Morgan - How to Sell Yourself in 30 Seconds

In an era of vanishing attention spans, thin-sliced relationships, and speed dating, everyone needs to have an elevator pitch. In fact, everyone needs several. Consider them the haiku of modern organizational life. More important, in an ADD world, elevator pitches will keep you on the straight and narrow, focused, and heading where you want to go.

The elevator pitch puts your job, yourself, your idea, your speech, your product, or your company in a nutshell.

We work in companies with flattened hierarchies and managers who walk around, so youve got to be ready to wave the organizational flag at the drop of a hat. Its a matter of knowing what you do and being able to sound smart about it. In fact, you probably want two versions, one that highlights your role in the larger whole, and one describes beautifully and succinctly what the whole organization does, and more importantly why it exists. That second version is the one you deliver when called upon by an attractive stranger asking you what you do at your roommates party, or when your irritating cousin asks if youve finally gotten a real job at the family reunion.

The second one should sound something like this: Stuck in traffic? We manufacture a GPS system that sends a helicopter to your location, picks you up, and takes you to your destination in time for that vital meeting. We even pick up your car and deliver it to your parking garage.

The first one, the one for your boss, might go like this: My role at Heli-GPS is to write the code for the software that automatically calls the nearest helicopter taxi service when youre stuck in traffic so that you can get to your vital meeting on time. The same software, as you know, also sends a driver to pick up your car and deliver it to the parking garage. So our team must get the programming right for the product to work in its entirety and the customers to be satisfied.

Lifes too short not to be passionate about something and to know exactly what that is. You need to have a sense of direction and a sense of purpose for a fulfilling life. A good personal elevator pitch will help you keep focused on what those are. Its like having a vision for the organization.

Of course, like a lot of vision statements, your personal elevator pitch wont have much point unless you take it out and look at it regularly. Once a day, to get you going in the morning, would be a good start.

What might a personal elevator pitch look like? Heres are some, drawn from some real examples I developed with a live audience not too long ago: I am passionate about my family, and being the best mother I can be to my son. Im working as a salesperson at Company X to support us for now. When my son leaves home, Im going to start my own business as a sales coach.

There it is a whole life plan in a nutshell. Beautiful! It allows us to ask her, why dont you start that business now? And more importantly, it allows her to ask herself that and other questions as time goes on, to make sure that shes on the right track.

Here are a few other uses for an elevator pitch:

• The startup pitch: Here, the idea is that youve involved in a startup and you run into an angel investor in some social, business, or other setting and youve got your chance. So you go for it. Under these circumstances, think of a two-part pitch. First, get it down in a sentence or two, for the instant gratification and snaring of the angel: People waste millions of dollars every year heating empty homes. Our app allows you to easily control your heating and cooling from your mobile phone, wherever you are, savings thousands on your energy bills. Then, once youve caught the angels attention, you can go into a little more detail: Were going to sell the app for $1, and our projections show us selling 20 million in the first year alone. After that, were going to follow up with extensions and add-ons that will create a revenue streams for a thousand years. In addition, were working on agreements with the energy companies, since this will help them manage demand, and well get steady fees from them. Since our development costs are very modest, were going to be hugely profitable from year one....May I send you our detailed plan?

And thats really all you should say, since by now youve ridden the 24 floors of the elevator and your investor ready to get out. Note that we close by making the ask. The first and most important reason this sort of elevator pitch fails is that it fails to make the ask. The second most common reason is that the pitch doesnt clearly express the need that the new product or service your company is creating satisfies. If we dont know what you want, and we dont know what youre doing, how can we get involved?

• The speech summary: Here, you summarize a speech youre going to give in order to focus it properly and make sure you actually know what it is about. Far too many business presentations are unfocused and just a collection of slides thrown together at the last minute. Working up a good elevator speech ensures that you have narrowed down the topic to the point that your audience can remember it and you can deliver it. You should attend my speech because I will show you how to get rock-hard abs with 5 minutes of easy exercises a day. This kind of elevator speech has the word you, referring to the audience. It has a need of the audience, and it has an emotion, either expressed or implied.
• The catch the attention of the potential customer pitch: Under this scenario, you run into a nice-looking person in a public elevator, and he/she says (breaking all the rules of elevator conduct), So what does your company do? And you respond with a way that your company has of solving customers problems more efficiently, more elegantly, or more precisely than anyone else. This kind of elevator pitch should pinpoint a potential need and explain how your company meets that need or service. The response of the audience (of one) should be Wow!

Then, and this is really important, follow up with an ask of some kind. Such as, May I send you an annoying salesman to call on you?

• The we all reallydoknow what were doing test: Ive used this test when working on communications for large companies. I ride the companys elevator a few times, and ask people what the company does. The responses are usually hilarious and all over the map. Then, I explain to the executive who hired us that a company cant possibly succeed unless everyone in it knows what the company is doing and can express that in similar ways. Its called alignment, and its a necessary (but not sufficient) requirement for business survival. We take the mystery out of finance by helping customers understand what investments they need for the long haul and then making those investments with them. We stay the course.

Okay, so thats why you need good elevator pitches for what you do and who you are, as well as some other uses.

What are the key elements to a successful elevator pitch? Start from the idea that your pitch varies depending on who the audience is. Once you know that, an elevator speech has to have three critical elements:

1. The word you, where you is the audience
2. A need or problem the audience has
3. An emotion

A fourth critical element is the satisfaction of that need or the solution to that problem, when time (and length of pitch) permits. At the very least, you should tease the satisfaction or solution.