how to make an elevator pitch by pratibha ryali april 15 th 2015

PRATIBHA RYALIpratbharyali.blogspot.in

HOW TO MAKE AN ELEVATOR PITCH IN 50 SECONDS

How to make an ELEVATOR PITCH in 50 seconds

PRATIBHA RYALI

All views are my own




Agenda

Definition

Why do you need one

Basics of an elevator pitch

What should be in it

What should not be in it

Example situations and different techniques

Success factors

Q&A




An elevator pitch is a personal introduction explaining what you do within 30 seconds to a stranger or a known person you meet in

the elevator before it reaches from ground to 8th floor!




• But if you are NOT

– An entrepreneur looking for funding

– A sales leader

– A Job seeker




DO YOU STILL NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH?




Step back for a minuteIn your EVERYDAY at work do you have conversations about

Convince someone about your point of view

Volunteer for a project you want to work on

Create awareness about an initiative/cause

Involve in team activities

Meet new people

Meet a senior person




In short , you pitch YOUR point of view

Your idea

YOUR THOUGHT

And

YOURSELF in everyday scenarios

and

usually you get 10 seconds to win attention




Now that you need a pitch how do you prepare?

The Best of impromptu speeches are prepared in advance!




Make efforts to know your audience and situation in advance

1. Do you know whom you are going to meet?i. Have you looked at the LinkedIn profile

ii. Your common contacts

iii. The interests

iv. The social footprint- does he blog, has he given any interviews?

2. If you don’t know the person, what is the context in which you have met him or her?i. Is it an external conference- example NASSCOM Product conference

ii. Engineering college Alumni meet

iii. Office Townhall

3. If know absolutely NOTHING about the person or situation- that is still OK- if you know what you want to speak of!!




The golden circle of personal branding

Example: How APPLE does it

WHY?

HOW?

WHAT?

WHY= THE PURPOSE What is your cause? What do you believe in?

HOW= THE PROCESS Specific actions taken to realize Why?

WHAT= THE RESULT What do you do? The result of Why. Proof.

WHY= THE PURPOSE Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo, we believe in thinking differently!

HOW= THE PROCESS We make products that are beautifully designed and user friendly

WHAT= THE RESULT And by the way we just happen to make great computers, iPods - do you want to buy one?




People don’t care about WHAT you do. It is the WHY that matters.




What should be in your pitch?1. Start with WHY?- 10 seconds

1. What you believe in

2. Use an ACTION word in the first sentence

3. Hook

2. What problem do you solve

1. Establish credibility

2. How do you solve it

3. Help needed- come straight to the point

4. Call to action

1. Can be an action

2. Or a recall that will remind the of you




What should not be• DO NOT BRAG: NO one is interested

• Avoid Monologue

• KEEP IT SHORT :Think 10 seconds, not 50!

• USE EVERYDAY LANGUAGE. Avoid words like “synergy”, “optimize”, “efficiency”, “ROI” and so on.




Example 1: Running into a senior leader in the office lift

1. Re-introduce yourself.

“Hi Amit, I’m _________ from the marketing team.”

2. Lead with information your audience might not know.

Capture attention with an interesting fact, statistic, or comparison

I was looking at the India Shout out Transformation webcast today- we had 85%

participation!

3. Share the positive value.

What’s the payoff for your listener’s department?

“I think its great way to engage new ideas at work”

4. End with an ask. Now that you’ve tantalized your listener with interesting information,

ask to follow up.

You might suggest a meeting or ask permission to send the person more information

Can we conduct a similar social drive for the Cloud theme training on the work floor?




Example 2: A senior executive, client after a public event, Townhall

• For meeting VIPs in crowded settings, the goal should be to do 3 things in an introduction of no more than 60 seconds:

• 1st. Establish credibility: I work with Emily’s team in Mainframe Marketing

• 2nd. Make your intentions clear :

• I really liked the fact that you suggested communities and loyal Usergroups are the way to go for technology marketing. I would like to share a similar approach we are taking and perhaps it may not work out exactly like you suggested. Give them your card with below #3 handwritten on it.

• 3rd. Mention something very, very hard to forget about you that separates you from the rest.

– I am tennis district champion- happy to meet for game if you are in town.

– I am the lady with purple glasses

– I a stand-up comedian only in toastmasters

• If you are meeting in public forum , do not follow up within the next 3 days, as everyone else will.




Example 3- chance meeting with a Client in a networking event

• You start the statement with” Hi, I am Shilpa, I loving cheering up birthday parties with creative cakes. When I am not baking cakes, I also like to write cool codes to make elevators like these work. I learnt this back in Osmania University”

• Wait- which batch of engineering in OU?• And your pitch goes out of the window?

• Prepare 3-5 points three-to-five thins you want to be known for and that you can sprinkle into conversation as it proceeds.




Example 4- Introducing yourself in a roundtable, business meeting- tell stories

• Hi- I am a product manager and help our business leaders create mainframes to help the world.

• Hi- I started my career fixing technology code bugs which I hated and thus propelled myself to pursue an MBA picked a corporate strategy job which taught me to relate to how the senior management REALLY spend their time without judging them but I wanted to know people beyond the senior management and pursued a sales career to meet people, understand their problems and fix them with my knowledge and finally I joined the mainframe product team because I get inspired by creating a technology which is twice my age and has survived.

You can make the same more audience centric• Hi- I started my career fixing technology bugs which helps e understand what the

technical team really goes through everyday. My 6 years journey has made a mainframe product manager and what I really strive to do is to connect with the technical teams before I design my product features, because none knows how to make something work than the testers who do it day in and out




Example 5- Linkedin email to an alumnus

• Subject: Hi Ripal, help needed from your SP Jain Junior

• Hi Ripal, I am your junior Pratibha and have just finished my internship with Ogilvy. I absolutely loved advertising industry and notice that you had pursued a similar and very unlikely choice after MBA and 2 years technical experience. I would love to get 15 mins of your time to speak and understand your love for the field and perhaps find mine?




Success factors

• Always remember to invert the focus ratio.Usually we spend 70 to 80% of our time talking about ourselves

Talk about your client’s results.

• Don’t take too long to make the most important points.Leading with results first

Specifics last




What is holding you back• Looks awkward?

– Never pitch yourself for jobs, work or projects– Never use Jargons– Speak of your motivation, emotions- why you like to do something – STRUCTURE- SPEAK OF EMOTIONAL IMPORTANCE- INTENT

• Be True to yourself– YOUR pitch needs to sound like you

• I don’t have anything great to speak about– Neither do others. The point is Others sat and you spoke up however simple your

ideas may have been

• I don’t have the communication skills or good English– What of the OTHER 20 strengths you have? Will you let them sit while you bask

for one skill– Speaking requires emotion and HUMAN beings- not language- be honest- you

will be noticed




Questions?




DON’T HESITATE TO SPEAK ABOUT YOURSELF- NOBODY EVER TURNED

DOWN ENTHUSIASM




THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME

• THE VIDEO FOR THIS PRESENTATION WOULD BE AVAILABLE ON DEMAND @Pratibharyali.blogspot.in

• For further questions mail me at [email protected]

• For updates please follow me on Twitter @prathibharyali

how to make an elevator pitch by pratibha ryali april 15 th 2015

Self Improvement