The Art of the Elevator Pitch
If you’ve been following me, you know that my approach to personal branding is the foundation to career success. Step two is crafting your elevator pitch. Along with crafting your pitch is presenting it—practicing it aloud. Regardless of your status, profession, or tenure, you need to know how to craft your elevator pitch.
There is a big difference between writing out a carefully-worded pitch and delivering it. During my time in sales, I spent a significant amount of time crafting the perfectly-worded phone script (elevator pitch), only to find myself clutching at completely different words when I had an active listener. The same goes for your personal elevator pitch—get in front of the mirror and practice! When you finally find yourself in front of the “right” person, you want to deliver the right message.
Entire books are written on this topic because it is complex, so let’s break it down. Many sources will tell you to have two or three versions of your pitch at varying lengths, and that’s partly true. The difficult part is that every encounter with a possible “lead” will require a slightly different approach.
Why? Because there are several factors simultaneously at play. This is why knowing one’s strengths, weaknesses, likes, and dislikes (from Step One) is tantamount to crafting the best version for certain situations.
Consider some possible situations where you are going to need an elevator pitch. What does that scenario look like? Is this person familiar with your industry? How much time will you have to introduce yourself and give your pitch? How formal is this situation? Will you have the opportunity to talk with them later?
If you feel overwhelmed, consider the use of “the talking logo”, a concept developed by John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing. Though this is designed more for small business owners, the simple formula to answer the question, “what do you do for a living?” is quite useful for elevator pitches. Jantsch notes, “it may not tell people what you do, but it will force them to take note and want to know more.”
The talking logo formula:
ACTION VERB + TARGET MARKET + HOW TO SOLVE X /MEET A NEED
Ex: help + self-employed professionals + double their income
Jantsch concludes, “you know you have a great [talking logo] when someone responds, ‘Really, how do you do that?’”
My Advice
Either get in front of a mirror and practice your verbiage and body language or find a willing participant to run through a few practice scenarios with you. Believe me when I tell you it is time well spent and the preparation will help reduce any anxiety that you might encounter. Good luck and let me know how it goes!