In 2014, I had the opportunity to observe dozens of intake and discussion panels for Sp
ringboard, CONNECT’s
flagship program, which is a free accelerator program for San Diego companies. One of the main focuses of Springboard is to hone the elevator pitch. Here are 3 easy and implementable ways to ace yours.
The Elevator Pitch
An elevator pitch is a concise, easy-to-understand message that takes no more than the time it takes to go up or down an elevator (30 to 60 seconds). Audiences are easily distracted and generally have short attention spans. They could be fiddling with their smart phones and replying to emails. A compelling elevator pitch is critical to capture their attention right from the start. Here are some ways to ace it.
1. Be concise
For investor presentations, the elevator pitch should convey the message about who you are, what business you are in, the opportunity and the market, and why this is a great time to invest. That’s a lot of material, so you have to be concise. For example, Company X has technology that improves existing technology by a factor of two, and obtained results in half the time. That catches my attention right away. Unfortunately, I have seen presenters who somehow choose to only mention this right at the end of the presentation. What a pity – this would have been great to include from the beginning! I have also encountered the use of personal stories – they can be very engaging, but keep it short and impactful.
2. Know your audience
Knowing who are in your audience is critical in nailing your pitch. If you know that your audience are in the same business space as you, it may be possible to jump right into the technology. I’ve sat in panels where heavy jargon was used and it was clear that the presenters assumed that the audience knew the “obvious”, although the furrowed brows and blank stares in the room showed that it was not the case. That’s a sure way for your audience to lose interest. However, if you are presenting to people you know nothing about, keep it simple – the jargon can be kept for later discussions.
3. Don’t overload with information
Have you ever wanted to squeeze multiple important points into a powerpoint slide, so much so that you have had to use ultra-small font? Don’t do it. I’ve seen one presenter say, “I had to squeeze in all the information, so that’s why the font is small”. Wrong answer. The point of a pitch is to present the key points of your business, and the need to distill these into a short snippet catches a lot of people off-guard. The best way is to shave off the microscopic details. Present general concepts, and save the nuanced details for follow on discussions. Too much information confuses. It’s counterintuitive; think about Ted talks – 20 minute talks, but there’s only one message. Your elevator pitch is the same – just one message.
Summary
The elevator pitch is critical to capture the attention of your audience. Folks who go through the popular TV series
Shark Tank do it really well. Guy Kawasaki gives
10 tips on how to craft a good one. I would highly recommend that if you are the entrepreneur, put in the time and effort to work on this – you never know who you might bump into, in the next elevator ride.
