Here’s How You Can Make Your Elevator Speech Worth Listening To.

By Gwen Moran

Quick: If you suddenly found yourself face to face with a top venture capitalist, could you give her a 30-second pitch that would make her want to know more about your company?

Lorraine Howell, founder of Media Skills Training, a media and communications training firm in Seattle, thinks you should be able to do just that. Her book, Give Your Elevator Speech a Lift: How to Craft Your Own 30-Second Commercial, explains how to interest investors, prospects and other audience members by using a brief “elevator speech”—a pitch made in the time it takes for an elevator ride. She offers a few tips for creating your own quick pitch.

Address your audience and what they want. Let’s say you own a bakery and you want to attract affluent customers who are planning weddings. Your elevator speech should reflect that. Howell suggests saying “I bake innovative cakes for once-in-a-lifetime events.” This quick characterization appeals to the prestige and exclusivity this audience seeks, but doesn’t get so far away from what people think a baker does that it’s confusing.

Talk about the result. “If I ask you what time it is, don’t tell me how the watch works,” Howell says. Tell the audience member what the appeal of your business is for him or her. “When people ask you what you do, the question they’re really asking is ‘What can you do for me?’” says Howell. “That’s the question you should be answering.”

Draft several versions. Most businesses have more than one audience. Ideally, your brief first impression will leave your prospect clamoring for more. So create elevator speeches of different lengths—perhaps 10-second, 30-second and two-minute versions—and tailor them to different audiences. Howell changes her elevator speech in different situations. Sometimes she’ll call herself a media trainer, and other times she’ll say she helps people communicate more effectively in front of an audience.