What’s your Elevator pitch?

By 02/10/2013 February 21st, 2016 Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Success

“So what do you do?”

How many times have you been asked that question? At a networking function, a business event, at a BBQ, in the elevator, anywhere?

How did you go answering the question?

You may have nailed it in a clear succinct sentence or like many people you may have stumbled, paused, gather your thoughts and then launched into a jumbled monologue about what you do and how you do it that ended up either boring your questioner or losing them in the details.

Sound familiar?

Many people find it difficult to articulate what they do in a simple easy to understand statement that is delivered with sincere confidence.

This statement is often referred to in sales as your Elevator pitch. Why is it referred to as an elevator pitch?  Wikipedia has a succinct definition:

The anatomy of the elavator pitchAn elevator pitchelevator speech, or elevator statement is a short summary used to quickly and simply define a person, profession, product, service, organization or event and its value proposition.

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. The term itself comes from a scenario of an accidental meeting with someone important in the elevator. If the conversation inside the elevator in those few seconds is interesting and value adding, the conversation will continue after the elevator ride or end in exchange of business cards or a scheduled meeting.

A variety of people, including project managers, salespeople, evangelists and policy makers, commonly rehearse and use elevator pitches to get their point across quickly.

So how do you create your own elevator pitch?

An elevator pitch needs to be easy to say and remember. It needs to be written in simple language (no jargon). It should be easy for anyone in your business to understand and relate to so that they can share it at a BBQ or any event.   It needs to be written from your customer’s (user’s) perspective.

When we are asked what we do at Barrett this is what we say:

‘We help people and businesses sell better.’

We all say this at Barrett regardless of our role. If we want to be more specific we can then describe our role and/or function in the business.

However if we want to demonstrate what value we bring to people who work with us (our value proposition) we say this:

‘By working with us our clients find that they can sell better, at greater margins and less risk than they did before. And sales leaders can make more informed decisions about how to lead and manage their sales teams and operations.’

That’s it.  Often this gets people wanting to talk to us more. Which is great.

So what is your elevator pitch?

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au