Blog & Company News

May 19, 2011

Perfect Your Elevator Pitch

[caption id="attachment_393" align="alignright" width="426" caption="Perfect your elevator pitch"][/caption] Who are you? What do you do? Why should we care? You need to be able to answer these questions clearly when you give your elevator pitch. An elevator pitch is a verbal synopsis of your company, and it’s supposed to be short enough to be delivered when riding in an elevator. According to the Universal Record Database,1 the world record for most elevator pitches listened to in five minutes is 24. That’s 12.5 seconds per pitch. But why settle for a world record? Anyone can deliver a pitch while riding in an elevator. Instead, aim to deliver your pitch as if the elevator doors were shutting on you. Here are more tips: Enunciate. Let’s say you have a million-dollar idea, but when you open your mouth, you sound like this: “I hope to secede in the nukular energy bidness, prolly in War-chester-shire, Massachusetts.” You’ll want to practice your diction and correct your pronunciation. A slew of vocal warm-ups and speech exercises exist that could help you speak like a radio announcer. Give your tongue some exercise with phrases like “aluminum linoleum,” and do some research on commonly mispronounced words.2 Riddle them with bullet points. Pretend you are a six-round revolver—of information. That means you need to shoot bullet points of only the most important information about your business, and nothing more. Nobody likes to be sprayed with verbosity. Clarify. Clarify your business name and contact information, and sound out any ambiguous letters. If there’s a “p” buried in your web address, say, “p as in paper,” not “p as in pneumonia.” Repeat this information if you have time. For more information, visit: 1. Universal Record Database 2. Commonly mispronounced words