Coming up with a single paragraph–and a short one at that–to
convince people to work with you isn’t all that easy.
How can you capture all your experience and talents and goals in a few sentences without sounding arrogant, phony, or boring?
Most people wind up writing a boring career summary on their resumes
and rattling off their job titles at networking events. And then….nothing
happens.
A great elevator pitch can make something happen. And when you
break it down into parts, and take them one at a time, creating one is pretty
easy–even fun.
Using this three-part framework, recommended by Kelly Studer, an
executive career coach based in California, can help you create a pitch that
leaves people wanting to know more about you.
A good pitch should convey three things:
What you do
How you do
it
Why you do
it
Each of those parts can be a single sentence, and no more
than two. Remember you don’t have much time to make an impression,
either in person or at the top of your resume.
You don’t want to drown people in information, but to prompt
them to ask for more. And to get people interested in you, you have to be
interesting.
That means letting a bit of your personality come through.
Here’s how:
What You Do – This should be more
than your job title or the name of your current company. Choose a way to
describe your job that makes you more than just a title – remember that your
title is not unique, and different companies use different titles for the same
role. Depending on the stage of your career or your goals, you might not want
to mention a title at all. It can limit your options.
Instead of saying “I’m a software developer,” try something such
as “I create software that allows people of all skill levels to build their own
mobile apps. 5,000 apps have been created on my software to this day.”
How You Do It – Identify your
top two or three talents, and express them in a few phrases. Are you
obsessed with slashing production time or the creative brains behind several
viral marketing campaigns?
What makes you different than other people who have your job
title? If you do something complicated that might be tough for your listener to
understand, use a metaphor to tell the story.
In other words, don’t give the same pitch at a meeting with
developers as you would in a room of CEOs, where you might say, “Using my
JavaScript and CSS skills, I create tools that people can put together to make
their own apps, sort of like Legos for iPhone apps.”
Why You Do It – This is where your
personality and enthusiasm must come through to seal the deal. Your final
sentence describes your passion and commitment, your motivation or the impact
you want to make.
That developer might spark interest with this pitch: “I
want to create a world where anyone can easily create an app, and not be
constrained by huge costs or lack of technology skills. Imagine what people
could create when these barriers are removed.”
Practice Your Pitch
Once you have a written pitch, or a couple of versions of it,
add it to your resume and social profiles. And then you need to practice
speaking it.
It will probably sound stiff or awkward at first, but that
doesn’t mean it is not good. Keep in mind that what works in written form can
sound unnatural and rehearsed when spoken out loud, so tweak your pitch so that
it flows naturally when verbalized.
Craft a Better Pitch
Use Simple Language You might say,
“identified” in a written pitch, but “spot,” “see,” or “look for,” sound more
natural when speaking. For example, “I identify
fashion trends” vs. “I look at what people are buying now and envision the next
trend.” The second version tells a story.
Try a Question – This is an informal
way to engage people right away. It works particularly well if your job
involves a product such as software that can be hard to explain. If you are at
a software conference, you might say you have a “SaaS platform allowing
application development and publication for small or new businesses.” But if
you are speaking with people that aren’t in your industry, or want to engage
anyone faster, ask: “Ever have a great idea for an app, but didn’t know how to
build one?”
Practice, Practice, Practice – Practice
your pitch with a friend or family member, in front of a mirror, to your
goldfish, anyone. Have someone video you practicing and notice if there are
places in your pitch that your body languages changes or you often stumble on
words.
