My 30 Second Elevator Pitch

Try this one on for size. You are a young male or female that’s been infatuated with a particular person of the opposite sex. You’ve been wanting to approach this person of interest for some time now, but you are very nervous and shy and really don’t know what to say. After attending an event, you step into an elevator to go down to your car. The only other person in the elevator is the person of interest and you are at a loss for words.

Let’s say, you are an up and coming model and you are attending a high-profile fashion show at an upscale venue. As the day progresses, you decide that you are going to change clothes before you go out to eat. You make your way to the elevator and walk through the doors. As the doors have almost completely shut, you hear a voice say, “Hold the door please.” You wave your hand between the doors and as they part once more, through the door comes the talent coordinator who happens to one of the world’s renown moguls for producing and promoting talent.

Or consider you are an inspiring author and you’ve just attended a book signing of your favorite author. You’ve recently completed a book and would love to get feedback from a professional or someone that can provide you with a positive evaluation and criticism about your book. After the crowd has subsided, you are making your way out the door. You step off the elevator and notice that your favorite author is standing off to the right by themselves. What are you going to say? What are you going to do?

The Chase

The circumstances illustrated above may seem a bit unconventional, but they happen quite often. Our constant desire and wanting of said things, cause events to line up and provide us with the opportunities, connections, and circumstances to help us achieve our goal. The challenge is that many of us have not practiced how we would react or what we would say and do when opportunity presents itself. As a result, opportunity passes us by for those who are prepared and ready. “Chance favors only the prepared mind.” Louis Pasteur

The Fix

My efforts are to prepare you with the tools, techniques and guidance needed to be successful in any situation or environment. Empowering you with what to say and do in the event you only have moments to convey your story, to grab the attention of the person of interest.

So what is an elevator pitch? Basically, it’s a communication tool used to quickly and simply convey a product, service, organization, idea or other solution in efforts to starting a conversation. It’s like the first introduction of things to follow. The name “elevator pitch” reflects the idea that it should be possible to deliver the summary in the time span of an elevator ride, or approximately thirty seconds to two minutes. On one hand, your pitch should give enough information so others will have a sense of what you’re talking about and secondly, you do not want to give too much information so that the people around you lose interest because it’s too much information to grasp in 30 seconds to two minutes.

An elevator pitch is also a sales pitch. Let’s take the Presidential Candidates for a moment; Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain and Ron Paul. They all have elevator pitches designed to promote, sale, solicit, and spark the interest of concerned listeners.

Here’s an example of an elevator pitch; I assist businesses and entrepreneurs in getting more clients than they know what to do with. You see, when someone knows our story, they can’t help but like us, and we support and do business with those we like. I also have a personal development and sales coaching background which I combine to assist you to close the deal, live your life on purpose, with class, pleasure and success in all areas.

Why Is an Elevator Pitch Important?

We live in a fast pace, fast food world, so to speak. We all have a million things to do today and only a few hours to get them done. Everyone wants success, a happy marriage, loving, healthy and obedient children, money and freedom to do what is wanted, but many are not committed to do what is necessary to have the wants and desires.

Now when it comes down to receiving the assistance needed to get your idea off the ground, it never fails that the person most likely to be the source of help, is being pulled in many different directions. And with this person being one of importance and busier then several people combined, they hear a lot and have to decide what and who is important while ignoring or blocking out everyone else. So you must come up with a way to attract their attention, while they are thinking about 50-eleven other things.

So it’s important to practice, practice, practice. Be clear and address a specific interest to the prospects or audience. Speak in a language a child can understand. In other words, reframe from using abbreviations or jargon people may not know and understand. Do not be afraid to toot your own horn. You need to be confident with bragging about your own individual contributions in a humble and gracious way. You want to speak slow and steady to convey a sense of conviction and thoughtfulness. If you are speaking like an auctioneer, this can be a major factor in someone or everyone, tuning you out because they don’t understand. Take every opportunity that presents itself to say your elevator pitch. Remember the first rule of sales: Always be closing. Say it to everyone.