Most entrepreneurs need a rock solid elevator pitch if they want to get an investor or simply tell someone about their business. However, most people have really poor elevator pitches that leave people confused or pitches that are far too long leaving people bored.
Your elevator pitch is your opportunity to sell your experience, unique value offering and skill sets so that you can land new opportunities faster. Now that sounds like a lot of topics to cover, but it can absolutely be done in a short period of time. It’s called an elevator pitch because it shouldn’t be any longer than 60 seconds at most.
Here’s how to create an elevator pitch that will leave a lasting impression:
1. Ask A Thoughtful Question
Ask something that will get a unique conversation started. Ask a question that can create thought, interaction and get peoples minds to think. Ask a question that relates to your concept or business venture. This is known as a hook and this is a great way to begin your elevator pitch.
2. Define The Problem
The most important thing is to identify a problem that is worth solving. If your product or service doesn’t solve a problem that potential customers have, you don’t have a viable business. It’s really as simple as that.
Try and distill your customer’s problem down to its simplest form. Ideally, you should be able to describe the problem you are solving in one or two sentences. In the long run, your company may solve multiple customer problems, but initially, you will be more successful if you just focus on one core problem.
3. Describe Your Solution
Once you have defined the problem you are solving, you need to explain your solution. A clear problem statement will help you focus your solution on solving that one problem and not stretch the solution to solve multiple potential problems. Try and distill your solution description down to as few words as possible. You should be able to describe your solution at a high level in just a few sentences or bullet points.
4. Outline Your Purpose, Passion And Potential
These are the 3 Ps of powerful pitching. An elevator pitch is like any sales pitch, so you should always open with a hook that will grab attention. A great way to do this is to state your passion. People can feel when you’re passionate about something and this will help engage them and make them believe your message.
Briefly outline your purpose for pitching. Use keywords that are relevant to your industry. By using attention-grabbing phrases, it will ensure that you and the person you’re pitching to are on the same page.
5. Keep It Simple
Simplicity is always best especially when trying to share a new idea or concept. While it is certainly true that some great innovations are extremely complex, the value or benefit of a great innovation is obvious. You need to bring the obviousness of that value to the forefront.
6. Be Engaging
What’s the difference between being interesting and being engaging? Interesting is an intellectual response; engaging is an emotional response. Emotional responses are always more compelling. The more engaging you are with your pitches, the higher chance you have getting a response that will appeal to your audience.
7. Smile And Make Eye Contact
People make judgments within the first seven seconds or so of meeting you and that’s statistically around the same time at which they start tuning out if you don’t engage them. Smiling at them and making sincere eye contact shows them that you’re warm and interested in speaking with them. These tiny gestures will set the stage for you to engage in a meaningful conversation.
8. Share Your Past Experience
Whether you’re aiming for a 30-second or 1-minute elevator pitch, it is recommended to include at least three key accomplishments that demonstrate the impact you’ve made in your past career. Make sure to focus on the results as opposed to just what you did. Results are quantifiable pieces of data that help showcase instances where you’ve been successful and how it relates to the project you’re currently working on.
9. Show Traction With Milestones
Another key element of your elevator pitch is conveying your business milestones or your schedule. Here you will talk about your upcoming goals and when you plan to achieve them. If you have already accomplished notable milestones, you should mention those. Talking about upcoming milestones in your pitch makes your business a reality. This section of the pitch illustrates how well you have thought through the detailed steps it’s going to take to open your business and start making money.
10. Make A Compelling Closing
This is the portion of the conversation where some form of a call to action needs to be placed. Whether that is asking for permission to follow up or setting up another meeting, there must be some kind of final action that makes all your efforts worthwhile. It may even be as small of a step as them “liking” you on Facebook or connecting with you on LinkedIn. The important thing is that you find a way to stay connected. You will find that if you have truly left a lasting impression that they eventually respond to one of your calls to action in one way or another. Just make sure that there is a true benefit to them.
Conclusion
Once you craft your elevator pitch, try it out and continuously improve it. The great thing about the elevator pitch is that it should be effective with almost anyone you know. In this post, I shared with you ways on how to create an elevator pitch that will leave a lasting impression.
