Practice Your Elevator Pitch
Bill Warner Thursday, June 11, 2009
I can’t tell you how many entrepreneurs have told me that they cannot possibly explain their business in 45 seconds. I get the typical responses. It’s far too complex a business model. It’s hard to explain the technology. The market is too broad to get it across that quickly. My marketing and sales plan is difficult to understand. The list goes on.
Why even try
The purpose of such a presentation is simple. You will run into many situations in both your business and your social life where you have to give a brief answer to the question, “what business are you in?” This could come from people at trade show events, passengers on airplanes, people at parties, associates in business meetings, etc. Sometimes, the person who asks you the question is a potential business partner, customer or investor. For that reason, you want your answer to be crisp, clear, concise and compelling. If you give a boring and rambling answer, you may lose the chance for a new business associate.
The benefit of having the tool in your kit bag is that you can handle this simple question about your business, look terribly smart in doing it, and sometimes generate some interest. I’m not the only one that thinks this. Read this from Business Pundit for an additional perspective.
Can you explain your business in 45 seconds
It turns out that once you focus on it, you can get across your message. Here’s a reasonable outline:
- Say what business problem you solve
- Provide a sentence that explains your solution
- Explain who your customers are
- Finally, say what the status of the company is
- Close with a question that draws out interest
Here’s an example: “We reduce the costs of call center calls by providing an online software product that can automatically answer customer questions. It can reduce 20% of service calls. The software is installed on a company’s service and support website page, and you interact with it just like you do with live chat. The difference is that you are actually conversing with a piece of software that has the artificial intelligence to understand your question and give you an answer. We sell to customer service executives of large retail enterprises. We have been in business for two years and have 300 customers throughout the US. Does your company suffer from escalating call center costs?”
I can say this in about 40 seconds. You can create your own elevator pitch and do the same. I guarantee it.
Reap the benefits
You are not trying to explain every nuance of your business when you answer this question. You are simply grasping the essence of it and expressing it in a way that may result in your listener wanting to know more about your business. After all that is what you are all about.
Don’t fumble the elevator pitch opportunity. Practice it so that it is almost on automatic pilot when you are asked “what do you do?”
Filed Under: Business Operations, Sales Tips & Strategies, Starting a Business
Bill Warner is the Managing Partner of Paladin and Associates, a business consulting firm in the Research Triangle Park area of central North Carolina, and is the Chairman of the Triangle Accredited Capital Forum, an angel investor network with over one hundred members throughout the southeast.
Bill Warner is the Managing Partner of Paladin and Associates, a business consulting firm in the Research Triangle Park area of central North Carolina, and is the Chairman of the Triangle Accredited Capital Forum, an angel investor network with over one hundred members throughout the southeast.
