Best Practices for Creating an Elevator Pitch

I found this in a file earlier this week. It was part of a pre-work exercise for a well known professional services firm. We were engaged to help them redefine their corporate value proposition and messaging architecture. I thought it might be useful for the group.

Who Uses It?

Everyone:

  • Marketing Teams
  • Salespeople
  • Recruiters
  • Investor Relations.

What You Should Not Do:

Most elevator pitches miss the mark because:

  • They are too long–“We have an elevator pitch but it requires a building with 700 floors…”
  • They are too technical
  • They lead with bragging points or product features — “We are the leading provider with 54 offices in 29 countries.”
  • They are ego-centric rather than customer-centric—An elevator pitch is a response to the question what do you (or what does your company) do? When a customer asks this they mean, “what do you do for me? “

How To Do It Right:

  • Be customer-centric
  • Be concise (30-60 seconds max)
  • Be true and “ownable”
  • Convey business outcomes, not bragging points or features.
  • Show, don’t tell— provide a story that will show a customer what your company will do for them.

Best Practices:

Elevator Pitch Should ‘Tell a Story’ that:

  • Addresses: Situation, Impact and Resolution
  • Starts with customers; ends with outcomes
  • Quantifies your value proposition

Try beginning with a provocative statistic

It should consist of three parts:

  1. Situation – cite the dilemma, pain, difficulties or complications that the prospect faces…
  2. Impactquantify the impact that the situation is having on the prospect’s bottom line…
  3. Resolution (Solution) – how do you solve the problem?

Screen Shot 2014-06-23 at 7.47.30 AM

Published by

scott.gillum

Scott is the Founder of Carbon Design Co and the former head of the Washington, DC office of gyro, the largest B2B agency in the world. Prior to joining gyro, he spent a dozen years at a professional services firm that specializes in B2B sales and marketing. Scott also writes a monthly column for Media Post and has contributed to three books on B2B Sales and Marketing. Follow him on Twitter @sgillum

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