The Perfect Elevator Pitch: One Sentence That Will Grow Your Business

Everybody listening is going to know how to give a fantastic elevator pitch by [music] the end of this episode. It's one of the most useful episodes. Everybody needs this thing. I have a formula called a oneliner, [music] a truncated elevator pitch. Each oneliner has to be about one problem and it needs to be the problem that resonates [music] most strongly with whoever you're talking to. You're raising the perceived value of what you offer and you're decreasing cognitive dissonance [music] in the mind of the person that you're talking to. Make sure you got your oneliner right. Story Brand podcast based on Donald Miller's best-selling book, Building a Story Brand. [music] The Story Brand framework is made up of seven key elements. All of them anchored in one powerful idea. Your customer is the hero and you are their guide. Each week on the podcast, you'll get exactly what you need to craft clear messaging that connects with more customers and grows your business. Now, let's dive in with your hosts, Donald Miller and Kyle Reed. Kyle, today we're going to talk about elevator pitches. Have you ever had to give an elevator pitch? >> Not very well. >> Specifically in an elevator. >> Not very. No. No. Not in an elevator, but I have been put on the spot and I have not delivered. I will say. Yeah, it's it's hard to do. It's hard for me to do. >> What were you selling at the time? Was it when you were with us or previous jobs? >> Previously, when I used to do freelance work, it was really hard for me to kind of talk about what I did, but also boil it down into that, you know, the whole concept of elevator pitch. did sort of social media people social media >> account primarily running social media accounts for musicians was my gig. >> Um I I >> you were by the way very good at that. >> Yeah, I enjoyed it. I did a lot. Um grew a lot. Um but was I was all word of mouth so I never really had to do the elevator pitch and go get business. Yeah. >> Uh the day that that word of mouth slowed down a little bit was when I said, "All right, I need a new job." But but yeah, no, I'm not very good at it. >> Okay. Well, today we're going to get good at it. Everybody Everybody listening is going to know how to give a fantastic elevator pitch by the end of this episode. It's one of the most useful episodes of the Story Brand podcast I think that we will ever record because everybody kind of needs this thing. >> Yeah. >> And I have a formula, some of you have heard of it, called a oneliner. And oneliner is a truncated elevator pitch. You can expand on it to create a Shark Tank style elevator pitch that might include a demonstration or something like that. But the oneliner is something every person needs and you need to use your oneliner anytime somebody asks what do you do. >> Okay. >> All right. So, let's test this. You know the formula for the oneliner. So, we're cheating a little bit here, but let me just put you on the spot. Let's say you're back 10 years ago. >> This is going to be fun. >> Yeah. You you handle social media accounts for musicians here in Nashville. >> Kyle, what do you do? We're at a cocktail party. Kyle, what do you do? Uh, I hope I solve the problem of [laughter] uh, you know, this like >> do it intuitively without trying to use >> this is like sitting across the, you know, this the street from Michael Jordan here, you know, trying to trying to work on this. I help solve the problem of >> Michael Jordan would do a terrible oneliner. [laughter] I I hope I'm better than that. >> Oh goodness. Uh, I help solve the problem of what to post and when to post it for musicians. >> Okay. Yeah, Faz is probably not going to get any business. >> Yeah. [laughter] There you go. I just want to say to everyone listening, you're welcome. Okay, I'll go. I'll give you the gift of going first. >> I do think in the Olympics they should always have one normal guy like me right now. Show everybody just to show everybody. Uh okay, so you did one thing right according to the framework and that is you started with the problem. >> So the the the way the formula works is problem product solution. >> Okay. or result really >> problem product let's say result >> uh problem is the hook >> and the reason that when somebody asks what do you do I don't want to say well I'm the CEO of story brand or I wrote a book called building a story brand because it devalues what I actually do when I just tell people what I do >> what I want to do is position what I do as the solution to a problem and you know it's a broken record, but everybody needs to hear it again. We value people, things, products, ideas, vision, strategies that solve problems. >> Okay? >> And when that problem is articulated very, very well, the brain doesn't have to figure out what problem that solves. So, you're doing two things. You're raising the perceived value of what you offer, and you're decreasing cognitive dissonance in the mind of the person that you're talking to. The cognitive dissonance happens when I say, "Well, I'm the CEO of Story Brand." What's story brand? It I don't that sounds like an ad agency or something. I don't know. All of that is gone, >> right? When I don't lead with that. >> What I actually say is a lot of people have trouble talking about their products and their ideas in such a way that people want to listen. When they have that problem, they call me. >> Yeah. >> I'm the CEO of Story Brand. >> Yeah. So now I've just explained what Story Brand does and who who it does it to and what problem it solves, which gives me automatic value with the person that I'm talking to. >> So what I lead was something along the lines of most artists don't know what to post. >> Fantastic conversation here. This is it >> because the problem that you've got or you used to have is >> you solve a thousand problems. >> So the first problem you solve is don't know when to post or whatever. I don't remember how you said. >> Yeah. Don't know what to post and when to post it. Yeah. >> Yeah. You know, there's a thousand problems that you solved as a social media person. So, what you want to do, you can only have one. >> Yeah. >> You cannot have commas are not your friend. We say that all the time. Commas are not your friend. >> So, and by by commas are not your friend, what I merely mean is don't give me a list. >> You can't if it's going to be an interesting sentence, it can't have three problems. It has to be one problem because you don't want to get nuanced here. This is a you're introducing yourself at a cocktail party. You don't have to tell the whole truth. You can tell part of the truth and you're fine because the rest of the truth will unfold later. It's not the job of this sentence. This is one of those curiosity sound bites that we talked about previous episode. So, what you really want to do is you want to say uh you want to find the problem and workshop the problem and brainstorm the problem and test the problem until you get the biggest possible response. So, if you say, "Well, um, a lot of people don't know when to post on social media. I am a social media consultant." My guess is that there's not a lot of people who who have ever thought about not knowing when to post. So, not a big enough problem. >> Exactly. We're going to It's not a problem that resonates. >> So, you're going to say that and people are going to go, "Oh, that's interesting." But if you said something like >> in order to grow a brand, social media is absolutely necessary. It's where people find out about the products that they're going to buy, the people that they're going to follow, the leaders that they're going to vote for. You have to be on social media. The problem is a lot of people don't want to be on social media. In fact, they hate it. >> My name is Kyle Reid and I handle your social media for you. >> Yeah. >> I come to your house for one hour a week. We get it done. I post it. I write the post. I edit it. I get it up. You don't even have to be on Instagram or LinkedIn or Tik Tok >> in order to see the advantage. See what I'm saying? >> Yep. 100%. >> That problem is probably going to resonate a lot more strongly. So, so number one is you need to figure out the the one problem that you're going to talk about as it relates to your brand. You say, and then here I can hear the push back with the listener right now. >> They're saying, "But we solve so many problems. We saw this and they think I call it value stacking. They think that if you value stack, you're worth more. But actually, if you value stack all the problems that you solve, you're diluting >> the message. Because a good story is about one thing. Benji is trying to find his way back home. Not Benji is trying to find his way back home and also get an acting job as a you know, a SAG actor. Yeah. >> For dogs, you know, that's not that's two that's two different movies. >> So, make it about one thing. Now, you can have multiple oneliners for different demographics, different people, different products, but each oneliner has to be about one problem. And it needs to be the problem that resonates most strongly with whoever you're talking to. >> Because I'm curious because one of the things I I that pops out in my brain right away is sometimes I want to lead with the uniqueness of me >> in my oneliner. And I I think what I'm hearing you say is if you lead with why you're unique versus not leading with a problem, you again are not Yes. gonna get as much business because at all the the the tendency for most is to say why are we different? So one of the things I would say in the past is like I'm really good at help translating your message to an audience, right? >> That was my unique charact like that was my skill. I could speak in their voice. If you just say if you just say a lot of a lot of musical artists are having trouble finding their cult following. >> I help you find that cult following >> because that's the problem. Speaking to that problem rather than saying I'm Yeah, that makes sense. >> That's exactly it. I mean, imagine if I'm a therapist and I say, um, a lot of couples are wondering whether or not they should actually get married. I meet with you twice and I tell you whether or not you should actually get married. >> Now, there's something in that one. See what I'm saying? But there's something in that one line that I think okay we've we've kind of dialogued about the problem. I think there's something you did in the second part >> was where you gave some sort of actionable here's how it works. So so talk to me about that. >> Yeah. So the second part part one is a problem. A lot of couples wonder whether or not they should get married. >> I'm a therapist. I meet with you twice and I tell you whether or not you should get married. Yeah. >> So I meet I'm a therapist who meets with you twice as the product. >> Yes. Now notice I didn't say I'm a therapist and I can meet with you blah blah. It was extremely specific. >> I'm a therapist. I meet with you twice and I tell you whether or not you should get married. >> I have an open story loop. Should we get married and a closed story loop that I'm offering? I'll tell you. >> Yep. >> Whether or not you should. >> Yep. >> So that you don't spend a lifetime married to somebody you regret marrying. >> It's huge. >> That's the result. So those are three parts. Problem, product, result. >> Yes. And those three parts need to be in the oneliner. That's that's an we're opening a story loop in part one. We're closing a story loop in part three. And the product is the sandwich in the middle. >> And if we go back to beat up on Kyle day, um >> that was also the the the spot I struggled with was giving a pretty clear plan or framework of how I do that. >> Right. So you need to Yeah. Instead of saying I'm a social media manager, you need to say I show up at your house once a week for one hour >> and then I do the editing. you actually spell out how this product solves that problem. I hate social media. I don't want to be on social media. I don't want anything to do with it, but I understand it seems necessary to grow my business because that is the modern yellow pages, if you will. >> I think that that plan also gives trust to you as well because someone's hearing it's not ethereal. It's not, you know, theoretical. There's a legit like they've done this, there's a plan there. They also like if if I say a lot of couples are wondering whether or not they should get married. I'm a therapist who helps you figure out whether or not you should get married. >> That's decent. I would give that a C minus. The reason I give a C minus instead of an A+ is because it creates some cognitive dissonance. >> How do you have a test? Do you have an assessment? Do I have to meet with you? Do I have to meet with your wife? Do are you going to meet with us individually? Are you going to ask me questions in front of my fiance that are going to be embarrassing to me? You see what I'm saying? >> Yes. A lot of calories are being burned. >> A lot of calories are being burned. And it's it's not that they can actually articulate the what their cognitive dissonance is about, but it exists and it's going to keep them from doing business with you. >> So, what you want to do is state very clearly, here's what it looks like to do business with me. >> You know, if I have a piece of software, you download this software in about two days you're addicted to it and it's going to make you a lot of money, >> right? So, so now I know I download it. and there is some cognitive dissonance for two days, but 48 hours later, I love it and it's actually going to grow my business. You just you just said something that's going to make me download it now rather than live for the next year thinking I really got to go download that. It's 48 hours sacrifice. >> Does the plan answer objections to the customer? >> It can. Absolutely. You want to know what those objections are and you want to get them in that part two. >> Okay. Yeah, I remember our our the sales pitch that the contractor who built our dreamhouse >> gave. You'd easily think this is the worst sales pitch in the world. >> His name is Worcester Brian. Not Brian Worcester. His first name is Worcester. His last name is Brian. Worcester. Yeah, like Worcester sauce. >> And um Worcester sat us down >> and we had already found our architect. I think we might have even had our elevations and all the plans drawn up and we were going to start interviewing contractors. Worcester came over and he said um he looked at the plans. We talked about it probably an hour and then he said, "Okay, here's my pitch. I only build one house a year. I don't have a website. It's all word of mouth. I build high quality houses. Uh I never stop building your house. 30 years from now, if a light bulb goes out, you just call me and I come over and I change it. I keep working on that house for the rest of my life. So, I only build one house a year. I can only afford to build one house a year. Uh, I am more expensive than anybody else that you're going to meet with, and I'm going to take longer, but it's going to be done right. And we did not interview anybody else. >> Wow. >> We were like, "Okay, shoot. We, you know, how much more expensive and how long is this going to take?" more money from me. >> But everybody else in my mind had shortcuts >> and Worcester didn't. >> And we're going to have to pay for that. >> You know, we're going to have to pay for No, no shortcuts going to be taken. He ended up being more expensive than anybody. He took longer. >> Uh but >> we live in a house that is ridiculously overbuilt. I mean, it is a perfectionist built that house and we will never have a problem with it >> and it's worth everything that we paid for it. The thing that he solved was, "We will be very happy with this house. We're going to pay for it. We're going to have to wait for it, but we are going we're going to be extremely satisfied with this house cuz it's going to be done right." >> Yeah. And he answered all those probably questions in the back of your head. >> Sound bite. >> Yeah. That's so good. >> In a sound bite. >> Yeah. That's good. Okay. So, we've broken down kind of that story loop, the plan. How do people close the story loop in their oneliner? >> The the way you close it, there's three parts. Again, it's problem, product, result. And result is the happy ever after. Okay? It's the so that. So, if we were talking about a client of mine, you need a budget who has a budget app. Uh you would download this app so that you never worry about money again. That's the happily ever after. So that you know you married somebody that you can count on. So that you know you married the right person might be a better way of saying that. >> So that you don't have to worry about social media, but you enjoy all the benefits. See? So that that's very important. Now, here's where people make mistakes. >> Um, they get elusive >> so that you can be fulfilled. >> Uh, so that you see what I'm saying? It's like, no, so that you can you can know that you married the right person. >> Specifics in stories matter. If I said, "Hey, let's skip today's podcast recording because there's a new movie about it about about a guy looking for fulfillment." You're not interested. But if I say, "Hey, Brad Pitt pays a plays a Formula 1 driver and uh you know, he comes out of retirement and wins a grand, you know, what you're like,"Okay, great. Specifics." >> Yeah. >> And you want to have specifics in your oneliner to create sort of visual pictures, but also what it really does is it reduces cognitive dissonance. What are you talking about? Nobody should ever say, "What are you talking about?" They should say, "Tell me more." >> Yeah. But they should not be confused after your oneliner about what you actually solve, what problem you actually solve. And if you use this oneliner and you get it right, it takes a while to get it right. A story brand guide can help you, by the way. Marketing madeimpimple.com, find a story brand certified guide. I've trained them all. They can help you write your oneliner and all of your other survival sound bites and lead generators and all that stuff. >> Or if you don't want to spend that kind of money, go to storyband.ai and there's a oneliner asset inside of storybrand.ai. But you need to workshop it, figure it out. Uh, take a while and make sure you got your oneliner right and then watch what happens when you use it. Watch what what should happen whenever you use it is people should want to know more. >> If they change the subject, you haven't dialed it in. I don't even care if they have the problem. If they don't have the problem, then um they should still want to know more. Yeah. >> Because you have made them curious about something that seems very important. Really, really important. There was a gal I go speak at Tony Robbins Business Mastery twice a year. >> Yeah. >> He puts me on the basically the 1000 p.m. slot. >> Yeah. >> And I used to be sort of offended by that because I'm like 10 PM? My gosh. I go to bed at 9:30 >> and then I realize he's got a thousand people in the room and um he puts me at that spot so they'll stay up late. That's what I tell myself. I don't know if that's true or not. >> Good sound bite. >> Anyway, I end with the oneliner workshop. I end with oneliner and a thousand people in the room create oneliners and they stand up and they they go to a microphone. They read me their oneliner and I edit the edit that on the fly. And a lady stood up and she has a book deal with Simon and Schusters. That's a big deal. That's not a joke. >> Mhm. >> And her book is about angels. Okay. >> Specifically archangels. >> Okay. >> And the fact that they're among us. >> Okay. >> So, are you a little bit intrigued? I mean, a little bit. >> I'm also like probably not going to read that. [laughter] >> Well, let me try to change your mind. >> Okay. So, she was saying things like, "Archangels help connect us with the divine and blah blah blah." And none of it was interesting to me cuz I don't I can't get my head around that. >> Um, so what I told her was, "Okay, if I turn this book over, there needs to be a oneliner." And the oneliner needs to be this. If you are reading this sentence, you have interacted with angels without knowing it. In this book, I will teach you to recognize that you are not dealing with a human being. >> Now, are you kind of interested? Are you more interested in that book? >> I want to know >> Yeah. >> where they're at. Yeah. >> So that you can know you're interacting with angels and learn the wisdom of eternity and apply it to your life. Yeah. You're happily ever after. That was actually a hard part. I I don't know what we came up with there. But >> you've got to open this. So the problem is according to this woman, I am interacting with angels and I don't know it. That's the problem. So, you've opened a story loop. Now, imagine a movie trailer >> and the movie trailer is >> the average person interacts with an actual angel sent from heaven who is not a human being twice a week. >> Yeah. >> Whoopy Goldberg [laughter] insist. >> I think they actually made this movie. What is it called? Ghost or something like that. So, um, that you want you want it to feel like a movie trailer when you say it and people just go, "Oh, I got to see that." >> Well, it's I got to know more. >> It's so fascinating because the difference there is say for me to say is you're you're interacting with angels, you just don't know it. Versus leading with a problem. >> Well, kind of agitated a problem that is a problem. The problem is you don't know it. >> Yeah. If you just told me, I'd go, "Okay." But if you lead with that problem that you don't know it and you're not getting the wisdom or whatever that you need, >> which again is that power of what everybody is seeking, I think is to have the the oneliner elevator pitch. That's right. >> To create intrigue. That's the whole point of it, right? Is is to get that intrigue. So that that's super fascinating. Yeah. >> Um okay, so we've talked a little bit about walking through a formula of how you make a oneliner. Where should people use this? Let's >> everywhere. Let's talk about obviously in an elevator, but outside of an elevator, >> you can even use it outside the elevator. >> Yeah. [laughter] Like where? >> All right. Number one place is you need to memorize it. >> Okay. >> And it's not something that's going to be intuitive. When somebody says, "What do you do?" You're going to want to say, "I'm the CEO or I own a" or "My grandfather started a company." >> Um, you you've got to force yourself to stop doing that. >> David Salers is a friend. He's been an executive at Chick-fil-A for almost the entire existence of Chick-fil-A. >> And he was on the team that implemented the My Pleasure Response campaign. Interesting. So, this is getting everybody to say my pleasure instead of you're welcome. >> Yeah. >> Uh he told me it took them three years to get everybody on board and everybody's saying it. >> That is why, right? Instead of saying, you know, well, why? Because people when somebody says thank you they say you're welcome they don't say my pleasure >> and so they had to say no we say my pleasure whenever somebody and you had to you know I don't know how they do it but but if you they all do it it's really amazing >> that's the sort of behavioral adjustment that you're going to need in your organization and it starts with you >> so when somebody says what do you do or what does story brand do or what does acme plumbing do everybody so part one is you need to respond that way. And part two is you need to get your entire team Step two is get your entire team to say it. And then step three is you put it in actual text words everywhere. >> Yeah. >> One of the places it can be is on the back of your business card. Business cards are wasted. They're they're just a phone number and a name. If I go to a conference, I get 20 business cards. I'll go through them when I get home. I can't remember what any of these people do. But if I turn one of those over and it says, um, a lot of people want to write a book, but they don't know how. I'm a ghostwriter. I write your book for you so that you can get all the benefits of a book without the headache of actually having to write it. >> That is what I literally just said is a oneliner. >> Yeah. >> I turn that over and there's that thing and I go, "Oh, I remember Nancy." >> Yeah. >> Uh, I would actually love about it. Let me Hey, you go to my assistant. Hey, would you get me a a Zoom call with Nancy? I think I want to write a book. Yeah. >> Without that oneliner, I would have not not even remembered what she did. >> Totally makes total sense. >> That's really important. It's also really great to have it on there so that you read it and it's your the little thing that you read over and over and over. You memorize, right? >> Paint it on the side of your retail wall. >> Yeah. >> Uh put it on it can it can actually be the subtitle beneath the header of your website. >> Um it can be a lead generator in lead generators. It can be parsed out in emails. You can send it as a text message. It can be the email signature on every employees email at the bottom. Yeah. >> I consider your oneliner a hook in a pond. >> And the more hooks are in the pond, the more fish you're going to catch. So, you just want it everywhere. Everywhere. >> And just to reiterate something you said earlier, I think, you know, I will attest to you are the the best at this helping people make oneliners. You are a pro at. And here's the cool thing is for people listening to this is a storybrand.ai AI has been trained by you. So, there's a resource there for someone. But then also, we have guides in our community who've been trained by you as well to help you get the best possible oneliner that you can have for your business. >> Yeah. There's about 500 of them and they're at marketing madeimple.com. And then if you want to if you want to bring your team to Nashville to work with me. >> Yeah. >> Go to storybrand.com. get in touch with one of our sales reps because I do a thing called a sound bite strategy session where we come up with all these words for you in one room in one day and then we do a bunch of follow-up Zoom calls to make sure that you're executing it well. But >> that's awesome. This has been another like super valuable episode uh for anybody listening, including myself. I I I'm glad I didn't find this oneliner exercise a couple years ago because I probably wouldn't be working here. But now I know if I ever need to bring that back, >> you ever need to leave? >> Yeah. If [laughter] I ever need to work on my elevator pitch, I know where to go. >> That should be the theme of this podcast is how to help Kyle get a job. >> Yeah. How to Okay, [laughter] we'll we'll see how that goes. >> Uh we don't I don't want to lose you. Let me make it very very clear. He is not available in the open market. >> All right. Well, I'm uncomfortable now. So, let's wrap this episode up. >> Thanks for listening to the Story Brand podcast. No matter where you are in your marketing and messaging journey, get the tools, the training, and the support you need to start clarifying [music] that message at storybrand.com. And don't forget to follow and subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcast so you never miss an episode. And if [music] you're watching on YouTube, hit that subscribe button and then leave a comment letting us know what resonated with you and what we can unpack to help your business grow in a future episode. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next week.