The Best 20 Second Elevator Pitch Ever

The Best Elevator Pitch Ever

What’s your best elevator pitch?  Some time in your life you will have twenty seconds to make an impression with someone that you know can help you or your business or some cause you are passionate about. This is referred to as an “elevator pitch”. You are in a cab, a plane, at dinner or maybe even in an elevator and you have 20 seconds or twenty floors or twenty blocks to make a great impression. Everyone knows the term but after working with hundreds of thousands of salespeople over the years I can assure you most have no clue how to make a powerful 20 second elevator pitch.

The most important thing about having the best 20 second elevator pitch ever is making sure you can deliver in 20 seconds or less. You don’t know how fast 20 seconds goes into you time yourself. Two common mistakes people make with their elevator pitch is they spend time introducing themself and the name of their company. In the elevator pitch you don’t want them to remember your name or your company, you want one idea to stick!

When creating your best 20 second elevator pitch do the following:

1. What is your goal: What is the objective of your pitch? What is the one thing you want this person to do when the pitch is over. Do you want to tell potential clients about your organization and make them a client. In my case I want the person across from me to know what I do for a living and decide in 20 seconds that I am the only choice for what I do.

2. Ask for attention: If you don’t get attention you will just be talking. The best elevator pitch demands that you get the person’s full attention. All you have to do is ask for it. Can you give me your attention for the next 20 floors to share with you what I do? Ask for attention before you start your pitch.

3. Make it Sticky: When you move into your pitch make sure that the first thing your audience hears is sticky. The easiest way to do this is to make a giant claim whereby you make it clear what your unique value proposition is. Start your pitch by describing what your organization does and be able to do so in one sentence that sticks. Here is an example, “we increase a business’s sales by 15% through identifying missed opportunities.” That is sticky.

When clarifying your sticky, giant claim ask yourself what is the one thing that I want this person to remember me for? Also your claim should cause the person to take interest directly or suggest who in the company you should talk to. Your best elevator pitch needs to impact, penetrate, take advantage of the 20 seconds and cause the listener to increase interest and remember one thing about you.