4-Phase El-Pitch

Occasionally I meander through the online broadsheet small business guides, and one such journey the other evening stumbled across an English perspective on the Elevator Pitch.  First things first, it’s a Lift.  Why use 4 syllables when just one alone is perfectly sufficient?

Credit to The Times for shedding light on this technique’s importance.  When trained by Americans myself many years ago, the ability to deliver a killer 30-second pitch was both critical and highly regarded.

The article referenced here suggests a quartet of essential elements:

1. 1. An overview of what the business does / sells (although don’t go into too much detail)
   2. What your main market is (who you sell to, what industry you are in, what sort of market share you have)
   3. What your clients / customers experience as the key benefits of your products / service
   4. Your main competitive advantage / Unique Core Differentiators (what makes you different and better than the competition)

I still create to this day such a pitch for each new product/angle in case I bump into someone worthy.  The key I’ve found is to be able to deliver it in sub-30-seconds in terms directly aimed at the listener, with a Close tagged on to the end of course.

It also goes without saying that the ‘benefit’ part should be specific, attainable and absolutely financial, as the example they list is weak given its reliance on pappy percentages.