How long do you have to deliver your “elevator pitch?” That depends on how new the elevator is and how many floors you’re riding. The average elevator takes 23 seconds to get from one floor to the next. But the 100-floor ride from the ground floor of the Freedom Tower in New York City to the observation deck takes only 60 seconds!
If you needed to tell a fellow elevator rider about your business, could you do it in 60 seconds?
Why should you care?
Your elevator pitch does not just come in handy when you’re riding an elevator. It could be useful at any number of cocktail parties or conferences or other social or business gatherings where you’re chatting with someone or with a group of people. At some point, they ask you: What is it that the company does? You don’t know if the person asking the question might be a potential client. But there’s always that possibility.
How long will it take you to answer what is, in theory, a straightforward question?
10 Ways Your Elevator Pitch Can Improve Your Business
There are many reasons why it’s essential to have the ability to concisely, at a high level, and in a short period, state what your business does. Let’s look at why.
It demonstrates that you understand your business.
It gives you an edge in competitive situations where you only have a minute (or maybe two) to make your case.
The elevator pitch should be designed to make a listener want to visit your Web site to learn more about your company.
If you can’t provide a brief statement, perhaps your company lacks focus.
An elevator pitch can be even further shortened into a tag line.
In an initial encounter, no one wants to hear a litany of reasons why your company is unique. They just want to know what your company does.
Keeping it simple at the outset might actually encourage more questions. For example, you’re at a conference in New York City. Someone from California asks what your company does. You answer: We install and support accounting software solutions. The Californian might then ask: Oh, do you serve companies in California? You say: Yes, we do! They might then ask: Whose software do you install? You might answer: Microsoft. They might then ask: Do you also provide training? Or they might ask: Really? For manufacturers?
I think you get my point. Now, having said very little to start with, you’re engaged in a dialogue that might lead somewhere. And if it doesn’t, you’ve saved yourself a lot of wasted time, because that person has no interest in accounting software. If they did have an interest, they would have queried you further.
Your elevator pitch opens doors.
Crafting your elevator pitch is a good exercise that teaches you to define your business in a nutshell.
Spread the love by sharing your elevator pitch with everyone in your company. Give everyone the ability to use that pitch in potentially profitable ways – even on the sidelines of a soccer field with other parents.
You just never know when it’s going to come in handy.
Stay tuned…
The Marketing Monarchs blog features sales and marketing tips, tricks, and tools every month. Come back next month for more.
Please visit me at Marketing Monarchs, email me at jon.rivers@marketingmonarchs.com, or call me at 617.256.6178.