5 Steps to Creating your Elevator Pitch

Your “elevator pitch” should be a short and concise answer to “What do you do” that you can give in the time it takes you to move up a couple of floors in an elevator with someone. So, if you were to write your elevator pitch today how would you do it?

1. To begin with, write down one sentence about who you are and what you do. This can be something along the lines of “I am an accountant who works with local businesses and helps with business planning in addition to the traditional audit and tax services.”
2. Next, write one sentence describing the benefits of what you do. Focus on the customer and what they gain as a result of engaging your services.
3. The next step is to describe your ideal clients and/or customers. For example you could say, “In general, I specialise in the SME sector, working with owner managed businesses. In particular, I have helped a lot of owner-managers with succession planning issues.”
4. Now you need to describe what makes you and your firm unique. This is your value proposition – what it is that you can offer to your client that they will value and that your competitors do not or cannot offer.
5. The final part of your elevator pitch is the most important – asking for the business. This can be something subtle such as, “perhaps we could meet for a coffee next week to discuss the requirements of your business and identify areas that I can help you with”.

Your elevator pitch is now complete. Type it up, save it, print a copy to keep in your briefcase, and memorize your pitch so that you have it with you when you need it (which could well be in an elevator!)