Walton Search Blog

Most people have heard of the 30 second commercial or elevator pitch, meaning you should be able to meet a person and pitch what you can do for them in between getting on an elevator and the doors opening again. Good elevator pitches are well practiced, concise and clearly articulate what you do.

The truth is it doesn’t matter if it’s a business offering a service, a candidate submitting a cover letter and resume or the Boy Scouts selling something outside of the local Wal-Mart. Most people have a short attention span until you have “hooked” them into listening longer.

This past week I had the pleasure of sitting in on an excellent business seminar where throughout the day the participants were able to come to a clear objective of what their business could offer. Not only was it easy to ascertain what they could or couldn’t offer me but the clearer they were and the more they had their statement down the more confident they were in what they were saying.

Here are some tips on getting your own clear objective.

• What is your product or service you offer?
• Who is your target market?
• What can you offer that no one else can or what makes you stand out from competition? What is unique about you or your service?
• Make sure it is clear of too many ten-dollar words or industry jargon. You can go into details afterward but remember people may have other things on their mind, you need to catch their attention quickly be sure it is understandable.
• Is your pitch compelling? Remember you are just setting the hook. The next step is a further conversation or in the case of a resume to read further.
• How can you customize it to different audiences?

Once you have your pitch put together, write it down, and repeat it as often as you can until it becomes second nature. The more you have it down the easier it will be to customize it and the more confident you will be the next time you go to a networking event, on an interview or better yet stuck in an elevator with just the person you are trying to impress.

Monday, May 24th, 2010, 2:45 am   |   Career Planning, Interview Tips, Social Media & Marketing  |  RSS feed |  Respond  |  Trackback