An Elevator Pitch for All Occasions
Sunday July 27, 2008
Sixty seconds isn't much time to pitch a client or investor. The elevator pitch is a great exercise to develop a short message to convey what you do to clients, investors, media or potential partners. Your pitch should leave your target audience wanting more. It's all about creating clarity and curiosity.
Silent Whistle was a Brigham Young University business plan winner with this great pitch:
"Silent Whistle helps companies prevent, identify and control risk resulting from illegal or unethical activities within their organization. Using anonymous web and phone-based systems, Silent Whistle allows employees of any organization to safely and silently blow the whistle on fraud, sexual harassment, substance abuse, discrimination and any other unethical act."
Get your pitch right. You'll never know when you will need it.
I think the Silent Whistle pitch is a bit long (especially if delivered verbally).
The best advice I’ve read about the elevator pitch is that is has two parts:
1. The premise (one sentence about your unique feature / benefit that hooks the listener)
2. An endorsement.
The premise is the most important part. Here’s a couple of good ones:
- John Rockefeller at Standard Oil: “Let the poor man have his cheap light”
- Merill Lynch: “Bring Wall St to Main St”
(Source: ‘The Beermat Entrepreneur’, 2002)
The hook I use for my business (a design marketplace) is “we give creative people opportunities”. Gets a good reaction from people.
Alec
Director
DesignBay
I have recently started attending quite a few networking events, and I have learned that many people still don’t even have a 60-second elevator speech down. They introduce themselves and talk for several minutes. Everyone gets bored and it is ineffective.
I actually have two sentences and when I introduced myself to the group last week, someone asked, “Is that it?”
Yes, and it was a lot more effective. I talked with 5 people that have become leads.
It’s pretty common, when I tell people that I do transcription, that they have no idea what I’m talking about. They have no idea what transcription is, but also, once I explain it to them, they wonder, “Why would anyone need a service like that?” I’m getting better at explaining 1.) What we do, and 2.) Why we do it in just a few words, but it takes time and practice. Every time I tell someone about our business, I think about any key phrases I might have used, and if they’re good ones, I’ll use them again next time I need to describe our business.
yeah i remember coming up with one for my resume/job pitching attempts. i guess i should have one ready for my work, although im not in the sales part.
-jack @ enterprise feedback management
yeah i remember coming up with my 60 second pitch for my resume/job pitches. i guess it wouldnt hurt to have one for my current employment.
jack @ enterprise feedback management
yeah i remember coming up with my 60 second pitch for my resume/job pitches. i guess it wouldnt hurt to have one for my current employment.
jack @ enterprise feedback management
whoops… didnt mean for that to happen 3x