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Elevator Pitches And How To Craft Them
For those who aren’t familiar with the term, an elevator pitch is a brief speech that you would use to create interest in your product or company. There is a certain skill to putting one of these together: it needs to be simple enough to understand immediately, yet subtly crafted in such a way as to persuade your target audience to buy your products or services. It’s known as an ‘elevator pitch’ because it should last no longer than a short elevator ride of 20 to 30 seconds. Any longer and the attention of the person you’re talking to will begin to wander.
So how do you put one together? Here are some of the key steps:
Set A Goal: You can’t start developing your pitch until you know exactly what you want to get from it. Are your aims more general? For example, do you just want to introduce yourself and your organisation to as many potential clients as possible? Or perhaps you have one particular idea and you want to sound out market opinion. You may, on the other hand, be very keen to snag a particular client. If so, your pitch should revolve around knowing their priorities so you can tell them exactly how you will be able to meet them.
Explain Yourself: Unless you are representing globally renowned brand you can assume that your company will need a short introduction. Don’t waste much time on this – a few seconds will suffice – but come up with a few sentences that will let an outsider, even if they’re not an expert in the field, know exactly what it is you do.
Think About USPs: Once you’ve made your introductions, it’s time to move on to what makes your company and its products different to all the others on the market. Try to come up with a few sentences that really make you stand out: this is not just about communicating your selling points, but also putting them across in a way that is memorable, fun and interesting. (But don’t try to be too kooky or informal as some people don’t appreciate this – as with everything, know your audience!)
Ask A Question: Ideally, your pitch is about showing somebody that you have a solution to a particular problem they face or need that they have. In order to demonstrate this to them, you need to frame your pitch around a certain question: for example, if you are a marketing company looking to win a contract with a major client, you could ask them where they feel their current marketing activities are letting them down.
Practice: Finally, when you’ve put all this together you shouldn’t just go charging in there. Remember that how you present the pitch is just as important as the words you are using. Practice it on your own and with other people to make sure it doesn’t last too long and that you are getting the tone right. It’s a good idea to record yourself giving the pitch as you will then find it easy to spot the places where you need to slow down / give more emphasis and so on.