Imagine a mosquito buzzing incessantly near your ear. Your instinctive reaction would be to snap your hands at it. To silence it. Contrast it to the sweet rendition of a Mockingbird. You would pause to hear it.

1. However, your elevator pitch isn’t just for networking events or social gatherings – you’ll need it when cold-calling a business prospect or in other similar situations. Your elevator pitch: In your elevator pitch, you need to succinctly state what you do for a living and work out how to communicate this to whoever your audience may be.
2. Your elevator pitch is similar to your personal branding statement or a short bio, but it's delivered verbally, so you'll want to use natural, conversational language as you speak. While an elevator pitch is short, it's worth taking the time to draft and then practice it. Key components of an elevator pitch.

As an entrepreneur, your elevator pitch needs to take the mockingbird route. An effectively delivered elevator pitch could make you an overnight millionaire. During your pitches, you are selling your great idea to a bunch of investors who would willingly part with their money for the next great startup idea.

Most fledgling struggling startups, which later became unicorns, roared their way to success banking on two factors – a great product idea and a persuasive elevator pitch. Both are indispensable for each other’s survival.

Yet, plenty of founders are unable to master this crucial art linked to the survival of their startups. They melt into background noise as other better crafter pitches make their mark.

Not all great startup pitches result in funding, but it sure increases chances of catching the attention of investors. It helps build networks, it helps your product gain awareness and traction.

Stay True to your Brand This is a great tip for anywhere your brand is represented and definitely one to keep in mind when creating your elevator pitch. This can mean much more than simply arranging the design components to follow your branding guidelines. It also refers to how you communicate your points and engage with people.

Here are a few simple steps to consistently deliver the perfect elevator pitch!

1. Creating the perfect pitch deck

Simply put your pitch deck is your prop. It complements your elevator pitch speech. It is used to make your message more impactful to the audience and aids in memory retention. It is a well-known fact that visual memory sticks far longer than the auditory memory in humans. Our brains are wired to let information flow in from one ear and throw it out of another. But visuals stick, especially the good ones and leave a lasting impact of your brand.

Which would be more impactful? Someone saying that 95% of the Indian population does not have Electronic Health Record or someone showing you the same in a visual.

The number of slides in a pitch deck depends entirely on the length of the elevator pitch. Ideally, for a 2-minute pitch, there should not be more than 3 or 4 slides on your deck.

The information on it should be clean, simple, to-the-point and add value to your brand. The slide on the screen should resonate with the content of the elevator speech.

A startup pitch deck is only as good as the elevator speech you have prepared. Else it will just be a set of beautifully designed slides with no lasting impact.

2. Writing The Perfect Elevator Pitch Speech

There are many components in preparing the Elevator pitch:

I.The Opening Statement

“The new Tesla Roadster is faster than a Ferarri and more efficient than a Prius.” – Elon Musk, Founder of Tesla Inc.

This kind of opening statement by Elon Musk while pitching the Tesla Roadster is designed to pique the interest of the audience immediately. Remember, generally, elevator pitches do not last more than a couple of minutes. Thus, it is essential to reign in the audience’s attention immediately.

Nothing better than a provocative statement to cause the audience to sit up. You might not have Musk’s profile, but a stirring opening statement will induce curiosity, most likely skepticism, and some eye rolling. But, your statement has done its job. It has awakened even the most droopy-eyed investor in the room.

II. Back up Your Opening Statement

Now it is your job to back up what you have said in your provocative opening statement to avoid embarrassing yourself and looking like a fool.

Your content should address:

• What your product does
  

• What is the existent problem your product/service is going to solve
  

• Why your product is different from other existing solutions (current market scenario)

• What impact has your product already made in the market (Data and metrics related to revenue, number of clients, number of units sold etc.)
  

• The goal, specific targets, and vision of the company going forward

• The ballpark figure as to how much funds you hope to raise from investors and what you are going to do with the money
  

3. The Deck should be a Complement, not a Distraction

This is where your props or slides help you a lot. The slides should illustrate all the above points in sync with your speech. But remember do not embed too much textual information on the slides. Have the numbers, data, and images on the screen.

At all times, you need to ensure that you are the subject and not the slides. You need to guide the audience’s attention to the slides when you want them to go there. At all times, their attention should be focussed on you.You, your product, and your vision are the heroes of your story here, not your slides. You need to make the investors believe in you. For that, they need to hear what you have to say and their attention should be solely focussed on you.

Have a look at one of the Airbnb slides from its pitch deck illustrating this perfectly:

4. Perfect Your Delivery

What do all the best speeches have in common? Apart from great content, the speaker’s delivery flow appears to be natural, unflustered, and unhurried with pauses at the correct time. The pause is important because it gives the audience the time to digest all the information that you are throwing at them. Especially, if your audience is a room full of investors whom you are trying to pitch, you better give them that time to digest your great idea.

Elevator pitches are short 1-2 minutes affairs. Yes, time is a premium so you need to speak fast to get all your content across. But there is a difference between speaking fast and hurrying through the content.

When you hurry through the content you sound incoherent, expressionless, you will definitely miss out on certain words and your sentences sound incomplete. Your body language goes for a toss, you sound flustered and do not evoke any confidence in your audience who are now bored. No investor is going to part funds for your idea.

However, you can still speak fast and be crystal clear about your goals and ideas and keep your audience invested.

Check out this investor pitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6O98o2FRHw

This is in many ways the perfect elevator pitch. He does not have a pitch deck because he does not need it. Instead, he uses a prop, the coffee cup on which they help clients advertise. He speaks at a rapid rate but at no point does he seem to lack coherency or flow. Overall, he speaks fast, but there are moments when he slows down to emphasize for impact.

For example when he especially emphasizes that their client’s advertisements are exposed to their customers for “ Two Thousand (short pause) .. Two Hundred (short pause) and 20 seconds on an average.” The bait has been laid successfully. The audience is eager to know what kind of advertisement gives such massive exposure to a prospective customer base.

He effectively plays around with his choice of words as well. He could have used 37 minutes instead of “Two Thousand Two Hundred and Twenty Seconds”. However, the latter is way more impactful because it allows him to emphasize with pauses, driving home his point further. His follow-up statement, “We put your brand in their hands” is the powerful pivotal moment of any great speech which emphasizes that he is in total control mode at the moment. The speech is a winner already. He uses the words “37 minutes” later in his elevator speech when his audience is lapping up every word that he says.

5. Practice Practice Practice

The way you construct and deliver the elevator speech is vital to the success of getting funding for your great idea or product.

Every entrepreneur has to furnish and hone his/her public speaking skills. While some people might take to it naturally and have a flair for it, most have to deal with stage fright and nerves. How do you overcome this? We all know the answer. There is only one way. The time and tested trusted method since the birth of civilization – Practice Practice Practice!

The fear of public speaking is fairly common. In fact, it would be abnormal not to have it. Most people fear public speaking even more than death! So you are not alone.

The only magic solution is to practice your elevator pitches in front of the mirror, in front of your friends, your co-founders, and record yourself to see if you are improving on a daily basis.

Maybe you are pressed for time and you might feel that daily practice is an awful waste of time. Think again because you might be loosing out on a great deal of funding capital!

Think of the elevator pitch in dollar terms. Every time you practice, you increase your chances of delivering a perfect elevator pitch on the D-Day resulting in huge investment rounds. This could be the launchpad for the next unicorn in the making. And all it takes is a bit of daily discipline and freeing up your calendar a bit for public speaking practice.

So great cracking now and follow these 5 steps to craft your perfect pitch and win more business and investment for your brand. Are there other strategies that have worked for you when it comes to designing and delivering the perfect elevator pitch? Feel free to pitch it to us at [email protected]

You step into a conversation at a networking event and someone asks that ominous question, “So what do you do?” Anyone who has ever had a business or personal brand knows this question all too well. How do you answer? This is where a good elevator pitch can make all the difference.

But what is this pitch and how can you use it most effectively?

Let’s start off with a solid elevator pitch definition to get us all on the same page…

What is an Elevator Pitch and Why Is it Important?

This is a short, but memorable, summary of yourself and what you do. Since people usually don’t want a long-winded introduction, it’s best to keep it to 30 seconds or less — thus, the time it would take you to take an elevator from one floor to another.

Let’s talk for a second about what it should not be.

This pitch is not used to close deals. It is not a magical phrase that will get you immediately hired. It is not meant to be used on anyone who is already a client.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way…

This pitch is used as an introduction to you, your personal brand, and how you help people. It is most often used at networking events when people ask you a question like, “What is it that you do?” or, “Tell me about yourself.” You can use it at other events, conferences, and even job interviews where this kind of question can arise. You might even put your pitch in writing for the introduction of your resume or your LinkedIn profile.

Your pitch should ultimately be warm, friendly, and conversational — not stuffy or pretentious.

A 30-second pitch might seem like a small deal, but it plays an important role in your branding and career. In these 30 seconds, people get a glimpse of your professional aptitude, strengths, and skills.

What can help your pitch to hit all these points and avoid the major pitfalls that others have experienced? Let’s look at the six most important elements to such pitches and how you can do it yourself. And stay tuned to the end of this post for examples of exemplary pitches, worthy of imitation.

6 Crucial Elements to Your Elevator Pitch

1. Who You Are

This is an essential part of your pitch — before you can get into anything else, people need to know who you are and how you fit into the big picture.

This also comes with a word of caution — don’t ramble! Remember, they’re not there for your life story. Keep it to the basics, meaning your role or title, and possibly your brand.

For instance:

I’m the founder of Pendulum Financial Consulting

2. Your Company

For this part, you need to know all you can about your company, including its values and mission. You won’t use all of this information, but it will help to more effectively form your pitch and adapt it to your audience.

Describe what your company does in a brief, to-the-point way that doesn’t get too detailed. Remember, your listener most likely isn’t in the industry, so skip the jargon. You want this to be as down-to-earth and easy to understand as possible.

Having trouble nailing this part down? I suggest you write down what you would want someone new to know about your brand. Include everything from what makes you different, to the benefits that you bring to your clients and the world around you. Once you have it written down, cut it to the highlights. Boil it down to the most condensed, succinct version and incorporate that into your pitch.

For instance…

I’m the founder of Pendulum Financial Consulting, a consultancy firm that helps businesses to hunt down ways that they can save money in small, everyday ways.

3. Your Value Proposition

What do you and your brand bring to the table? What sets you apart from other brands in your industry? This is the meat of your pitch — it gets to the point of why people should care and how it affects them.

Invest a chunk of time into this part of your pitch. Write a couple of sentences that delve into why your company is different. Get specific, if possible.

For instance…

I’m the founder of Pendulum Financial Consulting, a consultancy firm that helps businesses to hunt down ways that they can save money in small, everyday ways. We have over 25 years of experience helping businesses to cut costs in ways that they rarely think of.

4. Attention-Grabbing Statement

This is where you go from reciting mere facts to pulling in your audience. This could be an exciting anecdote, a customer’s experience, or an interesting statistic.

When used correctly, this statement can hook your audience and help them to remember you long after the conversation is over. It might even result in a longer conversation.

For instance…

I’m the founder of Pendulum Financial Consulting, a consultancy firm that helps businesses to hunt down ways that they can save money in small, everyday ways. We have over 25 years of experience helping businesses to cut costs in ways that they rarely think of. In fact, we’ve helped clients to save on average $10,000 annually — we’ve even helped one company to save as much as $500,000.

5. Editing

The dreaded “e” word that no one enjoys. Once you have your pitch written out, it’s time to comb through it and make sure it succinctly says what you want. If you notice areas where you ramble, cut it to the essentials.

After editing, you should be down to a few key bullet points. This is perfect — remember, you want to give your listener just enough that he or she wants to learn more. You don’t want to give your whole story in one sitting.

Branding 101: Perfecting Your Elevator Pitch Examples

Read your pitch aloud. During your process, ask yourself:

• Does it feel natural?
• Does any part of it come off as stuffy or uptight?
• Is it conversational?

If you feel like your pitch doesn’t quite hit all of these points, then it’s time to rework it until you get the pitch you want.

6. Practice Makes Perfect

Once you get your pitch the way you want it, it’s time to get comfortable with it. As with anything, practice makes perfect.

And practicing aloud is the best way to get a handle on your pitch. It allows you to work out all the kinks, eliminate awkward-sounding words and phrases and replace these with a more natural-sounding rhythm.

Rehearse it and keep tweaking it as many times as it takes until it no longer feels mechanical or rehearsed. You can even test drive it with a few friends or colleagues to get their take on it. If their feedback doesn’t match your goals, go back to the drawing board.

You might even come up with a few different variations, depending on who your audience is. A potential client is going to be different from a potential professional connection — and your pitch should reflect that.

These tips should help you to nail your pitch with the confidence and grace that gets results. Let’s now look at a few examples of effective pitches and why they work so well.

3 Elevator Pitch Examples Worthy of Imitation

1. Show Your Credibility

As an account executive with ABC Enterprises, I have spoken with hundreds of company CEOs who struggle to find their voice and establish themselves as industry thought leaders, despite their expertise I help them to translate their expertise into something tangible that their audience can relate to and establish their industry presence.

Branding 101: Perfecting Your Elevator Pitch Template

What you can imitate:

• Explain what you do for your clients.
• Establish your credibility with your experience.
• Show how you benefit your clients.

Branding 101: Perfecting Your Elevator Pitch Example

2. Use an Attention-Grabbing Statistic

On average, we’ve seen companies who lose out on around $10,000 of potential grant money every year — simply because they’re not familiar with the process. At XYZ Consulting, we help companies to navigate through the complicated grant application process and receive thousands of dollars to help them achieve their business goals.

What you can imitate:

• Hit your audience with an attention-grabbing fact or statistic.
• Show them the benefits your company provides.

3. Keep It Short and Sweet

We began as web designers. While we loved the design aspect of our work, we saw many freelancers and small business owners who couldn’t afford to have professionally designed, responsive websites. That’s why we created EZWebPage, where anyone can literally create a website in minutes.

Branding 101: Perfecting Your Elevator Pitch Sample

What you can imitate:

• Make it short and sweet.
• Share the inspiration and origin story for the brand, which humanizes it.

In review…

Your elevator pitch has a lot of power. Whether meeting someone at an industry event or networking on an actual elevator, you can capture the person’s attention and build long-term, fruitful business relationships.