This is the sixth episode in our series about Selling Without Being Fake. In this episode, we talk about how to tell the story of your organization by creating an elevator speech and using the S-T-O-R-Y acronym.
Podcast Transcript:
Joshua MacLeod:
Some of the best service providers and some of the best products never go anywhere, simply because they don’t know how to tell their story. It’s so important if you’re just the good hearted person, to connect with somebody or work with somebody that’s actually a good storyteller.
Podcast Announcer:
Welcome to the Growability® podcast. Teaching business and nonprofit leaders a more excellent way to run a business. Visit growability.com for your leadership, coaching, consultation, and business collaboration needs. This is the sixth episode in our series about selling without being fake. In this episode, we talk about how to tell the story of your organization by creating an elevator pitch and using the S-T-O-R-Y acronym. Here are your hosts, Joshua Macleod and Bernie Anderson.
Bernie Anderson:
The discussion I’d like for us to start off today Joshua, is this question. How do you tell an effective story when you’re talking about your business?
Joshua MacLeod:
The beautiful thing about storytelling, stories work no matter what personality you are. If I start telling a story, they will sit there until the story is over. What is the most important element in any story? It’s the problem, it’s the pain, it’s the thing that gets your attention. If you are going to go watch a super action movie, the movie doesn’t really start until there’s a villain causing some major chaos. If you are going to sell your product or you’re going to talk about your product or you’re going to have a product that you bring in the market, first of all, figure out what the pain is that you overcome with your product or service. Let’s talk about two different ways to tell the story.
Joshua MacLeod:
First is the fast way. And then there’s the also fast but not as fast way. So the fast way to tell a story is called an elevator speech. So the concept of an elevator speech is, you step into an elevator with somebody else and they ask the question that people ask all the time. So, what do you do? The elevator starts going up to the second floor or the third floor or wherever the meeting is. Can you tell the story of your business in the 30 seconds that you have to get from the base floor of the elevator to where the meeting is? If I’m going to make an elevator speech, you’ve got three primary ingredients.
Joshua MacLeod:
The primary ingredients for creating an elevator speech are number one, tell the pain, what’s the pain. Number two, share the passion. And number three, talk about your product. Let’s say that I sell rubber ducks, I sell little yellow, rubber ducks. And so somebody asked the question, what do you do? I could answer and I could say, I sell rubber ducks.
Bernie Anderson:
That’s great. I’m going to get up to this elevator now.
Joshua MacLeod:
The chance of me buying rubber ducks it’s not that great. Let’s say somebody says, what do you do? So I’m going to start with the pain. You know how it’s so hard to get your kid to want to take a bath. So now everybody out there has experienced trying to get their kid to take a bath. What’s the passion, our company is super passionate about kids having the proper hygiene and cleanliness for bath time. So we make rubber ducks that are fundamentally safe for all bath time that you can’t choke on them, they’re not a biohazard, they’re not killing whales in the ocean and they’re the most unique rubber ducks that will make you laugh out loud.
Joshua MacLeod: