From Personal Branding comes this video about perfecting your elevator pitch.  So what’s the elevator pitch?

The idea is written from the perspective of someone looking for venture capital funding, the elevator pitch is your two minute opportunity to show a potential investor what the problem is, how you can solve it and – of course – why they would want to get involved (read: how they will make money).  Say you’re in an elevator with Steve Jobs – he’s got to ride an elevator at some point, right?  It could happen.  You’ve got two minutes to get from ground floor to penthouse before you’ve lost him forever, so what are your key talking points?

But it doesn’t have to be just so that you can raise money.  It could be that you need to show a potential customer how you’re different.  Everyone’s got an elevator pitch … or, at least we should.  We’re all in sales, it doesn’t matter what our industry is, we all have a product or service we want people to use.  Real estate agents?  Sales, sure.  But what about mechanics?  Sales – they want you to have your car serviced there.  Accountants?  Sales – virtually every accountant should be offering bookkeeping services to all of their clients.  TV executives?  Sales – they
want you to turn to their channel first.  Pastors?  Well, that just might be the ultimate form of sales. 

So think about it.  Whatever your industry, and whatever your role in that industry, what’s your elevator pitch?  What’s your two minute commercial to tell people why you’re different, and how your service can benefit them?  I know I’ll be thinking about this over the next several days.  And if we’re ever in an elevator together, watch out – you know what’s coming.