How To Do An Elevator Pitch

Hi! I'm Simon Bucknall, and in 2008 I won the European Championship of public speaking. At the Art of Connection we help ambitious professionals to connect with our audience and we do it by bringing world class communications expertise into the training room to enable our clients to persuade influence and inspire others. What is an elevator pitch? Well it's your 32nd answer to the question “So what do you do?” sounds simple doesn't it but it's tougher than it may seem.

Let's first be clear on what the purpose of an elevator pitch is. It's ideal for networking situations or any circumstance where you meet somebody for the first time and they show a curiosity in what it is that you do. It's not about closing the deal and selling, all you are trying to do is maintain that polite curiosity so that your listener starts to nod their head and then express further interest.

At the end of a good elevator pitch you want the other person to be thinking”Hmmm that sounds interesting. I want to find out more about that.” so the question then is how to do it? The first thing to do is to create pain in the mind of the listener.

Now that may sound a bit unpleasant or cruel but it is really important because if you create pain in the minds of your listener or in other words set out the problem that you solved then they are much more likely to be curious about what that is. Take for example my world, I work in public speaking and presentation skills, people experience a lot of pain in that world. I mean you may know people, it's like you go up in front of an audience and your mind goes blank, your heart is pounding, suddenly you start sweating, everyone is looking at you, your mind starts going wobbly and your legs shake—that's the start of an elevator pitch, because what you want is the listener to go “I get that, I understand that, I can appreciate, that must be painful.

” All you are looking to do is to emotionally connect with them communicating that pain. It gets people curious, once you have done that you can then give the solution. So what we do is help people gain greater confidence and impact in front of an audience and we do it by bringing world class communications skills and expertise into the training room which means that for any aspiring speaker out there they will achieve a strong connection every time.

That's the solution, or if you like the pleasure, the pay off. If you think about entrepreneurs in business they don't run businesses, they hope people to solve problems. A drill helps people solve problems of no holes in the wall.

So that is the key to an elevator pitch, two parts. Create the pain or outline what the problem is and then talk about the pleasure or the solution you offer. Do that and you'll not only get people's attention you'll also stand a good chance of them asking you to tell them more.