Sunday, June 17, 2012

What's an Elevator Pitch & Why is it Important?



An elevator pitch can be the difference between your success and failure. This blog post will review two ideas. First, the definition and backstory behind the elevator pitch. Next, why your elevator pitch is essential to your startup success.

What is an elevator pitch? 

While straightforward, let's whip out the definition to make sure we're on the same page.

From Wikipedia, "An elevator pitch (or elevator speech) is a short summary used to quickly and simple define a product, service or organization and its value proposition." The name, "elevator pitch" should summarize an idea in approximately thirty seconds to two minutes. The shorter the better! An elevator pitch can be presented in three formats: oral, written or video.

It's not one-size-fits-all

There are some that don't believe in elevator pitches. Really, these critics simply challenge the traditional, "one-size-fits-all" elevator pitch. They stress multiple stories or pitches for different audiences. I agree, here. Creating one pitch for all audiences may not take into account the different value propositions for different segments of your audience.

Why is an elevator pitch so important?   

You're at a networking event and you lock eyes with a VC. They'd be an excellent addition to your LinkedIn account. You finally get around to chatting with them. They ask about your business. You leave out key details and forget essential components. You just missed out on an excellent opportunity to make a great first impression.

With just 1 hour of practice, improve your business prospects. 

Now you understand why an elevator is important. In this next post, we'll use several steps to improving your elevator pitch in under an hour. 

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