THE ELEVATOR PITCH

Imagine you are on the elevator going to the last floor, another day of work, tedious meetings, school or whatever your typical busy day is, on the second to the last floor Barack Obama and his entourage walks into the elevator you are still trying to adjust to the fact you are standing next to the President of the United States of America when he turns to you smiles and says, with his hand outstretched “Good day, I am Barack Obama the first black President of the United states of America, I am considered one of the most powerful men in the world given my position and influence, there is a 90% chance I can help you with whatever you need, who are you? What do you do? And how would this meeting be beneficial to the both of us? What would you say?

Now hold on *Take a deep breath* access the situation...Calmly:

• He is obviously stopping on the last floor meaning you have 30 seconds to 1 minute to ‘Wow’ him enough to pursue further interaction and exchange contacts.

• If you say the wrong thing you are going to spend your whole life regretting this moment and your children would forever hear this story.

• If you say the right thing you are going to forever remember this as the moment your life changed and your children will tell this story.

• You need to seize this opportunity because it is never coming again.

• Lastly you need your Elevator Pitch!

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So the question isn’t what is an Elevator Pitch? It is: What is a Good Elevator Pitch?

What you say in the first 30 seconds to 1 minute of conversation on meeting someone is your Elevator Pitch, we all have that one moment when someone walks up to us and introduces themselves and we are thinking on how quick it would be polite enough to excuse ourselves from that conversation because frankly you can already tell the person would not be beneficial to us in any way, so we want to be that person that people say “Wow, that’s interesting, I hope I can get your number or email and continue this conversation” rather than “that is an interesting thing to know, nice having this conversation see you around” Just so you know they won’t see you around, if they do they might be polite and have a conversation that would be unexpectedly cut short and when you have had series of “unexpectedly cut short” conversations without a need to give out your contacts it is time to get a good Elevator Pitch.

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The Elevator Pitch Is:

• An Introduction, a general overview of who you are, or what you have, it might be a product or a service.

• It is intended to capture the undivided attention of a potential investor, client, employer, partner or whatever it is you are looking for in an individual.

• It is neither restricted to elevators (as the name and previous example suggests) nor to strict work purposes, (i.e. If you are looking for a friend or a romantic partner).

• It can be used anywhere that requires a short/concise introduction of yourself.

• It can be modified to fit the various target audience.

• It is basically the first few sentences that comes out of your mouth on meeting someone.

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Why Do You Need An Elevator Pitch?

Simple! One, you can’t make a second first Impression, secondly opportunities comes but once in a lifetime (as the saying goes) lastly (although there are other reasons) you are going to hate yourself if you actually meet Barack Obama and he walks out of that lift with your mouth still hanging wide open dumbfounded and all you get is a pity smile and a tap on your shoulder.


Now the question is: How Do I Know Create A Good Elevator Pitch?
Most important is the timing, the shortest time you have is 8 seconds, that would eventually lead to 30 seconds and the longest you would get for an Elevator Pitch is 3 minutes so tip one: KEEP IT SHORT!

The first 8 seconds is called ‘The Hook’ According to Mel Pirchesky (2012), "The objective of the first ten or fifteen seconds is to have your prospective investors want to listen to the next forty-five or fifty seconds differently, more intently than they would have otherwise”.


What does this mean? It simply means you have to provide adequate and correct information within those two/three sentences so they are aware of:

1. Who you are
2. What you do and,
3. What you want.

How Can You Achieve It?

I know it is hard standing next to the person that is about to change your life forever and having to say the right things, knowing fully way we only say the right things after the opportunity’s gone so here are helpful tips:


Practice: Always have a pitch prepared, in your spare time look in the mirror and try and pitch to yourself, pitch to your friends, make a video, review it and make corrections till you are convinced you can hire yourself.

Hone your pitch: You can use it while writing your CV, emails, till it perfect.

Revise: Do not use one pitch for everything, adjust it to suit your current audience update it to meet your current achievements.

Listen: The first step to communication is listening, and networking is a two-way street, listen to your audience, listen to their body language, listen with your ears to hear what they are saying and your eyes to ‘hear’ what they are not saying.

Engage: it is always good to get involved in start up groups, online discussions or community groups and create an online presence, soon people would be pitching for you, and investors would be looking out for you.

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This Is How You Want To Come Across:


Memorable: By introducing the topic with a question (like I did in the first paragraph) you pique peoples interest, people find it hard to resist a question as the right answer gives an impression of a smart individual, so questions like “How many of us...” “Which of you...” “What if I told you...” are good memorable introductions.


Relatable: People are interested in what you can do for them and what value you can add to them, so you have to be able to relate to their ‘Challenges’/ ‘Problems’.

Authentic: Believe in your Pitch, confidence steams from belief, if you share your passion it would be written all over your face.

Believable: Always remember you are first pitching yourself before your company, therefore if people trust you they trust your company, product or service.


Engaging: Please do not act like you are reading off a paper or giving the weather forecast. Show some enthusiasm, be excited and let your personality be contagious and inviting even to onlookers.

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Where Can You Go Wrong?

Talking about abstract ideas: Stick to your achievements or skills, do not say: “I think I can be able to work under pressure” Say: “I can work under pressure because my daily target comes with a lot of pressure due to time constraint and I have never missed a target”.


Forgetting the Objective of the pitch or the pitch itself: Do not go into a meeting without deciding what you want out of it and do not come out without getting it.

Overwhelming audience with statistics, technical terms and information: By trying to prove smart we bring in irrelevant terms and big ‘grammar’ which might leave audience confused so stating one or two important fact to show you know your work is fine.

Creating wrong impression: be careful of your body language, eye contact and facial expression, be confident, genuine and prepare.


P.S: In case you were wondering, yes! Your LinkedIn Profile, Facebook ‘About me’ Twitter ‘Bio’ and other social platform can be your Elevator Pitch.

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Here’s the easy part, I am going to post some links of videos, the first one is: “How to craft your 30 seconds elevator pitch or networking introduction”, and the second one is on three elevator pitches that was presented on CNN which I would like you to decide the one you thought was the best and why. (State you argument below).

As my thank you for such an amazing piece (if I must say so myself) I would love to see comments on your elevator pitch, so go back to paragraph one:

You are the young Man/Woman on the elevator and Barack Obama has given you his elevator Pitch, What would be yours?

OR

Your boss at work tells you the CEO of your company would be going round having a brief chat with employees and you prepare your pitch on that day the CEO walks up to you and say “Who are you? What do you do for my company? And why should you still work for me?

Comment any of your response below, we would take a look at it, give feedback's and help you get the best suited pitch.

Links to Videos:
1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgCssZhVUUE
2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gER1UB6Wg6s


Written By:


Christine Obute Otigba

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