5 Reasons Why an Elevator Pitch is So Important

What is an elevator pitch?

It’s a short business pitch, maybe 30 seconds to two minutes long. It forces you to describe your business idea in an efficient and yet compelling way.

I think that it is very easy to underestimate the importance of an elevator pitch. After all, it’s short and fairly easy to put together, right? I can easily describe my business in less than a minute, right?

To be honest, that’s something only a person who’s never tried to give a business pitch would say. When it comes down to it, the elevator pitch is difficult but definitely important.

1. It forces you to better understand your idea. You may think that you know your idea inside and out, but believe it or not, being able to ramble about an idea for hours and hours is not nearly an easy thing to do. Efficiently narrowing an idea down to a few short minutes is extremely difficult, and it forces you to understand your idea well enough and to understand what its selling points are.
2. It helps you to simplify a process. If your idea is so complicated that it is impossible to describe in two minutes or less… maybe you need to rethink your process. It is important to simplify an idea just enough so that when you are selling the idea, people will actually understand what you’re talking about.
3. It is respectful of another person’s time. When someone asks you about your business, you want to be prepared. Don’t waste their time with an unclear, disorganized, and undoubtedly passionate ramble. Having an elevator pitch ready gives you an opportunity to give a to-the-point answer so that the person can understand your idea without regretting asking the question in the first place.
4. It is respectful of your time. Honestly, it’s not worth the effort to describe every detail of your idea to every person you run into. Instead of having everyone a detailed 20-page business plan, it saves you time and unnecessary work to give them a compelling but brief pitch. If they’re interested in learning more, then they will ask. If not, you just saved yourself a lot of unnecessary time.
5. It can make or break a life changing opportunity. Picture this. You’re working on creating a brand new product for a social cause… and one of the prominent figures in that cause steps into the elevator with you. It is extremely crucial that, in the next short few minutes ahead of you, that you take the opportunity to share your idea concisely and clearly. It could be a life changing opportunity for you and for your idea.

In the end, an elevator pitch is SO important. So when you create a business idea… so make one. Happy selling!