Elevator Pitch Examples – How to Avoid the Most Common Mistakes

Elevator pitch examples can be heard everywhere people gather. Formal and informal networking sessions are the most obvious venues but you can be asked: “what do you do?” anywhere and at any time. You need to be able to answer that question in a way that grabs interest and attention. Remember that people are jaded by this stuff, they have heard countless elevator pitches in their time and so you need to make sure you stand out.

Sadly, most people think that being asked what you do (or being asked to give your 30 second elevator speech) is an invitation to talk about yourself and what you do. Wrong! That is why so many people are disinterested when they hear an elevator pitch example like this:

“I am a (job label like “financial planner”) and our offices are based on the southwest corner of 45th and Main. We have been in businesses 150 years and have a combined experience in the industry of over 200 years in our office alone. We have the best range of X,Y,Z services in the industry and have just launched a new product that is unique in the market. What sets us apart is our customer service – we really love to help our clients. I’d love to talk to you, tell you more and give you quotation”

Sound familiar? This is a SAFE introduction. It talks about YOU. Look at the number of times it includes “I” and “our” and variations on the first person. This is about the speaker and is safe because nobody knows more about your business than you.

But it is NOT compelling. Nobody wants he hear about you. Good for you that you have been in business so long but.. SO WHAT? I don’t care about that stuff. I want to know that you understand me, get my problems, empathize and can help me.

How do you do that?

You avoid telling people how great you are and tell them WHO you help and the ISSUES they are dealing with and WHAT they get from working with you.

Notice you do not tell them HOW. They don’t even know if you are worth listening to yet. Avoid the temptation to launch into an elevator pitch about the process you will follow etc.

Here is the above example using the above guidelines:

“I help small business owners who are busy running their business and are confused about how much they should be saving and where. Often times they struggle with the complexities of financing and actually hate doing that stuff. I take that burden from them so they can concentrate on making money in their business and running it without worrying about their finances.”

Biggest tip for an elevator pitch – keep it about THEM, not about YOU.