Elevator Pitch Essentials
Good things, when short, are twice as good.
– Baltasar Gracian
As I was writing this book and talking about it with my friends
and family, they would constantly ask me, “So what’s
your book about?” After having this happen to me 10 or so
times, and stumbling through an answer to that question, I realized
I needed to follow my own advice and come up with an elevator pitch
for Elevator Pitch Essentials. After going through a number of
iterations, I ended up with this...
Elevator Pitch Essentials is a business book
that explains to entrepreneurs, innovators, project champions, and others
the secrets of writing and delivering an effective elevator pitch.
When you are selling an idea for a new product,
service, project, or other Solution, you frequently come across situations
where you meet someone who can help you achieve your goal, but you do not
have the time to give them a complete, detailed, formal presentation.
That includes situations like…
• Running into an executive in an
elevator.
• Meeting an influential person in a bar or buffet
line.
• Being introduced to a potential investor.
•
Introducing yourself to a group of people.
…and being asked to explain who you
are and what you are doing.
Unless you want to come across as boorish
and self-centered, you only have a few seconds -– or in the
best case a couple of minutes –- to get your point across.
As a result, you have to be prepared to give someone a quick
overview of your Solution and leave the details to later.
Elevator Pitch Essentials teaches
people how to handle those kinds of situations.
Elevator Pitch Essentials grew
out of my experience writing elevator pitches for a series
of startups I worked for or with. About 5 years ago, I
pulled all that knowledge together and put together a
seminar about elevator pitches for Washington University
in St. Louis. I then turned that presentation into this book.
As you can see, I followed the advice I give in this book
when writing the elevator pitch for Elevator Pitch Essentials.
1. CONCISE
The Elevator Pitch Essentials summary sentence contains
just 27 words and the entire elevator pitch contains just
244 words. As a result, the summary sentence can be delivered
in less than 15 seconds and the entire pitch can be delivered
in less than 2 minutes.
2. Clear
I start the Elevator Pitch Essentials elevator pitch with
a relatively short summary sentence in order to ensure that
it is clear...
Elevator Pitch Essentials is a
business book that explains to entrepreneurs, innovators,
project champions, and others the secrets of writing and
delivering an effective elevator pitch.
I did this because I wanted to make sure that the
listener would have a sense of where I was going before
I got too far into the details. The nice thing about this
summary sentence was that it could stand on its own but
also gave the listener a preview of my entire elevator pitch.
3. COMPELLING
After giving my summary sentence, I immediately launch
into a discussion of the problem the book solves. In this
case, I do it through the use of a number of scenarios
that people can easily relate to...
When you are selling an idea
for a new product, service, project, or other Solution,
you frequently come across situations where you meet
someone who can help you achieve your goal, but you do
not have the time to give them a complete, detailed,
formal presentation.
That includes situations
like…
• Running into an
executive in an elevator.
• Meeting an influential
person in a bar or buffet line.
• Being introduced
to a potential investor.
• Introducing yourself to
a group of people.
…and being asked to explain
who you are and what you are doing.
Unless you want to come across as
boorish and self-centered, you only have a few seconds –
or in the best case a couple of minutes – to get your
point across. As a result, you have to be prepared to give
someone a quick overview of your Solution and leave the
details to later.
Elevator Pitch Essentials teaches
people how to handle those kinds of situations.
Explaining the problem that you solve through three or
four scenarios is a good way of making sure that your
elevator pitch is both clear and compelling.
4. CREDIBLE
When it comes to non-fiction books, most people want to
know that the writer is an expert in the field. As a result,
in order to establish my credibility with the audience, I
budgeted 50 or so words to explain my experience with
writing and delivering elevator pitches...
Elevator Pitch Essentials grew
out of my experience writing elevator pitches for a series
of start-ups I worked for or with. About 5 years ago, I
pulled all that knowledge together and put together a
seminar about elevator pitches for Washington University
in St. Louis. I then turned that presentation into
this book.
The goal was to increase the likelihood that the audience
would see me as an expert in the subject and take seriously
what I had to say.
5. CONCEPTUAL
Instead of getting into the low-level details of the book,
like the number and contents of each chapter, in the Elevator
Pitch Essentials elevator pitch I instead talk about the
problem the book solves and the intended audience for the
book. If I find that someone wants to know more about my
book, then I can go into the details, but not until then.
6. CONCRETE
The way I made my elevator pitch concrete was by building
it around a scenario to which most people could relate.
Nearly everyone has experienced that moment when they come
face to face with the person who can help them achieve their
goal. The problem is that too often people don’t know
what to do.
7. CONSISTENT
While I would tailor parts of my pitch to the audience,
I started off every version of my pitch with the same
summary sentence and concluded every version with the
same statement of my credentials.
8. CUSTOMIZED
When speaking with or writing to literary agents, I
would add the phrase “non-fiction” to my
summary sentence just to make it absolutely clear what
type of book I was writing...
Elevator Pitch Essentials is
a non-fiction, business book that explains to entrepreneurs,
innovators, project champions, and others the secrets of
writing and delivering an effective elevator pitch.
I did this because, just as venture capitalists tend to
specialize in certain markets, so too do literary agents
(and publishers). There are non-fiction literary agents
and fiction literary agents. Within those two broad groups,
there are many other subdivisions. I knew that literary
agents who deal primarily in works of fiction wouldn’t
be interested in my book, and I didn’t want to
waste their time.
9. CONVERSATIONAL
The point of the Elevator Pitch Essentials elevator
pitch wasn’t to close the deal then and there.
Instead, it was to just get a conversation started with
a potential literary agent or buyer of the book. As a
result, I didn’t finish with a high-pressure close.
Instead, I finished in a way that made it easy for the
audience to ask a follow-up question if they were
interested. If they weren’t interested in the
topic –- if they didn’t have a need to
know how to create an elevator pitch –- then
I didn’t want to waste their time or mine.
Copyright Notice
This document is
copyright © 2009 Chris O'Leary and the LIMB Press LLC. It
is licensed for personal use only. Any organizational or
institutional use must be approved by Chris O'Leary.
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