We had a great morning recently working with an exciting start up to help them feel more confidant dealing with the media. One of the sessions was about how to deliver an elevator pitch. The idea of an elevator pitch is, if you only have the time of a journey in an elevator with someone, how can you best pitch your idea to them in a way that is memorable and will get their attention.
We spent time working out what the key elements of their story were and the best way to tell it. The staff from the company we were working with were quite good at summarising what they did, but it came to life when they told it in a short story about how they help others. So here are the top tips from that session to think about if you want to really make an impact when you tell someone in a meeting, at a pitch or even in a lift what it is you do.
- Tell them a story. Tell one story about what your organisation does, maybe someone you have helped? This will make a greater impact than trying to summarise everything you do.
- How can you enthuse about it? Remember a moment when you were really proud of something you did professionally? think about how that made you feel, now multiply that feeling by a hundred. Now make sure you capture that much enthusiasm and passion when you give your elevator pitch.
- What do you want to achieve? Make sure you are clear before you start about what you want to achieve. Do you want to get a longer meeting with them? or for them to come to an event? Whatever it is, make sure you finish with a clear call to action so they know what you want them to do.
- What’s your USP? When you deliver your pitch, make sure you really think about what makes your story special, different and interesting. You have to make sure your listener is engaged by what you want to tell them and if they’ve heard the same thing before from others, they won’t be.
- Practise, practise, practise! You’ll be far more confidant delivering your pitch if you’ve practised it a lot. Hone it, try it out on other people and then you’ll be ready whenever anyone asks you what you do to give the perfect one minute story.