Thinking about your elevator pitch? You’ve hopefully had a think about the “who” – who you are trying to influence/persuade/connect with, what they might be struggling with, and where your “solution” interacts with their “problem.”
Once you have a clear idea of why the other person should give you the time of day, it’s time to craft the bullet points – the story beats – of your pitch or introduction.
The “What”: Think about your story, and how it is structured
There are lots of ways to prepare, practice and tell a story.
With a job interview, for example, you will want to prepare two or three strong examples of when you’ve solved relevant problems for other companies. Consider if you need all three, or if the most recent one works well on its own. “I’ve done X for several companies, most recently…”
Or maybe you want to quickly run through your last two or three jobs like a short narrative: from learning the basics to mastering some technical skill to a deeper level – from a budding interest in project management, say, to being the lead on a successful project. End on a high: the key thing you want the interviewer to take away.
Thinking of the “beginning, middle, end” or “past, present, future” of your story can be helpful – for keeping the introductory elevator pitch short, tight, and memorable. Three buckets, with one major point you want to land successfully (e.g. I am really very good at managing complicated projects).
When meeting with prospective customers, you will be explaining why you/your business is the best, for the challenge they particularly face.
You might structure your introductory statement around a problem, and a solution – here’s the problem, here’s the solution, and here’s “how we do it better [than X]”. You might tell a story to bring it to life: a customer in your industry had problem X, and we solved it by doing Y. Again, leave them with the key takeaway: perhaps the stellar results your similar client has already seen.
(In all cases, sharing actual results is ideal… if you can get them out there quickly without boring your audience with data.)
Awards, accolades, achievements … we don’t find them easy to talk about, so these are the things to practice with a friend, a coach, or a mirror. Get comfortable talking about your achievements in a neutral way: this is who I am, so I might be someone you need to know.
As with our who, and our why, it pays to think about this stuff in advance. A lot of people don’t go into a networking event, job interview or other professional interaction with a ton of prep: you can stand out by being the person who has considered: “What is the one thing I want this specific person to take away from the conversation?”
Next up: read about injecting some authenticity by sharing your “why”.