Writing and delivering a memorable and effective elevator pitch can be challenging. An elevator pitch is a short speech about your business — who you are, what you do, and what you can offer the people listening. The name comes from the time limitation on an effective pitch. It should last about as long as it takes for an elevator to get from the bottom to the top of a building — about thirty seconds.
How do you put your business into words and say it all in only thirty seconds? Here are four tips to help you write your best elevator pitch to build your business.
Get out a clean sheet of paper or open up an empty word document and start writing. There’s no need to limit yourself here. Instead, write down everything that seems relevant to answer the key points mentioned above:
The more information you can include here, the better. Try describing your business from the perspective of your client or customer. Don’t just list your products or services, but what solution or value they provide to your customers.
This practice can be useful if you have a hard time knowing where to start with an elevator pitch or if limiting your pitch to a short thirty seconds seems impossible. Once you have all the relevant aspects of your business down on the page, it is time to pick out the information that will resonate best with your ideal audience or buyer personas.
Now that you have the big picture down on the page, it’s time to drill in. With a pen or highlighter, comb through your document as if you were a potential customer and highlight or underline the phrases or sentences that stand out. Remember the key points as you highlight — your potential customer needs to know who you are and what you can do for them.
After you have highlighted the most important points that your elevator pitch needs to include, it’s time to put them all together and ensure that your language is specific and actionable. No passive language here. For example, saying “My Great Business will be helping people who may feel limited by the lack of organic, high-quality pet food on the market” is very passive and won’t inspire confidence and excitement in potential customers. Instead, saying “My Great Business helps people who are frustrated by the lack of organic pet food on the market by providing an organic, high-quality food that pets love” uses active language and positions the business and product as a solution to a problem.
Once you have your elevator pitch down on paper, it’s time to get it out into the world. Your elevator pitch should be ready for any occasion. How many times has someone asked you, “ What do you do?” This question is a perfect time to use your elevator pitch. And if you participate in any business networking events, you know how critical an elevator pitch is when introducing yourself to the group. In order to achieve a natural and comfortable pitch that is ready at a moment’s notice, you need to practice. Start by speaking to yourself aloud or in a mirror and memorizing your pitch. You should never read from a paper when presenting your pitch to potential customers or clients, so take the time to memorize it.
Once you’re ready to take your pitch out into the world, find a local networking group near you and test out your new elevator pitch!