Elevator Pitch 101
7/26/2007
Picture this.
You’re an entrepreneur and
are attending an emerging technology conference in a swanky
hotel. You’re there to
learn something about the world of Venture Capital and make a few
contacts. At the end of the day, you decide to change clothes
before going out for the night. You head over to the elevator
bank, push the “Up” button, and step through the doors of a
waiting elevator car. Just as the doors begin to close, you hear a
voice shout out, “Hold the door, please.” You swing your notepad
between the closing doors and, as they bounce back, through the
door bounds a 40-something man who just happens to be one of the
country’s top Venture Capitalists.
Or maybe you’re a salesperson and have spent the
last year penetrating an account. The client is ready to buy, but
everything is being help up by your contact’s inability to get the
approval of his V.P. After attending yet another status meeting,
you step into an elevator to go down to your car. The only other
person in the elevator is your contact’s V.P.
Or maybe you’re a project champion in a large
company and you have just come up with an idea that will save, or
make, your company millions of dollars a year. After giving yet
another presentation and getting yet another set of maybe’s, you
get on the elevator to go back up to your office. As you step
through the doors, you notice the CEO of your company standing on
your left.
In each case, what would you do?
The Problem
While the scenes I paint above may seem a bit idyllic,
encounters like these happen every day to entrepreneurs,
inventors, salespeople, project champions, authors, screenwriters,
job seekers, and many others.
By virtue of design, luck, or connections, they come
face to face with the person who can help them achieve their goal;
who can help them sell their Thing, regardless of whether it is an
idea, product, service, project, book, script, or themselves.
The problem is too few people are prepared to deal
with such a situation. They haven’t considered what they would
do, much less prepared something to say or rehearsed saying it.
As a result, instead of capitalizing on the
opportunity, they just let it walk out the door.
The Solution
The goal of this book is to ensure that you know how to handle
situations like the ones described above; to ensure you know what
to do, and what to say, if you have just a minute or two to catch
the attention of the person with whom you most want to speak.
This means developing an elevator pitch.
Before I get into all the specifics of what makes an
elevator pitch effective, let me first take one of the lessons of
this book to heart and give you a general sense of what an
elevator pitch is and why you need one.
What's An Elevator Pitch?
What exactly is an elevator pitch?
At its core, an elevator pitch (aka elevator speech or
elevator presentation) is several things. Of
course, an elevator pitch is a communication tool; it will help
you articulate your message. An elevator pitch is also a sales
tool; it will help you raise the money, and close the deals, you
need to be successful.
However, and most importantly, an elevator pitch is a teaching
tool.
While it’s of course important that you eventually
close the deal, there is no point in trying to close the deal
if the audience doesn’t understand what you are talking about and
why they should care.
As a result, an elevator pitch is designed to play the
role of a primer; as a high-level and basic introduction to
whatever it is that you are selling.
Given that, an effective elevator pitch is designed to
give the audience just enough information that they will have a
sense of what you are talking about and want to know more. Second,
and just as importantly, it is designed to not give The Audience
so much information so that they feel overwhelmed (and tune you
out).
Think drinking fountain, not fire hose.
If you are going to be successful, you’ve got to ease
the audience into your subject; you’ve got to give them a chance
to catch up to you and all of the thinking you have done over the
past months or years.
Why You Need An Elevator Pitch
Why do you need an elevator pitch?
While you no doubt love, are fascinated by, and are
passionate about what you are doing and could spend hours talking
about it, most people aren’t like you.
In all likelihood, when it comes to the people whose help you will
need to bring your Thing to life, they aren’t going to be nearly
as knowledgeable about or as interested in it as you are. As a
result, they are unlikely to appreciate -- or even notice --
the intricacies, subtleties, and details of it. Instead, they
will only understand and -- initially at least -- be interested in
the big picture.
Even if they do share your interest in and knowledge of
your field, the odds are that they are extremely busy. Just like
you, they have too many things to do and too little time to get
them done. That means that they must constantly -- and quickly --
decide what to pay attention to and what to ignore.
What’s more, it never fails that the more potentially
helpful a person is, the busier they are likely to be.
As a result, you must come up with a way of explaining your
Product that will grab the attention of someone who has seventeen
other things on their mind. You must assume that people are
looking for a reason to tune you out, not that they want to hear
what you have to say. You must explain your idea in a manner that
requires The Audience to do the least amount of work.
Above all else, you must get to the point.
Only by doing that will you get the attention of The
Audience and even have a chance of getting into the details of
what it is that you are selling.
Elevator Pitch Definition
Now that I’ve given you a high-level overview -- or in other
words an elevator pitch -- of what an elevator pitch is and why
you need one, let me give you a definition...
An elevator pitch is an overview of an idea, product, service,
project, person, or other Thing and is designed to just get a
conversation started.
While that definition is fairly self-explanatory, let me take a
moment to discuss exactly what the most important of those words
mean.
Overview
The point of an elevator pitch isn’t to get into every detail
of what it is that you are selling. Instead, all you want to do --
and all you have time to do -- is to make sure the audience
understands what you are talking about and what’s in it for them.
Idea, Service, Project, Person, or Other Thing
While the term “Elevator Pitch” is generally used in the
context of entrepreneurship, and in particular in selling ideas
for new businesses to Venture Capitalists, the truth is that the
idea can be applied to a variety of contexts. While elevator
pitches are most typically used by would-be entrepreneurs to sell
their ideas for new products and services to Venture Capitalists,
a good elevator pitch is an essential tool for a person trying to
sell a project to their boss or for anyone who is looking for a
job.
Just Get a Conversation Started
One reason why so many people deliver completely ineffective
elevator pitches is they don’t understand the purpose of an
elevator pitch. They act like the purpose of an elevator pitch is
to close the deal while in truth the purpose of an elevator pitch
is to just interest the audience in continuing to talk.
No more, and no less.
The Nine C’S Of An Effective
Elevator Pitch
Now that you have a high-level sense of what an elevator pitch is,
and what an elevator pitch is designed to do, let me drop down a level
and discuss the characteristics of an effective elevator pitch.
After working with hundreds of would-be entrepreneurs, and
studying hundreds of effective and ineffective elevator pitches,
I have found that an effective elevator pitch is nine things.
1. Concise
2. Clear
3. Compelling
4. Credible
5. Conceptual
6. Concrete
7. Consistent
8. Customized
9. Conversational
I discuss each of The Nine C’s at length elsewhere, but in the
interests of repetition -- and one of the themes of this book is
that repetition is good -- let me give you quick sense of what I mean.
1. Concise
An effective elevator pitch contains as few words as possible,
but no fewer.
While many people say that an elevator pitch must be short to be
effective, the truth is that it depends. Sometimes you do only
have a few seconds to get your point across. In situations like
those, your elevator pitch must be extremely short. However, in
other cases – such as the elevator pitch competitions that are
hosted by many schools and organizations – you have considerably
more time to convey your message. Often, that may be as long as
one or two minutes.
While you do not want to go long, you also do not want to waste
any of the time you have been given.
2. Clear
Rather than being filled with acronyms, MBA-speak, and
ten-dollar words, an effective elevator pitch can be understood
by your grandparents, your spouse, and your children.
This runs counter to what many people have learned in their
academic and/or professional lives; that the way to impress
people is to show them how smart you are by speaking in the
elaborate, coded language of your field.
While that approach certainly works in some settings, it doesn’t
work when it comes to delivering an elevator pitch. Venture
capitalists, angel investors, and executives are too
experienced, and too busy, to want to deal with those kinds of
games. Instead, they just want you to speak English.
3. Compelling
An effective elevator pitch explains the problem your Thing
solves.
In the world today there is this idea going around that people
should never talk about problems and the pain they cause; that
they should instead be “positive” and only talk about
opportunities. The promise is that by focusing on the positive,
only good things will happen. Conversely, we are warned that by
focusing on pain, problems, and other “negative” things, only
bad things will come to pass.
While that idea is of questionable merit in general, it is
completely wrong when it comes to entrepreneurship and
innovation.
If you study the lives and stories of successful entrepreneurs,
intrapraneurs, and innovators, you will find that most are
unabashed – and often serial – problem-solvers.
They make their fortunes by finding, and then solving, good
problems.
The same thing is true of the venture capitalists, angel
investors, and executives who back them. They are constantly on
the lookout for people who understand the importance of finding,
and then solving, good problems. As a result, an effective
elevator pitch makes it clear that what you are selling is not a
Solution In Search Of A Problem (or SISOAP).
Instead, an effective elevator pitch very explicitly explains
the problem you are trying to solve, for whom it is a problem,
and exactly why it is a problem.
4. Credible
An effective elevator pitch explains why you are qualified to
see the problem and to build the solution.
While you may have all the faith in the world in the value of
the Thing you are selling, when it comes to persuading others to
back you, faith alone isn’t enough.
Instead, you must give people a reason to believe what you are
saying.
As a result, an effective elevator pitch addresses the question
of the credentials and qualifications of the team. The goal is
to convince the audience that you know what you are talking
about and that you have the knowledge, experience, and resources
to get the job done.
5. Conceptual
An effective elevator pitch stays at a fairly high level and
does not go into too much unnecessary detail.
Too often, when writing, developing, and delivering their
elevator pitches, people spend much too much time talking about
HOW their Thing works and HOW they are going to bring it to life
and not nearly enough time explaining WHAT their Thing is, WHO
will buy it, and WHY they will buy it.
Why this happens is perfectly understandable. When it comes to
bringing an idea to life, you have to spend an inordinate amount
of time thinking about questions of HOW you will bring your
Thing to life. However, when you are explaining your Thing to
someone you have never spoken to before, you must first ensure
that they know WHAT it is that you are talking about before you
start to answer all of the HOW questions that you are
preoccupied with.
6. Concrete
As much as is possible, an effective elevator pitch is also
specific and tangible.
While it’s important that an elevator pitch doesn’t get into too
many operational and other unnecessary details, it is still
important to make clear to the audience that your Thing isn’t
just an idea. Instead, you want to make sure that the audience
comes away with the sense that what you are talking about is
real (or soon will be).
That means talking about specific products and not just
technologies. That also means talking about demonstrable
accomplishments, assuming – and hoping – you have some.
7. Consistent
Every version of an effective elevator pitch must convey the
same basic message.
As I say repeatedly, research reveals that people have to be
exposed to a message three times before it will start to sink
in. As a result, while you must have different versions of your
elevator pitch, each of which is tailored to the interests of
the audience with which you will speak, those different versions
must be similar.
That way, regardless of which version of your elevator pitch a
person hears, they will still come to the same basic
understanding of who you are what it is that you are selling.
8. Customized
An effective elevator pitch must also address the specific
interests and concerns of the audience.
The way to get someone’s attention is to speak their language;
to answer the questions they want to ask without their having to
ask them. The way to do this is to customize your elevator pitch
so that you can deliver (slightly) different versions to each
variation of the audience with which you wish to speak.
In the case of a start-up company, this means having customized
versions of your elevator pitch that target prospective team
members, business partners, investors, and customers.
9. Conversational
One reason why so many elevator pitches go into so much
unnecessary detail, and end up being so ineffective, is that too
few people understand the goal of an elevator pitch. Rather than
being to close the deal, the goal of an elevator pitch is to
just get the ball rolling. Generally, that means starting a
conversation, or a dialogue, with the audience. Only during
later conversations will the audience be interested in the
details -- the HOW -- of your Thing.
About This Essay
This essay is an excerpt from the book
Elevator Pitch Essentials by
Chris O'Leary,
which explains how to create an effective elevator pitch.
Elevator Pitch Essentials is currently in press and should be
available for sale some time in June 2008. Feel free to
e-mail Chris O'Leary if you would like to be notified when
the book is available for purchase.
|