What Is an Elevator Speech?

An elevator speech is a short (30 second) sound bite that you use to introduce yourself.  It’s delivered effortlessly, and spotlights your uniqueness and focuses on the benefits you provide.
The goal of creating an elevator pitch is to craft a statement that explains to someone without any experience in your industry what you do, how you do it, and who you do it for.  It must be straightforward and easy to understand.

You’ve heard… “You only get one chance to make a good first impression.”  A well written and well rehearsed elevator speech can help you make a good first impression, while making networking situations, job fairs, and video resumes easier and more productive.   
It’s also an excellent answer to the question “so tell me a little about yourself” at an interview.
An elevator speech is as essential as a business card.  And with practice, you can present yourself as more confident and self-assured, making others more willing trust you and consider you a worthwhile acquaintance.

1. Know yourself… Write down the services or features that you provide.  What are your key strengths?  What is it you’re trying to let others know about you?
2. Think in terms of the benefits that your clients or employer could derive from these services.  What problems do you solve? 
3. Create an opening sentence that will grab the listener's attention.  The best openers leave the listener wanting more information.  
4. Go through what you have written and change any long words or jargon into everyday language and cut any unnecessary words.  Get it down to about 30 seconds.

Don’t make it all about you.  Make it about how you can help your listener.  Think in terms of the benefits others derive from your services.

Don’t get bogged down with industry jargon or acronyms that your listener may not be familiar with.

Make a few variations of your elevator speech for different situations and audiences.

Practice out loud, so your elevator speech rolls off your tongue with ease.   Tweak it as needed until you’ve got it just right.

Make sure you’re comfortable with what you’re saying, and you enjoy saying it.

For more information and step by step instructions for creating and using an elevator speech, check out our Video Workshop and eBook (a video resume do-it-yourself starter kit)