You step onto an elevator and after requesting, “Lobby, please”, someone says, “So, what do you do?” Hence the term, the elevator pitch.
The elevator pitch can be used in multiple ways to quickly build your brand awareness and deliver a sales message via a short “commercial”. The elevator pitch is quite simply, but without some preparation and thought, it can be a disastrous ‘word salad’, leaving you to miss an opportunity to effective share your story, to build your brand, or create a business opportunity. The goal is to be short(you may only have one floor to go), concise and memorable. Below are the four elements of an effective elevator pitch.
- Who. The pitch must identify you and your company. That’s easy right? Maybe. So, many people want to get into where they’re headquartered, how many employees, annual revenue, etc. That’s not necessary. It’s your name and your company name, that’s it.
- What. What, as in what you do. If you make widgets, all that needs to be said is, “We make widgets.” Leave some curiosity for them to ask a follow up question such as, “Oh, that’s interesting, what are they used for?” You’ve now got him/her interested and asking for more. That’s what you want.
- Why. This is the probably the most important. Why are you unique? This is where you get to share your 2-4 core differentiators. Again, keep it simple. It goes as simple as something like this, “Our core differentiators are expertise, efficiency and affordability.”
- Call to action. Always state that if there’s a need for your product or service, to give you a call. Be ready to give them a card or to airdrop your contact information, or better yet, to schedule an appointment.
PROTIPS:
- Your elevator pitch needs to be 30 seconds or less. Some may say longer, but because of today’s technology such as Snapchat, Youtube shorts, TikTok, etc. people are conditioned to only watch or hear in 30 second sound bites. Additionally, if you record your elevator pitch it can be used in your social media campaign. Anything longer and people tune out and your message is lost.
- For more information on developing your core differentiators, go to my previous blog post on this topic.
- Use your elevator pitch as a foundation to build your entire story.
- For an example of a 30 second elevator pitch, go to my LinkedIn profile and click on my avatar.
With today’s technology, the elevator pitch can be leveraged in so many different ways. Develop your elevator pitch, then use your imagination and creativity to find ways to delivery it. You’ll be amazed as to how it can be the launch point to greater success.
Kerry Boudreaux is Senior Vice President of Sales for FourthSquare. With over 30 years of sales and sales leadership experience, he offers practical sales and organizational messaging advise across public and private sectors.