The Art of Delivering the Perfect Elevator Pitch

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

You can never predict in which situation, whether in a grocery store or a networking function, there will be some interaction with other people that may come to present a new business opportunity. That is why it is essential always to be prepared to seize the day this opportunity presents itself.

The key to seizing these opportunities is a speech in the form of an elevator pitch, which means it should be short. You also need to get people’s attention and make them remember you. At the same time, it should also generate a desire to want to talk to you more.

Entrepreneurs who sit on top of the Silicon Valley chain have mastered persuasion, motivation, and instilling a keen interest in investors. We have plenty of examples to scour. Ethan Sutin, who co-founded Squad (acquired now by Twitter) and led Project Implicit is one of the tech geniuses who disrupted the market with his work.

His former company, Squad, raised a staggering $7.2 million in seed capital from some of the biggest investors, including First Round Capital, Betaworks, and Paul Graham’s Y Combinator. Sutin is now based in Twitter, pulling the strings to make the platform more humanized, real, and personal. Sutin’s ability to convince a table of investors goes down in Silicon Valley’s history of powerful memories.

The best Elevator Pitch is the one that achieves its objectives: attract clients, convince them that your idea is the best, and sell your project or personal brand in record time. Do you know how to prepare a good Elevator Pitch? Follow these tips:

• Know your audience: If you are looking for tips to give a good speech, this should be the first one you consider. What audience are you targeting? What are they looking for, what are their interests/needs, and the reasons that have led them to your Elevator Pitch? Everything you can know about your audience will give you an advantage when it comes to convincing them.
• Know your project: It may be obvious, but to get the best Elevator Pitch of your idea to make a presentation of yourself, you have to know the strengths and weaknesses of what you are going to offer. If you have doubts or are not clear enough in the space of little more than two minutes, you will have lost the opportunity.
• Structure your speech: The moment of truth has come, although we are only halfway through this list of steps to create your Elevator Pitch. Choose the right words and tone so that, in just two minutes, your audience wants to know more about your project.
• Rehearse your Elevator Pitch: And keep in mind that the time you have is concise, and you have to get not only the attention of your audience but also arouse interest in your project or job application. Offer an informal speech, open to improvisation, adapted to your audience … And all in just over two minutes. It is convenient to record and review your Elevator Pitch to discover errors or points of improvement.
• Collect impressions: When preparing an Elevator Pitch, it is advisable to make it as realistic as possible and rehearse with the public. Once you are done, collect impressions from your audience because these will make you improve and help you know what questions they may ask you or what aspects of your presentation are not clear. This will allow you to get ahead of your clients and offer a 100% professional image.

How to perform a good Elevator Pitch

The moment of staging arrives. Remember that the best Elevator Pitch is the one that achieves the objectives for which it has been set: to attract the customer’s attention and make them interested in knowing your project more profoundly. When making an Elevator Pitch, you must bear in mind that:

1. An Elevator Pitch is not a monologue. You have little time, it is true, but there are ways to communicate with your audience that go beyond showing the advantages of your idea. Challenge your audience, provoke reactions and count on their participation because, in this way, you will be capturing their attention.
2. Your project is the central theme. Do not deviate from this idea because your pitch’s main objective is to sell your product and, of course, present it and show its characteristics. One aspect that cannot be missing from a good Elevator Pitch is identifying your project with a real need from your audience. In short: what is their problem/need, and how your product helps to solve/satisfy it.
3. The business model is essential. It is useless if you expose a problem, offer the solution, and do not take into account that you are in front of a group of possible investors/clients to whom you must show them what your business idea is, what potential audience is it aimed at, what investment they need and which ones are its growth expectations in the short and medium-term.
4. Differentiate yourself from others. Everything previously said does not make much sense if someone asks you how your idea differs from others on the market and you do not know what to answer. One of the keys to a good Elevator Pitch is to show what only your idea can solve compared to others. This point cannot be missing in your speech.
5. Answer questions. We already know that time is short, and you have to tell your idea and convince yourself of your business model. Still, it is convenient to reserve a small space to resolve doubts and questions that, far from taking time away, can win you investors (provided that you have prepared them).
6. Take care of your body language: Another tip that cannot be missed when making a good speech is to be very aware of what we transmit (and what not) with our gestures, hands, and attitude towards the public. Keep an eye on all these aspects.

The elevator pitch is arguably your most crucial marketing tool because it’s often the first thing people know about you. It is best done in person and can be reviewed on the spot for virtually any situation. You can and should improve your pitch’s persuasiveness by practicing it frequently with different people in different settings and watch your success rate increase with each time you practice it.