forget the elevator pitch.
Lets be real, no one buys anything in elevators and much more importantly, no one wants to be recited a rehearsed and contrived summary about your company, product or service.
The elevator pitch is a well intended effort to get people (entrepreneurs, sales people or anyone in an organization) to articulate clearly and concisely what they do.
You do need to have everyone in our organization to be able to articulate what you do in a clear, concise and consistent way, but the elevator pitch carries many problems with it.
The first problem is that most organizations see an elevator pitch as a way to “sell” their products or services. The elevator pitch becomes a selling tool instead of an tool to engage and start a conversation, a relationship.
The second problem is most organizations feel they must include every feature and benefit of the product and service in the elevator pitch, so most elevator pitches are far from concise.
Most elevator pitches, since they are mostly memorized, are also contrived and come across as an insincere delivery of facts and stats. In the best case scenario it can be concise and clear but it’s not compelling or engaging. It doesn’t open the opportunity for a conversation. It doesn’t show a genuine interest in the person we’re talking to, and it doesn’t reflect the passion your organization has not only for what you do but for why you do it.
No one wants an elevator pitch, we want conversations, we want genuine interactions, we want people that can solve our problems not sell us things.
So don’t develop elevator pitches anymore, instead make sure everyone in your organization understands not only what you do, or how you do it, but why you do it. Let them talk about it their own way and with their own words. This is an interaction so don’t recite a carefully written script, instead encourage genuine conversation.
You’ll still be concise, clear and consistent but you’ll be a lot more engaging and compelling.
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