Blog ⁄ The Looking Glass

Does Your Small Business Brand Have an Elevator Pitch?

You have less than a minute to tell a potential client everything you want them to know about your business and get them excited about it. Ready…go!

Attention spans are shrinking, the pace of life in which we are living is accelerating. And everyone out there wants to be the hot brand that’s going to take over the world. If you want your brand to succeed, you must pace. And it starts with your small business brand statement, otherwise known as your elevator pitch.

via GIPHY

Here at CMDS, we have our own elevator pitch, which we’ve all embraced. It goes like this:

We help companies create the voice of their brand to attract and capture the mindshare of their ideal clients.

Our branding professionals know that a solid elevator pitch is an essential tool for any small business to embrace, so we’ve put together some tips to help your brand create a winning pitch.

Start by Asking Questions

Before you can come up with the perfect pitch, you need to figure out what you want it to do for you—what do you hope will come from pitching your business?  Are you trying to sell a product or promote a service? Are you looking to inform and educate or inspire change? Getting a clear focus on your objectives will help you draft a pitch that will deliver.

Next ask yourself what makes your brand unique. You already know you’re a rock star but now it’s time put it into words so that everyone else can see it too. What value do you provide? What is it that truly differentiates you from any of your competitors?

Master the First Impression

You would probably love the chance to talk for hours about your business, what it has to offer and what sets it apart, but the elevator pitch is not that chance! Most experts recommend that the perfect pitch come in around 30-60 seconds. But here’s a little secret: 60 seconds is way too long. Research shows that the average human attention span is only about 8 seconds. That’s one second shorter than the attention span of a goldfish!

In today’s digital marketplace of ideas, why not make like Steve Jobs and craft your elevator pitch as a tweet? Every pitch for an Apple product fits comfortably within 140 characters (‘The world’s thinnest notebook.’ ‘1000 songs in your pocket.’) Tightening yours up to meet Twitter’s character limit won’t be easy—but think of your elevator pitch less as a presentation and more like the beginning of a conversation.

Practice Makes Perfect

It may be simple, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to practice your pitch so that it doesn’t sound like you’re pitching! You want to be able to speak naturally and passionately about your company—not like you are reading from a script. Riding up and down in an elevator until you are comfortable might be extreme, but you must practice your pitch over and over…and over until it becomes effortless.

Takeaways

Remember—the purpose of an elevator pitch is to get you on base, not to hit a game-ending grand slam. One of the most important steps you can take in building your brand is to create a compelling elevator pitch, and to learn how to deliver it.

Whether you’re establishing a new business or you’re ready to refresh your brand identity, let our team work with you to mold a solid brand identity and develop a winning elevator pitch to go along with it!

Tagged as Attention Spans, Audience, Average Human Attention Span, Brand Identity, Brand Statement, Branding Professionals, Elevator Pitch, first impression, Objectives, Pace of Life, Profitable Brand, Small Business Brand