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Day 3: Craft Your Elevator Pitch

Having a concise, effective company elevator pitch is paramount. And it is imperative that your whole team, from top to bottom, knows your elevator pitch and can deliver it effectively. It’s almost always your chance to deliver a first impression of your company. And as we all know, you get only one chance to make a first impression.

The term elevator pitch originally referred to delivering a succinct summarizing description of your company to a prospective investor. Today the application is much broader, and therefore even more important. In addition to fund-raising, your company’s elevator pitch can and should be used for recruiting, for business development, and even for assisting ‘word of mouth’ advocates.

The bottom line, your elevator pitch must be a succinct, clear explanation of what your company does. It should not be longer than 90 seconds, unless your audience clearly wants more – which is great. When delivering it, being a good explainer is extremely important. Do not use industry jargon, and be cognizant of your audience’s general understanding of your space.

To get more detail on the subject check out Katie Laird’s “Elevator Pitch Advantage Point"

If you want to hear real life examples check out the live pitches from the 2009 Rice Business Plan Contest

For today's assignment, if you don’t have a company elevator pitch, create one. If you do have one – make sure it’s brief and clear, and that everyone in your company can deliver it. And if by chance, you’re sure you’ve got a great one – share it with us in our comments section.