve for people, you want to ask themselves:

What does your product or service do to ease or eliminate a pain people struggle with?

A: Answer their problem

Now they’ve got their attention. The person or persons you are talking to either DO have the problem or pain point you just addressed, or they know someone else who does. How do YOU, the CEO Kid, specifically reduce or eliminate that pain? This is a chance to relate them. This is HOW you’re going to help them.

R: Reasons you are different

You’ve told them how you can ease or eliminate their pain, and that’s great, but why should they choose you? How are you different? This is your chance to set yourself apart from the competition—you’re not just providing a way out from their pain, you specialize in…what?  You absolutely have to include a reason why you’re different – some ways to do that are by answering these questions:

Why should someone choose to work with/buy from you? Why are you different? What is your specialty? What are you “known for”?

M: Make them want more

Now, if the CEO Kids have done everything in order, they’ve hit a pain point, answered the problem, let them know why you are different, now is the time to call for action. They’ve only received a teeny tiny taste of what you do so it’s important to move the listener to the next step.  You can do that by closing with offering to give them more information, sharing a sample of their work, offering to set up an appointment to share more, something

If your CEO Kids follow the FARM System in the order of those four steps that I gave you, they’ll be able to come up with their own high impact introduction.

Sarah – Please share some examples of places a CEO Kid would have an opportunity to use a variation of their elevator pitch

Barbara – Opportunities are EVERYWHERE.  It goes back to remembering that quote we talked about in the beginning – if your mouth is OPEN, so is your business.  In the beginning of building a business, it’s important to talk about it at any given opportunity.  This could be within your own network of contacts (friends, family, at school), and it could also be within business activities such as trade shows or marketing and advertising tools such as using video, on your website, etc.

Sarah – Public speaking has been rated the most scary thing to do – what are some tips you can give CEO Kids in overcoming anxiety or nervous feelings towards networking, introductions and public speaking in general.

Barbara – I believe that the easiest way to overcome anxiety is to be prepared with a 30-second elevator pitch.  If you KNOW what you’re going to say, it’s so much easier because you’re not worrying about trying to formulate a way to talk about your business in your head.  If you have a high impact elevator pitch, and you show that you’re confident in your message, networking and public speaking gets a whole lot easier.  It’s also super important to PRACTICE that message as much as possible, because as we know, practice makes perfect and it will become easier to talk to people the more you do it.  Remember to be yourself – people will be attracted to you and what you have to offer if you don’t put on any false pretenses.  Relax and be yourself – that’s the biggest tip I can give for overcoming public speaking anxiety.

Sarah – I know that voice inflection is important, so how can a CEO Kid overcome some of the typical inflection changes due to their age or should they just not worry about it?

Barbara – Again, it goes back to being yourself.  If you are confident about your message, and you’re eager to help people through your business, typical inflection changes due to age shouldn’t really matter.  What you DO want to concentrate on is making sure that you sound happy and passionate about what you have to offer, to be clear and concise in your message, and to be sure to speak up so that people can hear you.  We wouldn’t want anyone to miss out on your business opportunity!

Sarah – How can your elevator pitch can be a great word of mouth campaign?

Barbara – That’s one of the greatest benefits in putting together a high impact introduction, by doing so, you can easily brand yourself as the “go to” person in your industry, whether or not people you share your pitch with use your service/product.  But, it’s much easier to do that when people know how to talk about you. If you’re consistent with your elevator pitch, and you share it with as many people as possible, you’ll find that others will be willing to talk about you in just the same way that talk about yourself.  You have to make it easy for them to do so.  But there are some things to remember so you can encourage your elevator pitch to become a word-of-mouth campaign that can help boost your business:

Keep it simple: Make sure that your elevator pitch is very clear and concise, and that clearly explain what you do.  Avoid technical jargon or acronyms that will confuse people. Use quick statements that are easy to remember: Personally in my business, I use quick statements like “I help people get over networking jitters” and “I help professionals introduce themselves with high impact”.  The key is to keep them as simple, bold statements that are short and easy to remember.

Also, you want to keep your message consistent: If you’re sending out inconsistent messages about what you do, or are overloading people with a list of different products you offer, people will get very confused and it will be harder to talk about what you do. And then guess what happens?  They won’t talk about you because they aren’t confident enough to share what you specialize in. The most important thing you can do to make your elevator pitch a great word-of-mouth campaign is to make sure your clients are your biggest word-of-mouth advertisers: This is pretty obvious, but sometimes people just assume because you’ve done business with someone that they’ll automatically know what to say about you.  True, they can share an experience about what you were able to do for them, but it will be easier for them to rave about you if they have an easy way to explain what you do.  Be sure your clients are clear on the simplest way to share what you do.

Sarah – When do you give them your card?

Barbara – That’s a really important question.  The most important thing to remember is that you never, ever, want to just hand someone your card before you’ve even opened your mouth.  A business card is basically an extension of your introduction on paper, so you’ll want to keep the presentation of your business card as professional as your overall introduction.  There are going to be all sorts of different scenarios when you’re introducing yourself, but the BEST and most effective way to give your card is to Wait for the opportunity to come up naturally. When meeting someone for the first time, I wait for the opportunity to come up naturally in our conversation. If I have done a good job with my elevator pitch upon our first-time introduction, and the person obviously wants to learn more about what I have to offer, they will naturally ask for my card.  Remember, the key to an effective elevator pitch is to encourage the person to want to know more about what you have to offer.  Also, formal business etiquette suggests that if the person whom you are speaking to is of a higher status than yourself (perhaps you’re meeting a company CEO for the first time), it is polite to wait for that person to offer you their card, rather than asking for it.

If they don’t ask for your business card: If you feel the person you are talking to really would appreciate your contact information, meaning you’ve gauged their interest level as to having a problem you can solve, it’s perfectly acceptable to offer them your business card.  Simply ask, “May I give you my card?”.  If they decline your card, don’t hand it to them anyway or repeat your request.

Ask them for their business card: You can also ask them for their business card first; a lot of times this will encourage the person to ask for yours, but if they don’t ask for yours, don’t offer it.  Never try to “sell” to the prospect when you offer your business card: Hopefully in your first-time meeting you’ve delivered your 30-second “elevator pitch” explaining who you are, what you do, and why you’re different than your competition.  If they do indeed ask for your card, it’s clear that the prospect has at least a baseline level of interest.  If they want to know more about your services or products, they’ll ask.  Simply hand them your card and encourage them to get in contact with you if they’d like more information.  Do not use the passing of the business card as permission to rattle on about all of your services and products.  If the prospect feels “sold to”, they’re less likely to follow up with you.

Present your business card professionally: When asked for your card, be sure you are giving them a crisp, clean card, free of pen marks and creases. Just as you would present yourself in the best possible light when introducing yourself, make sure your business card leaves behind a good impression as well.   Also, only give them one business card.  Some sales trainers will teach people to give out multiple cards at a time “to encourage people to pass them on to referrals”, however I disagree with this idea.  If this is a first-time introduction, they’ve only just met you, so don’t assume that people will want to start passing your card out to other people just yet.  Wait until they get to know you first.