The Elevator Speech
December 15, 2008
If you’ve ever been exposed to the venture capital world, you know about elevator speeches. For those of you who haven’t heard of the concept, an elevator speech is an overview of a product or service that can be delivered orally in a very brief amount of time. Imagine yourself getting on an elevator with someone you believe could fund your project. You have between now and the time the elevator reaches his floor to pitch him on your project.
In that brief amount of time, he has to be intrigued enough to want to know more. If he does, your elevator speech was successful. If he doesn’t you have one of two problems. He doesn’t like the concept, or, you need to work on your elevator speech.
Obviously, the speeches need not be limited to elevator rides, but the idea gets the point across. There are many venture clubs, chamber of commerce luncheons, civic organization meetings, etc., where you can deliver your elevator speech. Most of these organizations give people an opportunity to stand up and quickly introduce themselves (or their product).
There are innumerable opportunities to pull someone aside and give them your elevator speech, but how should your speech be composed? You might think of this as an executive summary of an executive summary. If your business plan’s (you do have one, right?) executive summary has all the important parts, then so should your elevator speech. Unfortunately, an executive summary is typically a whole page of information. You can’t deliver that in 30 seconds. So, try to put yourself in the shoes of a venture capitalist, who is constantly approached by “the next great idea.” They have a limited amount of funds, and they hear these speeches all the time. Here’s what I recommend you include in your elevator speech:
- The nature of your product or service and how you differentiate it from competition.
- Why people will want to buy your product or service.
- How fast you can get the product or service to market.
- How much money can be made from the sale of the product or service. This MUST be realistic. Telling them “This will make you rich beyond your wildest dreams” will not work.
- PASSION. If you don’t have the passion oozing from your pores, don’t expect them to get excited.
Finally, for your speech to be effective, you should really be able to deliver it at the drop of a hat. It should be polished and ready for delivery at a moment’s notice. For most people, that means it should be practiced–in front of a mirror–over, and over again.
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