We from BaseTemplates, and many investors love the concept of an elevator pitch.
Besides presenting the essence of your startup idea in a concise but effective way, it's an excellent exercise for you as an entrepreneur to leave a positive first impression.
What is an elevator pitch?
The elevator pitch is a short description of your company, idea or product.
It is called an "evelvator pitch" because it is meant to be presented during an elevator ride, meaning, 30 seconds or less (depending on the building you are in).
The concept of such pitch also applies to pitching yourself to someone else. Whether it is the executive that you would love to work for, or the executive that works at that company that you want to work at, introducing yourself and your intention with an elevator pitch is a great way to start a conversation.
But enough with the theory for now. Let us have a look at our elevator pitch and analyze it completely.
Basetemplates elevator pitch
Do you, as an entrepreneur, find it hard to create a beautiful and professional pitch deck that represents your company in the best possible way? Are you willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a pitch deck design service or a designer that builds visually appealing slides?
Since we are entrepreneurs as well, we know that at the beginning of your venture, you have to count every dollar twice and work as cost-effective as possible.
So we created a pitch deck template that makes a designer and design service redundant. Every slide of our template contains content-suggestions that are based on the success factors from startup pitch decks like Airbnb, LinkedIn, Uber, and many more.
We analyzed over 70+ of the best Ted-Talks and extracted the essence of every single talk to create a pitch deck design that gives founders the ability to create professional pitch decks that are visually stunning and very well written.
Complete analysis of our elevator pitch
The introduction of an elevator pitch
Start your elevator pitch with a question you already know the answer to.
"Do you, as an entrepreneur, find it hard to create a beautiful and professional pitch deck that represents your company in the best possible way?"
This is a straightforward but effective question. Most people find it challenging to build a presentation, and in this case, it is even more than "just" a presentation.
Creating a pitch deck can be very stressful and exhausting.
"What do I have to write on this slide? What color should I choose for this slide? What is the best size for this picture?"
These are all the questions that come to an entrepreneur's mind when creating a pitch deck. Therefore, the answer to the first question of the elevator pitch is clearly YES!
And this "yes" is the first positive point of contact you have with the person who listens or reads your elevator pitch. The person gives, even it is just in his mind, his approval. He will be thinking, "yeah, you are right." And having the listener's consent is always a great point of start for a conversation.
The same goes for the follow-up question:
"Are you willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a pitch deck design service or a designer that builds visually appealing slides?"
You can expect most of your listeners to understand the financial situation of an entrepreneur or a startup, and you will agree with me that most people answer this question with NO!
These questions allow you to turn this into a controlled conversation and to speak to a problem that the potential customer or potential investor will most likely have experienced.
Prove that you are qualified to solve these problems
After starting your elevator pitch with one or two questions that are relatable to your audience, you now want to show them that you are qualified to solve the problems you have just revealed.
The way we do it is to start the next sentence with
"[…] we are entrepreneurs as well […]".
With this statement, we prove to the audience that we know what we are talking about. We know that most of the entrepreneurs have limited access to money and that affording a design service, or a pitch deck designer is not an option since we have already experienced these rough times.
Reveal your Solution to the problem you have already addressed
Now is your time to shine. Your listeners now know the problem you are addressing, and they know that you are qualified enough to talk about the topic.
With the next couple of sentences, you must present your solution to the problems! What we did is to offer a solution that saves entrepreneurs time and money.
It is a simple but highly effective solution to a problem that can easily cost a startup hundreds of dollars. You really have to keep in mind that your solution can be understood by your listeners in this short amount of time you have.
Tip: Pratice you pitch with someone else first! Here are some great ways on how you can practice your pitch!
There are several opportunities where you can give an elevator pitch!
Interviews
HR managers often want you to tell them something about yourself and what you have already achieved.
Imagine you start introducing yourself with a carefully tailored self-presentation of your professional development. So convincing that the choice can only fall on you.
Trade fairs
Trade fairs and congresses are ideal for job seekers and self-employed to introduce yourself with an elevator pitch. Imagine you step up to a fair stand of a company you want to work with and spot the person who is responsible for business development. How great would it be if you can get your offer straight to the point with a confidently given elevator pitch?
Phone calls
Regardless of whether you fish for orders or send an unsolicited application: phone calls can result in excellent opportunities for quickly making many contacts.
For these opportunities, you need a crisp offer that is convincing in terms of content and rhetoric.
Network Meetings
Meetings of professional associations, business networks, or alumni groups are excellent opportunities to talk to important people and inspire them with a successful self-presentation.
Random contacts
This is a classic.
You see the HR manager of a company you would love to work for. How great would it be to convince the manager of your competences by delivering a perfect elevator pitch?
Conclusion
This is what an elevator pitch is about:
Offer a solution to a problem to get people interested in you or your product. As an entrepreneur you will have to do elevator pitches all the time. Make sure that you are always prepared! There will be plenty of unforseen situations where you need it.
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