What Makes a Good Elevator Pitch?
Did you know that there are roughly 32.5 million small businesses in the US?
While this is a good thing for the economy, it’s not for entrepreneurs. The high number translates to increased competition for resources and attention.
It’s never been more critical for business owners to understand what makes a good elevator pitch. A good elevator pitch helps sell your business to potential investors and clients.
Getting the right elevator pitch can be daunting and time-consuming. But, with proper guidance, you’ll find the process of crafting one relatively easy.
Read on as this article takes you through the components of a business pitch.
Introduction
Introducing yourself is crucial when delivering an elevator pitch. It’s more so important when presenting your pitch to people who don’t know you.
Be sure to smile if it’s a face-to-face meeting. But don’t waste too much time on the introduction. After all, you’ll have a limited amount of time to deliver your message.
Problem
Your elevator pitch must identify the problem you wish to solve. Ensure your problem is solvable and relevant to your target audience.
Stick to one problem even though your business solves multiple. Ideally, you’ll need to choose a core problem. It doesn’t have to be as complicated as world hunger.
But, it needs to be something that evokes your audience’s emotions. That’ll improve their chances of investing in your product or services.
Solution
Discuss a solution that’s relevant to the problem you’ve identified. Your solution needs to be unique, not something other people already do.
If it’s already being done, highlight why your solution is better. Is it more effective, cheaper, or both? Don’t forget to restrict your solution to as few words as possible.
You can find good elevator pitch examples on the internet to help you craft your solution. Or, you can use the PR outreach software from JustReachOut to guarantee success.
Team
Your elevator pitch also needs to introduce your team. After all, the people you’ll be working with will determine the success of your venture.
Let your audience know why your team is the perfect fit for your company. This doesn’t mean that you need to introduce everybody by name.
Instead, talk about their skill sets and how they’ll help solve your problem. If you don’t yet have a team, talk about the skills you’ll be looking for when recruiting. Doing so will instill more confidence in your audience.
Client Base
Your potential market is just as important as your team. Ensure your target market is affected by your problem and benefit from your solution. You’ll need to break down your target market into specific segments.
Many business owners make the mistake of generalizing their potential client base. You’d think that a women’s clothing line’s ideal target market would be all women. But, this is not a specific segment.
If you’re creating an email pitch to a journalist specializing in women’s fashion, reduce the segment by age. Your target market could be women between 25-35, 36-45, and so on. Remember, the more specific, the better.
You’ll also need to highlight your potential market’s size and spending habits. That’ll show your audience that you’re serious about your pitch.
Competition
Your business would be the only one to identify and solve a problem in an ideal world. But, this is not an ideal world. It’s more than likely that you have to contend with some competition.
The competition doesn’t have to come from businesses with solutions like yours. It may be from companies that offer alternatives. Either way, you’ll need to identify your unique value proposition. What would you do differently? Is it a better solution?
If not, you have to go back to the drawing board. Your audience is looking for something that makes you stand out. Otherwise, investing in you would be a waste of resources.
Forecasted Income and Expenses
Investors are only concerned with profitable businesses. It’s essential to show them that you’ll bring positive returns on their investments.
How do you do this? Simple: By creating a detailed forecasted financial statement.
Be sure to identify your sources of income and expenses. You can forecast your revenue by assessing your target market and spending habits. Forecast expenses by researching what it takes to deliver your solution.
But, remember that an elevator pitch is a short presentation. You won’t need to present all your financial values. You only need to give a general overview of your expected profits.
But it helps to have a detailed statement at hand. Remember that investors care about profits. So they’re more than likely to have questions on your finances afterward.
Question
All effective pitches share one characteristic: they are engaging. To be honest, the majority of the components of an elevator pitch are uninteresting.
After all, who enjoys listening to financial and market breakdowns? Luckily, you can make your pitch interesting by posing an open-ended question.
That’ll make your audience engage with your pitch. Ensure your question is relevant to your presentation and audience.
Timing
Timing is crucial when delivering an elevator pitch. The rule of thumb dictates that an elevator pitch needs to be 30 seconds long. The longest it should be is 60 seconds.
It needs to be something you can present in any situation. The shorter it is, the easier it is to memorize. Keeping it short also allows you to have your audience’s full attention.
This improves your chances of getting whatever you want. But, don’t talk too fast when presenting your pitch, as your audience may not understand you. Instead, practice your pitch in front of your loved ones and colleagues.
Then trim it until you’re left with facts you can present in under 60 seconds. Be sure not to leave out any of the vital parts of your presentation.
Now You Know What Makes a Good Elevator Pitch
Understanding what makes a good elevator pitch is crucial for any business owner. An ideal pitch highlights information relevant to your potential investors or clients.
The only challenge you may find is restricting your pitch to less than a minute. But, with practice, this too will be easy.
Have you enjoyed this article? If so, visit our site for quality tech, lifestyle, and entertainment content.