Simplicity is the essence of a great elevator pitch. When you have a brief window to explain to someone what your business does, you need to be ready to go with a concise, punchy message that they are sure to remember.
To begin with, this will seem like a daunting proposition due to the inevitable time pressure. However, once you have prepared your pitch and practised it repeatedly, you will soon discover that this is something you can do exceptionally well.
Understand Your Business
Before crafting your pitch, make sure you have a very strong understanding of what your business can offer a potential client.
For example, if you manufacture a range of products, you need to know the key selling points of each of those items so you can describe them to a potential customer. And if you offer a particular service, you need to be able to explain why that service is helpful when you are attempting to persuade someone to invest in it.
When you know your business intimately, talking about it becomes second nature. As Albert Einstein once said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” So if you are a little shaky on a few details, brush up on your knowledge until you have got everything clear in your head.
Make It Sound Good
It does not matter how good your business is or how well you know it if you cannot describe it to a stranger in an engaging manner. This is an area where top public speaking coach Jose Ucar excels:
“When you know your stuff and believe you are an authority in your subject, your audience will unconsciously associate you with a figure of authority during the first few seconds of your speech. If you sound confident and powerful, that’s who you become in the mind of a listener. Then you need to keep it up. Otherwise, it will turn into an illusion that quickly disappears.”
Sounding authoritative is important, but being passionate about your business is arguably the most crucial thing of all, as Jose explains:
“Picture, for a moment, a passionate business person and another one who is the complete opposite. Who would prefer to work with/for? I know; the answer is quite obvious.”
“This is the reason why ‘passion’ is my number one because it will be crucial in the process of building a strong emotional bond with the audience, and this feeling will radiate through your words and body language, trust me.”
Connect By Telling A Story
There is no such thing as a perfect formula for an elevator pitch that works for everyone. Some people can sell their business to someone simply by clearly describing what it does in an enthusiastic manner. But many others find it more effective to tell their listener a story.
“I didn’t understand what my client’s financial planning business did until he shared the story of one of his customers,” Jose recalls. “Why didn’t you start with the story, I asked? Because a good story highlights what your product/service does for the customer. People are not interested in features but benefits and, by applying the power of stories, metaphors, analogies, and anecdotes, you can create a powerful elevator pitch.”
“Another of my clients was an SEO consultant who attended one of my workshops. When I met her at a networking event a few days later, I was surprised by her amazing elevator pitch. She had cleverly combined her blogging passion with what her business did in a very flowy narrative that finished by showing how successfully her blog was ranking thanks to her SEO skills.”
Prepare An Alternative Pitch
When you have mastered your elevator pitch and rehearsed it exhaustively until you can recite it from memory whenever you need to, consider crafting a second pitch that you can use for a different audience.
After all, everyone is different, so it stands to reason that some listeners will respond better to an alternative approach. For example, if you are standing in an elevator with a statistician, you should probably give him a pitch that includes key numbers about how your business performs. And if you are speaking to a very busy, high-powered executive, you will almost certainly need to grab their attention by highlighting at least one unique selling point of your products or services.
If your storytelling is your strength, then perhaps you should have two different stories ready to tell someone at a moment’s notice if the opportunity arises. When you have written and rehearsed your stories, all you have to do then is figure out, on the spot, which one to tell a particular individual. And whichever one you choose, speak with conviction.
Encourage Your Listeners To Act
One of the most commonly overlooked aspects of sales and marketing is the call to action. You could create a fantastic webpage or give an inspiring speech, but if you do not motivate your audience to act on what they have read or heard, you are unlikely to achieve the results you want.
This is especially true of an elevator pitch, which typically has two key aims: to make someone interested in your business and to make them do something about it.
Therefore, in the short time you have to give your pitch, you should aim to engage your listeners, ensure they remember you and your business and then finish by encouraging them to get in contact with you to take the next step towards working together.
That next step can take whatever form you like. It can be a follow-up email, a call to discuss partnership opportunities, an invitation to an upcoming event, or simply an exchange of contact details and a handing over of business cards. But whatever else you do, do not forget this crucial final act.
If you would like to learn how to create an exceptional elevator pitch of your own, book a Speaking Strategy Deep Dive Call with Jose.
