I think most people have a love/hate relationship with the elevator pitch. It’s a concept that’s been around forever. If you’ve ever tried to write one and practice it in front of the mirror, you’ll know that it’s a simple exercise in theory yet oh so difficult to pull off. It can drive you mad.
Let’s set the stage first. In case you’re new to this…an elevator pitch is a brief way of introducing yourself and/or your company, getting across a key point or two, and making a connection with someone. It’s called an elevator pitch because it takes roughly the amount of time you’d spend riding an elevator with someone.
As I mentioned, the concept is simple but the development and execution is painstaking. Why is it so difficult? Anyone can ramble on for 10 minutes about themselves and/or their company. But put a 60 second time limit on it, and watch people bob and weave and stumble, often mentioning things that aren’t important while omitting the most critical data points. After all, it was Mark Twain that once said, ““I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.”
But the impact of delivering an effective elevator pitch is absolutely worth the effort, for 3 specific reasons.
Nailing Your Elevator Pitch is Worth the Effort
Yes it takes time and energy to build and deliver the perfect elevator pitch, but here are the reasons it’s worth the effort:
- It forces you to get very deliberate about the details you share – and leave out – about yourself and your company.
- It de-stresses the moment for you…and your audience.
- It increases the probability of a successful interaction and a new opportunity.
Top 3 Reasons to Perfect Your Elevator Pitch
Here are the top 3 reasons to perfect your elevator pitch:
1. It Forces You to Get Very Deliberate About the Details You Share – and Leave Out – About Yourself and Your Company
Developing the elevator pitch is a grueling process, mostly because of the details you need to cut out.
It’s not difficult to throw together a handful of sentences about what you and your company do, but deleting all the non-essential details, extra descriptions, and unnecessary words is a painful exercise. An elevator pitch becomes great when it’s:
- Concise with clear language that avoids acronyms and industry jargon that can be confusing to non-insiders.
- Stresses your unique value proposition that distinguishes you from your competitors.
- Creates interest to learn more.
Writing it out forces you to make really hard decisions about the details that absolutely need to stay, and the details you can either eliminate entirely, or at least park for a future conversation. It’s like therapy.
2. It De-Stresses the Moment For You…And Your Audience.
While writing the elevator pitch can be a stressful experience, delivering it should not. When you put in all the hard work at the front-end of the process, the execution should be easy. But of course this depends on how well you can memorize the pitch itself.
Ideally, once you have your perfect pitch created, you practice it over and over again, have it committed to your memory, so you can deliver it with ease when the impromptu moment arises.
Having it memorized means that you can retrieve it within seconds and you’ll be able to recite it with confidence without having your brain work in overdrive, leading to a calm exchange for yourself and your audience.
Things get very stressful and awkward when you don’t it memorized, and you start fumbling and bumbling, repeating yourself, and mentioning unimportant points. You’ll be stressed, the audience will be stressed, and both sides will want to move on quickly.
Memorize the pitch.
3. It Increases the Probability of a Successful Interaction and a New Opportunity
If you can successfully articulate your value proposition, the audience has clarity on what you and your company do, and the conversation can then shift to a potential opportunity.
Ideally your pitch has generated some interest in the other party learning more about your and your business, and then you can decide if the time is right to jump into more detail or perhaps agree to a future conversation to explore the opportunity further.
The point is that a successful pitch should clear the path to a more detailed discussion, if the interest is genuine. An unsuccessful pitch only leaves behind confusion and a potential missed opportunity.
Conclusion
The elevator pitch is still an important skill to master in any business situation, whether it’s in a live face to face setting or in a virtual interaction. The benefits are clear and the effort is justified.
