How To Web

If you are an entrepreneur or a wanna-be start-up founder, you’ve probably heard that the first step in order to raise money for your start-up is to have a sexy elevator pitch. Are you ready to roll out your successful speech?

What is an elevator pitch and why is less actually more?

Let’s face it. Your lengthy presentation about your business-to-be, the one you worked on so hard is a total turn-off. No one has the time to listen to all your verbose unless they already know there actually is something in it for them. How do you get them to know that? The elevator pitch.

The elevator pitch is a very short, effective and straight-forward summary of your 100-slide presentation about your very unique business model and business plan. It is the listener-friendly version, the one that your potential investor or business angel won’t perceive as a total loss of his time. You only got between 30 seconds and 1 minute to make an impression and get to the “That sounds interesting, I’d love to see your business plan” line. It’s very much like speed dating.

It doesn’t have to happen in an elevator of course. But its main point is pretty much the same. Wherever you located that person whose attention is very important to you, you must deliver 2 or 3 sentences about your business plan that will actually get their attention.

What is and what is not the purpose of the elevator pitch?

The elevator pitch must directly and shortly explain who you are, what you do, for who you are doing it, what’s the status and who you are doing it with. It should NOT give your listener(s) all the necessary details about your business. The elevator pitch is not a business plan. And it shouldn’t be one. The elevator pitch’s goal is to get you a meeting. Therefore it should catch your listener’s attention.

Ingredients of an effective elevator pitch

• You: 5 creative words about who you are. Try to draw attention. Be funky, avoid secondary school boring presentation lines. We’ve all been there, we know them by heart and we don’t want to hear any of that yada-yada again. Be unexpected and you got their attention! The words introducing you should be an excellent ice-breaker and not a bore;

• Problem: What is the problem your start-up is trying to solve? Be brief and specific;

• Target audience: Who are the people having this problem and how do you know they are out there? If you can be specific about your market then you already got yourself a more interested listener. Remember! People love facts;

• How do you solve the problem: Explain it briefly. Explain the benefits of your business, your unique selling proposition;

• Status & traction: Are you already working on it? Can you show something? If you have already started the work, what is your traction? Figures are a real attention seductor. “Show them the money!” as Jerry Maguire would say. Your revenue model ideas come in handy here too;

• Team: I hope you’re not planning on doing this alone. And I sure do hope you already know who it is that you’re going to work with. And if the more qualified they are (explain why) the better. If you have an impressive board of advisers this is the moment you should mention them;

• Why you: Why are you better than your competitors? What qualifies you and your team for solving this problem? And please don’t tell me you don’t have any competition. Think again. State your competition briefly and explain your competitive advantage;

• Call to action: It is always a great idea to end your speech with a call to action. Ask for a meeting or whatever you consider the next step should be. Engage your listener, make him an active part of your business idea’s future.

Some MUST-DOs for a sexy elevator pitch…

• Focus on your strong points and on the benefits of your business;

• It is always a good idea to use questions in order to engage your listener. Questions are great hooks when they are to the point as they actually get the listener to interact with you;

• Do put yourself into your potential investor’s shoes. Find out as much as you can about him and his background and try to guess what type of language you should use in order to get to him and what kind of issues might or might not attract his interest. A customized elevator pitch is a great idea. Remember: it always takes 2 to tango.

… some DON’Ts…

• Don’t waste precious seconds. You only got 30 to 60 of them. Shrink all the unnecessary introductions or explanations. Figures, facts, traction, attractive info. This is what your potential investor wants to hear and this is what will sweep him off his feet (not literally, of course);

• Don’t say that there is no competition. This may actually be seen as a weakness. If there is no competition, there may not be any market either;

• Don’t use more than 250 words;

• Never forget to ask for something at the end of your presentation. That call to action is a must if you want to obtain something. If you don’t ask for it no one will give it to you. Whether you ask for a meeting or some feedback or whether you just leave the investor your business card so he can contact you later this call to action is a must have.

… and some expert advice.

Vlad Stan, co-founder SeedMoney & Bucharest Hubb thinks that while you are pitching you should “focus on the problem you are solving and talk about 80% of the time allocated to your pitch however long or short. Spend the rest of the time talking about yourself, why you want to solve the problem and your knowledge and backgroung that can help you solve it“.

Vladimir Oane, founder & CEO UberVU, advises you to start with the benefit of your service to your listener: “Why should they care? Sounds easy… but coming with a phrase to summarize your product and make one excited to hear more it’s an art in itself and requires a lot of practice“.

How about your delivery style?

OK, so now hopefully you know a little bit more about writing your elevator pitch. But how about actually delivering it? You probably have already heard that the investors or business angels put their money not only on the business idea but also on the person. Therefore a key point of your elevator pitch is the style in which you actually present it.

The main objective of your winning speech should be PASSION. You need to show real enthusiasm, authentic passion about your business idea, not just some 30 second blunt summary of a business plan. Don’t try to learn your elevator pitch by heart. Be natural and use your own words. It’s your idea, it’s your passion, you obviously know all about it and there is no way to be caught on the wrong foot. Just practice, practice, practice, be natural and remember to be brief.

Good luck! If you have any more questions about crafting and delivering a successful elevator pitch speech we are always here to answer your questions or find someone who will answer them for us.

Web on!

May 9, 2010 by Raluca Georgescu 1 comment