How To Create Your Memorable Elevator Pitch [4 Simple Steps]

As an integral part of your personal brand toolkit, your elevator pitch (or speech) needs to sell you effectively. It needs to convey a value oriented, compelling and memorable message that encourages your listener to take action.

This post will look at what an elevator pitch is, why you need it and how to create one for yourself.

What is an elevator pitch?

The pitch isn’t your autobiography or a detailed business plan, it’s an overview of who you are, what you do and how you can help the listener. It’s you selling yourself in a brief and concise manner, using a format that most people are familiar with. Whilst the elevator pitch is similar to your personal brand statement and bio, it’s delivered verbally and thus should have a slightly different wording to be punchy and memorable.

Who needs one?

People who sell themselves on a daily basis like trainers, speakers and consultants will have very polished pitches as it is integral to their personal marketing.

I would say that anyone that ever meets new business contacts needs an elevator pitch. This could be you going to an industry conference, a networking event, a seminar or just taking the elevator at your hotel – there are always opportunities to strike up business relationships. The elevator pitch prepares you for these opportunities and equips you with a powerful tool to get the most out of a chance meeting.

How do you put yours together?

Just like a personal brand statement, you first have to know the purpose of the pitch. Whether it’s to sell yourself as a consultant, get an investment for your company or getting a job interview – you have to be clear of your value and audience. In case you have a number of professional objectives you might want to consider different pitches for different situations.

To put a good pitch together you can ask yourself a few questions and the answers to these will be a good start. These questions are:

  • What value do you provide?
  • How do you provide this value?
  • What is unique about your offer?
  • What is your target market?

Four step process for crafting an elevator pitch

This is the process devised by sales trainer James Nudelman a.k.a. the Noodle.

Step 1 – Begin with an ACTION PHRASE that is NOT a noun. (”I am a X” — but don’t use a “label” in the blank. You don’t want people to put you in a box.)

Step 2 – Add a one sentence statement about what you DO. (”I do Y” — What do you help people or businesses do?)

Step 3 – Give a statement of the SPECIFIC IMPACT. (”People who utilize my process find Z” — list one or two things from the perspective of your potential employer.)

Step 4 – End with a CALL TO ACTION. (”I am looking to be introduced to A” — be specific! If you ask for something non-specific you are likely to get it. What good is that?)

Length

The perfect pitch should be no longer than 60 seconds, which is about 200 words. So imagine you are getting into the elevator at street level, deliver your pitch before you get off at the eighth floor.

Did you hook them?

Just like any good speech, your elevator should be opened with a hook to capture the listener’s attention. This could be a question or a statement that really entices them to stay with you for the full 60 seconds. The hook is critical when you are at a networking function and the person you have just met is already looking over your shoulder for the next person, seize their full attention with a powerful hook.

How clear are you?

You have to use simple language in your pitch. This isn’t a case of dumbing it down, rather ensuring that anyone can understand it whether they are in your industry or not. If you use too much jargon you tend to alienate most laymen and their minds start to wonder as a result.

Is it memorable?

Make an effort to stay memorable. You can use visual language, be witty or just very different – the point is that a pitch will only be memorable if it stands out. Imagine a speed networking event, you’ll hear 30 pitches in an hour and how would you ever remember them unless they had something special about them?

Did you end with a call to action?

At the end of the pitch, you’ll want the listener to think “how can we do business?” One way of doing this is to encourage them to contact you, give you their business card or to book a meeting right away.

Time to practice

Now that you have put your pitch together, it’s time to rehearse. Do it to your friends, in front of a mirror, on your webcam – work as many failure platforms as possible so that you can deliver the perfect pitch when you really need it.

Conclusion

A well crafted elevator pitch will come in handy in many situations; selling your services to a customer, interviewing with an employer or asking an investor to part with half a million – none of which you are likely to be successful in unless you have the perfect pitch.

What’s your pitch and is it working for you? Please let me know in the comments!

Related post: How To Create Your Personal Brand Statement.

Image credit Angelo Gonzales

photo by: colinlogan

Jorgen Sundberg

The original Undercover Recruiter, after 7 years in tech recruiting Jorgen now runs Link Humans, a social media marketing agency in London.

Filed Under: Bio, Networking, Personal Branding Tagged With: ,

How to Craft Your Personal Brand Statement

writing your personal branding statement
Before you write blog posts for the masses, before you apply for those positions, before you even set up your LinkedIn profile there is one thing you should do – craft your very own personal brand statement.

Your bio, elevator pitch and any other descriptive text about you will invariably start out with your personal brand statement.

What is a personal brand statement?

Your statement is 1-2 sentences answering what you are the best at (value), who you serve (audience) and how you do it uniquely (USP). It sums up your unique promise of value. Your personal brand statement is distinctive to you and you alone. You could liken it with a tagline, strapline or even a catchphrase that product brands will have.

The personal brand statement is not a job title. A job title is what others will try to classify you with, what employers and others want you to be to fit you into a corporate setting. You deserve better than that.

It’s also not your personal mission statement, career objectives or even life purpose. These are much more long-term concepts intended to guide you through life and not aimed at marketing you to anybody.

A personal brand statement is memorable, punchy and solution oriented. As opposed to simply saying “John is a boiler man”, why not “John keeps families warm through bespoke heating installations”? To be continued…

Why do you need a personal brand statement?

How many times have you been asked what you do? Do you feel like people really understand what you do or is it merely pleasantries? I bet you can tweak what you say and leave a lasting impression with that person, an impression that might just lead to business one day.

Just being another hairdresser or plumber is not going to allow you to stand out. When you don’t stand out, you will have to compete against everyone else on price which isn’t a great situation to be in. To be successful in today’s economy you have to specialize; you have to choose a topic and master it. Your statement will clarify exactly what you do, how you do it and for whom. By communicating this, you and your target audience will know exactly what you are capable of.

How do you write a personal brand statement?

Start with listing your key career or business attributes on a piece of paper. Once the list is complete, take a good look at it and pick out the ones that make you unique. These will form your unique selling points, or USPs.

Look at your unique values and key attributes and you should be able to develop a 1-2 sentence brand statement, answering these three questions:

• What value you provide (what problem do you solve)
• How you do it uniquely (your USPs)
• Whom you do it for (your target audience)

Remember to be clear on the value, don’t confuse anyone with any fluffy terms that don’t mean anything. Furthermore, what makes you unique in one place may not be unique in another, e.g. big cities will have lots of specialists and experts in certain fields, small towns only one and that makes him or her unique to that location.

Target your audience

Whom are you aiming your services at? A particular industry, geography, age demographic? Try to stay somewhat focused on a sector of the market and don’t spread yourself too thin. The reason personal branding has become critical for business and career success is that nobody wants to buy from the person that does everything for everyone. Look at what target audience would benefit the most from your services and zero in on this.

Stay authentic

When writing a personal brand statement it’s easy to get carried away and putting down what you’d like to be one day. The old “fake it until you make it” approach does carry some merit but don’t overdo it. Never call yourself a guru, ninja, samurai, expert or even thought leader unless you truly are one. Only your audience can determine whether you are an expert and you will know if that is the case. The aim of your statement is to inform and inspire the reader, not to scare them off with fancy titles.

Make it punchy and memorable

Using technical or big words could alienate your target audience. You want a seven year-old to understand and be able to repeat what you do. Whenever you introduce yourself at a networking event, stay punchy and memorable. Ideally you will want that person you were talking with to tell other prospective customers what you do – this will cover a lot of ground, trust me.

Keep it reasonably short

Less is more as they say. Your ability to describe exactly what you do in one sentence says a lot about your introspection and professional focus. In some cases you have to take up two sentence but always aim for one. I will give you a special dispensation to write more if you have done more things in your life than Tim Ferriss.

It ain’t cast in iron

You will soon find that you are going to tinker with your statement after it’s written up. It’s easy to change it but just don’t get carried away and change it every week. On the flipside, some people will never look at it again. Even though it’s time consuming, your personal brand statement should be revised at least once a year to reflect changes and advancements in your professional career. In order to be effective, it needs to stay current.

Example brand statement

Back to our Scottish boiler man, here’s an idea for a statement:

“John keeps families in Edinburgh (target audience) warm (value) through bespoke heating installations using only the most advanced German boilers (unique)”.

This clearly tells you what John does, for whom and gives you an insight into how. I would say the statement is memorable, I for one think of a family keeping warm and snug over Christmas all thanks to the fantastic boiler man John.

Call to action

Finally it’s your turn to start looking at your statement. Don’t put this off, you’ll find that it’s a wonderful marketing tool that you are going to use over and over. Most people haven’t really thought about their statements so you will stand out with an effective one. Over time I would think personal brand statements will be part and parcel of any successful career or business.

Do you have a personal brand statement? What is it?

Be sure to check out The Seven Rules to Effective Personal Brand Statements as well.

photo by: colinlogan

Jorgen Sundberg

The original Undercover Recruiter, after 7 years in tech recruiting Jorgen now runs Link Humans, a social media marketing agency in London.

Filed Under: Bio, Personal Branding Tagged With:

5 Ways to Boost Your Twitter Profile

get a good profile photo for your dog
How important is Twitter to you? Chances are you have more followers on Twitter than any other social media network, mainly because it’s less personal and acceptable to follow complete strangers. I would venture to say Twitter is as important to you as your LinkedIn and Facebook accounts. Some tech recruiters even say they won’t deal with candidates with little or no Twitter presence.

Yet for some reason we tend to neglect what our profile looks like, perhaps because we think nobody really cares or don’ t have the time. I believe that’s a mistake for a number of reasons.

Why you need to do it

First off, if you are tweeting in your own name, your Twitter will come up very high in your Google results. Anyone (that’s including employers, recruiters and headhunters) will be able to find your Twitter profile and it should be consistent with your personal brand across other platforms. Second, some tweeters are really particular about who they follow back. Unless you have a credible profile, they might take you for a spammer and you stand to lose followers.

Third, you will want to be searchable for what you do and how you can help others. Imagine a customer searching the net for your type of services, your Twitter account is one channel that you must make the most of.

Here are five simple steps to boost your Twitter profile today:

1. Add a decent photo

The obvious one! Either dig out a nice nice mugshot or see a headshot photographer that can take a few snaps for you. As the photo space is tiny, you will want to get as much of your face in there as possible, the closer up you are the more trustworthy you will come across. Whatever picture you upload, try to keep it the same on your other social media profiles, website and or blog – personal branding is all about consistency. Not having a photo will definitely deter any potential followers, as will your favorite cartoon character.

2. An informative bio please

Right, you only have 160 characters so let’s keep it short and to the point. I would list the main value I am able to add to people starting with the highest value activity. So put your job title, what services you provide and try to inject a little bit of personality at the end. Or if you have it, put your personal brand statement here.

3. Fill in the location field

This field is becoming increasingly important with local Twitter directories such as Twellow listing fellow tweeters in your area. If you are an offline networker, you need to put your correct location on your profile so that you attract the right followers. A final note on location; think what anyone searching for you would enter. If you live in Hoboken, you might want to put Greater New York City – Twitter is a global tool that used correctly will connect you to people from around the globe.

4. Link to your site or blog

This is your free backlink from the good folks at Twitter Inc, don’t waste it by leaving it blank or entering your LinkedIn addresses. Always use your own real estate in this field as you will be able to track how many clicks you get from your Twitter profile with the help of analytics software.

4. Set up some lists

By starting to categorize the people you follow in list, you will look like a serious Tweeter. You can have lists broken down to geography, interests, friends or whatever you choose. You will also find that people love getting on to these lists as it adds to their Twitter credibility.

Bottom line

There you have it, five simple steps to pimp your Twitter profile today. Twitter doesn’t give you much space to play with so you have to get it right. Tinker a bit and see what others think of your changes. If you don’t like it, change again. I know from personal experience that whenever I feel like changing my bio I will test it on Twitter first as it’s fast and the updates aren’t sent to any of my friends’ feeds like on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Tell me what you think, would your Twitter profile impress an employer?

Furhter reading at Top 7 Ways to Kick Off Your Twitter Job Search.

photo by: familymwr

Jorgen Sundberg

The original Undercover Recruiter, after 7 years in tech recruiting Jorgen now runs Link Humans, a social media marketing agency in London.

Filed Under: Bio, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , ,
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