Tips To Develop The Perfect Elevator Pitch

If you’re just starting a business and you’re shopping around your business plan, trying to find an investor, you need to have an elevator pitch in your entrepreneur tool box. Not every meeting with a potential investor or possible client is going to take place in a boardroom. Sometimes, all you will have is 30 seconds to get your idea out in the open. Can you explain your business in time? If you’re business success could ride on a conversation that lasts less than a minute, you need to get your elevator pitch down to an exact science. Here are some tips from HJR Global to help you craft the perfect elevator pitch.

Know Your Audience

Your elevator pitch might have a basic set of elements, like who you are and what you do, but you’re not always going to pitch it to the same person or in the same environment. If you meet a potential client at a library, you’re going to have to pitch them different than you would during a casual coffee meet up with an investor. The best advice here is to know your audience and be malleable enough with your presentation to present it to the right audience.

Solve A Problem

When you’re crafting your elevator pitch, think back to when you wrote your business plan. You need to break everything down to the bottom line and solve a problem. What that problem is depends on who you’re presenting it to. An investor wants to know what the profitability or sustainability of this venture will look like. A client wants to know how your idea makes their life better or easier. You can capture the needs of both with a well crafted elevator pitch.

Make It Authentic

People can spot a lack of authenticity immediately and an elevator pitch that’s dishonest is only going to fall apart once you get past that initial contact. You should strive for authenticity in your presentation. This includes how you present your idea. Rehearsing and practicing your elevator pitch is vital to getting your ideas across quickly, but that doesn’t mean you should be a robot. Why did you start your business? Take that grand idea, that awesome feeling of starting something to solve a problem and boil it down to its most basic parts. That will be the essence of your pitch.

Make It Original

As a contributor on Entrepreneur.com pointed out recently, everyone seems to think that describing their new idea as the “uber” of whatever industry is a good idea. And it was…the first time. Now so many people try to pitch their business this way that it’s just gone stale. When you are crafting your elevator pitch, you should strive for originality. People, especially people you have never met, have often made a judgement about your idea before you have even finished speaking. How are you going to draw them in?

Practice Away

If you’re a master at improv, that’s great, but don’t assume that you can just improvise through every elevator pitch. You’re going to end up repeating yourself or forgetting to include information that you need a potential client or investor to know. So, make sure that you practice. Not only should you practice at home, but you should record yourself pitching so you can hear what it sounds like when you deliver your idea. However, practice with caution. Be concise and prepared, but remember that you also need to be authentic. Too much rigidity in your presentation will come across as insincere.

Find An Elevator

You can only pitch to your empty living room for so long. Take that elevator pitch out into the world and try it. If you are starting a business, but you’re still in the drafting phase, that’s okay! You can get a few trial runs in before you are standing in front of an investor.

Think you have what it takes to partner with HJR Global? Our team has helped many businesses get off the ground and start becoming profitable. We can help you with anything from simple business plan advice all the way to helping you find an investor. Throw your elevator pitch our way over on twitter. Our handle is @HJR_Global.