How to develop Your Personal Elevator Pitch

In Most networking situations, you don't have much time to introduce yourself and lay out your goals and accomplishments. Developing an elevator pitch that emphasizes your key qualification and keeps your listener engaged can help you make the most of the time that you have. Practicing your pitch until you sound confident and professional can help you deliver an affective pitch.

 



Determine Your Key Points




1. Tell your listener who you are and what you do. The very first things your pitch should to is introduce you to your listener. Immediately into an anecdote about you accomplishments or a list of your skills might leave your listener feeling a little bewildered.

. For examples , your listener immediately learns you name and the most important things about you.

. In both examples, you listeners your name and the most important things about you.

 

2. State your objective. Now that you listener knows who you are, tell them why you are at the event you're both attending. It might be a job fair or an industry conference or you might just be dropping off a resume. In each situation, you should know why you're there.

. For example, if you're attending a job fair, your objective is provide to get a job. You could say something like 'Hi, I'm Amanda Smith. I just recently graduated from the University of Maine's marketing program. I'm Looking for an entry-level position in social media coordination.

.You could also say something like, ''Our auto parts manufacturing business has been growing, but I'm looking to take our sales number to record-breaking heights.''

. In both examples, your listener has learned who you are, what you do, and what you're looking for next in only two sentences.

 

3. Share your accomplishments. The best way to convince your listener that you can reach your stated objective is to share past successes. This tells your listener that you already have a good track record in your field. Use the CAR technique for this: Give the context for your accomplishment, the action you look, and the result of that action.

. For example, your accomplishment might be that you improved your company's sales over the last quarter. The context might be that sales were okay, but you believed they could be better. Your action might have been that you sat down with the sales team and reworked your entire strategy. Your result was that your company's sales increased.

 

4. Share your skills. Telling your listener what skills you have allows you to emphasize what you can do foe them in the future (and not just what you've already done for someone else in the past). Share both your hard skills- things like degrees, certifications. And work experience-and your soft skills- things like being good at interpersonal communication or an excellent writer.

. For example, you might say something like ''I have a Master 's Degree in business and worked for eight years as the  assistant sales manager for a smaller auto parts manufacture. My superior have always commented on my ability to communicates clearly and effectively with our clients.

 

5. Close with a call to action. Your call to action is basically what you can do to seal the deal after you've made the pitch. This will look differently from situation to situation, but it could set up the next step in your relationship with this new contact.

. For example, you can end your pitch by saying something like ''Can we set up a meeting to discuses how I can increase Hoe I can increase your company's sales/'' You can also end it more simply by saying ''I think I could be a great to your company; can I give you my business card?

 

Making Your Speech Engaging.

1. Make eye contact. When you've giving your pitch stare at the floor or the ceiling or your listner shoulder. Look them in the eye while you're speaking to them. This can make your listener feel ,more connected and your seem more professional.

 

2. BE confident. Introducing yourself stranger and then listing your accomplishment and goal can make you feel every vulnerable.  However, acting confident even if you don't necessary feel that way can make a big different in hoe your listener perceives you. IF you sound like you believe you are qualified for a new position or can accomplish the goal you lay out, your listener is more to believe it, too.

 

 

3. Use attention-grabbing and descriptive words. The best way to keep your listener engaged is to use words that grab their attention. One of the reason some people sound as if they speak with low energy if because of their word choice.
4. Some example of attention-grabbing  and descriptive words include ''immediately'', ''guaranteed, '' ''instantly,'' ''explosive,'' 'amazing,'' ''eye-opening,'' and '' fearless.''

 

4. Pay attention to body language. You want to make sure that you seem friendly, open, and investing as you give your pitch, and the best way to do this Is through body language. Face your listener straight on, keep your hands out of your pockets, and stand up straight.

 

5. Share your motivation. The most engaging elevator pitches are those made by people who make you care about what they are saying. A goos way to get your listener to care to is to share your motivation for meeting certain objective.
6. For example, your motivation for increasing your company's sales numbers  might be that you believe that the service your company's provides will truly improve your clients' quality of life. This is an excellent motivation beyond wanting more clients or to make more money.
7. You can say something like ''I spent a few weeks on a study aboard trip in India, where I learned just hoe improve clean drinking water is to family's overall health. I believe that getting our water filters into as many homes as possibly will truly help to improve our clients' families quality of life.

 

6. Avoid jargon specific to your field or company. The quickest way to lose someone's attention during an elevator pitch is to use field-or company-specific jargon. If your listener doesn't understand what you're saying, they won't stay engaged for jargon  for long. The simpler and more direct your language, the better.

 

7. Show interest in your Listener. When you're giving your pitch, don't drone on the end of it and then walk away. Ask your listener questions - what do they so for a living? Where did they go to school? Showing interest in your listener makes your pitch part of a conversation and not just a monologue.

 

*Practicing Your Speech

1. Time yourself. Once you have what you feel like is a good draft of your elevator pitch, time how long it takes you to you to say it out loud in a conversational manner. Set a timer on your phone or computer or just by looking at your watch, and ee if you can share everthing you need to in 60 to 90 second.
2. If it takes you longer than 60 to 90 seconds, don't just speed up. If you speak too quickly while you're giving your pitch, it will become obvious to your listener that you're giving them a canned speech, and they'll likely lose interest.

 

2. Revise your pitch. Once you've said your pitch out loud a few times, you'll want to revise it. IT might be too long, which requires streamlining some of the information you include. You should also continuously update your pitch new experiences and skills or changing goals.

 

3. Tweak your pitch for each new situation you're. You won't be giving your elevator pitch to the same person in the same situation every time you giveit. Make sure you practice your speech before each event or situation and tweak it to match.
4. For example, if you're at a career fair, you'll want to emphasize goals that reate to getting a job ( or changing jobs) and the skills that make you an excellent new addition to an exiting team.
5. If you're going to a networking event that might help you client base, emphasize the goal related to customer and the skills and accomplishments that will attract new customers to you.

 

4. Don't practice too much. Although you should practice enough that you can comfortably share everything you want to say within your time limit, you shoulder over-practice. If you do, your pitch will end up sounding rehearsed and, even worse, you could sound bored when you're saying it. You should knoe what you want to say but it should also sound fresh.

 

 

5. Ask friends to listen. Once you feel comfortable with your pitch, ask at least one of your friends to listener to it and offer feedback. They can help you determine if you're speaking too quickly, if sound too rehearsed, an dif you're engaging.

 

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