Your pitch, elevator speech, or value proposition, should be a brief, clear message about who you are, what you do, what you’re looking for, and how you can benefit the person you’re speaking to.
Typically, you want it to be under 30 seconds, because in that time frame, you’ll either know if that person could be a potential client, or not, but maybe they will refer someone they know to you by what you offer.
This 30 second pitch should be natural, in that you’ve written it out, perfected it, and can comfortably say it to anyone to grab attention by making clear, powerful statements.
Practice in a mirror and with a friend. Just practice it OUT LOUD, multiple times a day until it becomes natural for you.
Some rules of thumb when developing your pitch are:
- No longer than 20-30 seconds
- Approximately 80-90 words
- Roughly 8-10 sentences, or sometimes less, if you write long sentences 😉
Now let’s discuss your outline that would be helpful to follow, so grab a pen and paper so you can write this down. Be sure to leave space between these to fine-tune your pitch.
An important thing to remember is: Smiling increases your face value, so smile when you speak!
- Your name
- Your title and company
- Describe your company, or use your tagline
- What is your purpose: what you do or offer, and how you can help someone, and make it personal (i.e. it fires me up to be able to…)
- A pressing problem you can help to solve; or your target market (think of drawing them in vs. trying to sell them)
- Advantages of working with you, and the benefits of working with you vs. competitor
- Call to action: do you want a business card? Referral? Appointment? Create a line at the end to ask for what you want.
A simple guide for crafting your pitch:
- Write down everything that comes to your mind when prompted with the above questions.
- Cut the jargon, and focus on the short, powerful sentences. Highlight them!
- Connect the phrases with each other, to make it a natural flow.
- Memorize the key points you wish to make, and PRACTICE. PRACTICE. PRACTICE. I even wrote the beginning key words on my mirror, so I could reference them and practice throughout the day.
- Make sure you can answer the question THEY’RE thinking: “What’s in it for me?”
- You can even create different versions for different situations, depending on who you’re speaking with, but for now, perfect your pitch by focusing on your main one.
I hope this helps you as you create your perfect pitch to attract more people to connect with you and grow your business!
To YOUR Success,
Jamie Sossamon
Founder
