There’s a lot of advice about building an elevator pitch out there, some more complex than others, but your core pitch should have four main elements:

1. Who am I and what’s my business?
2. What do we do, and who do we do it for (this can often be presented in a problem/solution format)
3. Why we are different from competitors (your USP), and what value it brings
4. A call to action

Lets’ break those down.

Who am I and what’s my business?

The simplest of the four parts, this one is short and sweet.

“Hi. My name’s Andrea and I’m the owner of Social Sports, a gym here in Alice Springs.”

Easy, right?

What do we do, and who do we do it for?

A little more complex now, you’ll need to boil down what you do into a key phrase.

Let’s start complex and then go simple.

Often this part is presented in a problem/solution format, so, if you make administration software for lawyers, you might say something like, “Lawyers lose money when they’re doing admin instead of fee-charging activities. We automate their day-to-day admin so they can concentrate on earning money.”

The problem/solution format isn’t for everyone, so if you prefer something simpler, you could try, “We save lawyers time and money by automating their day-to-day admin.”

Sticking with our Social Sports example from 1, we’ll go with, “We help people hit their fitness goals in a social environment.”

Why we are different from competitors (your USP), and what value it brings

Maybe you’re a mechanic that offers free tire rotations, a hypnotherapist that does home visits so clients are more comfortable, a software supplier that offers users the chance to vote on the features they want.

Whatever it is, this is what sets you apart from your competitors and what makes you attractive the customers or clients that you serve.

So, for Social Sports it’s, “We offer free personal trainers to groups of friends who want to train together. This makes training fun for our clients, means they’re more likely to hit their goals, and more likely to stick with training long-term as part of a healthy lifestyle.”

A call to action

Parts 1-3 are pretty standard, and you can always use them as the basis of your pitch.

This last part is a little different though, and requires a bit of flexibility depending on who you’re taking to and what situation you’re in.

For Social Sports, “Why don’t you come round with some friends and we’ll give you a free training session?”, works perfectly if you’re at a networking event in Alice Springs. Not so well if you’re talking to someone who lives in Cairns.

It makes sense to adapt to your circumstances, then. In the second scenario, you could change it to, “If you’ve got some friends who live in Alice, put them in touch with me and they can come round for a group training session together. Here’s my card, get in touch whenever you like.”

So, that’s how to put together an elevator pitch.

Build your own and try it out on friends and family so you can get it sounding natural before you go live with it.

And when you’re ready, get yourself along to a networking event and promote your business.

Speaking of networking events, why don’t you join us for the launch of Startup September on the 5^th Sep at the Darwin Botanic Gardens Event Centre? You’ll get to meet other NT start-ups and lots of influential people from the NT business community and government, as well as experienced mentors who can help you take your business forward.

Startup September is a series of 8 free sessions from the 5th^th – 29^th September, held in Darwin, Palmerston and online, that will help you take your business from idea to launch in just one month.

We hope to see you there and hear your elevator pitch!