Elevator Pitch
Are you able to summarize?
You are out and about, in a room filled with other business owners and potential investors. Everyone is there to mingle and hopes to create meaningful and long lasting business networks. Drinks in hand, you walk up to a small pack and introduce yourself then comes the most important SEVEN seconds of your meeting; “What do you do?”. That is what I hope to write about today, summarizing.
If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now.
- President Woodrow Wilson
I have met many business owners, entrepreneurs who are able to talk about the business they’re in with much enthusiasm and could go on for hours. At the same time, they struggle when they are only given seven minutes in a pitching competition. The reason? Many struggle to identify what information should be omitted and what would be important in a summary. Would the context be different if a portion is omitted? Perhaps the story isn’t as compelling when it is shortened because the pitch can no longer trigger certain thoughts or emotions before moving forward. How much time have you spent preparing for a One-minute pitch? Do you have one?
The First SEVEN Seconds
I wrote about objectives of a deck a few articles ago. When crafting your response or your one-minute pitch, you must identify what the objectives are. Unfortunately, you will not be able to cover every single aspect of your business in a minute. Imagine having to talk about go to market strategy, target audience, USP, ROI, required funding, founder’s background, etc in a minute. It either has a little of everything and go overboard or you lose context. Here’s a thought, craft a response for that crucial SEVEN seconds to generate interest to stay on and listen to you. Followed it up with a one-minute pitch that aims to create curiosity by the end of it.
Essence
A summary or a one minute pitch has to capture the essence of your pitch that is RELEVANT to the audience. What I usually see is a summary of a descriptive pitch. Meaning, you need to have a rough idea of the general audience attending the networking event. Is it a Business Matching event where it is possible for you to secure new accounts? Or is it an investors and angel investors event where you’re there to secure funding? If you are worried that there may be potential investors in the mix in an event that is not curated for them, be the first to ask the question; What do you do?
I am naturally a shy person, the corner is my favourite place to be and it took me years to get out of that habit. Today, my best friend has noted that I always take the centre and asked if I liked the spotlight. This came after years of networking attempts. I had been to a networking event where I just stood somewhere (well you guessed it, the corner) and ended up defeating the purpose of such events. Then slowly, when you try to mingle, people would always ask, what do you do, where are you from, are you here with someone. Understand this, there will be people who are nervous or are a little passive, all you need to do is be friendly, and have a quick one minute pitch.
So prepare a one minute pitch for each potential audience; a business partner, an investor, a potential client. And remember, end it with a curiosity focused statement or question and gauge what happens next. Good luck!