101: Elevator Pitch
Your elevator pitch — also known as an elevator speech — should hook a listener into learning more about your company, but should not give too much information up front. It should be concise but contain enough information to intrigue a client or investor. While highly strategic, it should sound natural. Here are three things to keep in mind when speaking to others about your company for the first time (whether you're in an elevator, or not):
Get excited. Listeners won't remember every detail in what you say, but they will remember your tone. “Your pitch should bring a smile to your face and quicken your heartbeat,” says an article at MindTools.com, as excitement is contagious. “You could say, 'My company writes mobile device applications for other businesses,''' the article suggests. But a better explanation would be: “My company develops mobile applications that businesses use to train their staff remotely. This results in a big increase in efficiency for an organization's managers.” Now that's worth getting excited about.
Use those four little words, whatever they may be. As an exercise in keeping your message succinct, Caitlin Hendee, in an article at Boston Business Journal, suggests finding four words that describe your business. And make sure none of those words are shop-talk-type phrases. “Many elevator pitches are technical, jargon-laden and assume that the listener even understands what industry you're in,” she writes. In fact, they may not.
Practice makes perfect. You have to be comfortable with your pitch in order for it to sound natural and not like a hard sell. Practicing out loud, though it may sound silly, is the perfect way to get your elevator pitch down pat. “If you stumble, that is totally fine; smile and start over,” says Dwight Peters at Entrepreneur.com. “You don't want to sound like a pre-recorded program,” when it's time to deliver.
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