Marketing Your Business or Yourself, the Elevator Pitch

Perhaps you’ve heard about this idea before or even told yourself that you would come up with one but haven’t yet. It’s the so-called “Elevator Pitch.” It is all about being able to pitch your business, idea, or yourself to someone in the minute or so that it takes to ride in an elevator with someone. It sounds easy right? It can be harder than you think, but it is time to finally put one together so you are armed with it when the need arises.

The general idea is that you describe yourself or your business in a dynamic way that is succinct but sticks with the listener. Just like with a well-timed pause, less can be more when it comes to making a pitch to someone. When crafting an elevator pitch, you should be thinking about what would be important to the listener. What keeps them up at night? What problems do you solve for people? These are the questions that can prompt you to create a good elevator pitch. However, you want to make sure you include some passion too, to keep it interesting.

So a good elevator pitch would generally cover the following areas:

• What you do and how you do it differently than others
• Explain what problem it is that you solve
• Describe the value that you add
• Close with a call to action (hire me, invest in my business, etc.)

The first part is to try and come up with a catchy way to explain what you do and how it is different from others. However, you should not dwell on the competitors if there are any, remember, this pitch is about you and why you do things differently. This is distinct from just what makes you better than the competition. You can then expand on this by describing a common problem that people face and how you or your business solves it in a way that makes economic sense. Incorporated within the entire pitch is the idea of value. Whether that means that you do what you do more efficiently and affordably than others or if you are adding some new value that others don’t, you just need to make that value clear to your listener.

Once you put together a great elevator pitch, it’s a good idea to think about what you will say next. If you get their attention with your pitch and respond with “tell me more,” you should be prepared for that too. Come up with the “what’s next” part of your pitch. This can include what the next direct steps are in order for them to do what your call to action consisted of (hire you, invest in you, etc.). Another approach is to offer some examples or hypotheticals of how what you do has or can succeed.

All of these concepts can apply whether you already own a business and are trying to get new clients, customers, or investors, if you are seeking out investors or partners to start a new business, or if you are just trying to get hired individually. After all, this type of pitch is a great way to network for a new internship or job too.

If you need legal advice on making a change to your business, or are ready to start a new business of your own, then don’t hesitate to reach out and contact the Law Office of E.C. Lewis, P.C., home of your Denver Business Attorney, Elizabeth Lewis, at 720-258-6647 or email her at elizabeth.lewis@eclewis.com.

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