We hear a lot about the elevator speech and how important it is to have it ready, clear, and concise, cause you never know when you’ll need it.
Most is true, yet it isn’t just the elevator anymore, nor is it cause you may meet that investor or ambassador, but another sort of influencer, and not necessarily on an elevator.
In today’s digital world, information moves so quickly, it isn’t about running into the person of interest, but rather their next person in line, their spouse or partner, their son or daughter, their colleague or employee, their neighbor or barista or barber, or someone who they follow which can make an immense impact.
Nor is it necessarily the possibility of meeting them in an elevator, cause it could be running into someone of influence while sitting at the doctor’s office, or waiting for your cup of Joe to be ready, or…you get my drift.
The premise of the elevator speech remains true, as you need to be able to deliver your value proposition on cue, quickly explain WTF your startup really does, and you also need to be able and adapt it to your audience. In other words, it is imperative you get your message right, and you need to quickly realize who you’re really talking to.
Based on the person in front of you (who’s hopefully willing to listen), you will update your pitch to be simpler, or more technical, or with additional examples, statistics, or…whatever is needed for your audience to get a clear picture of what makes your value so obviously great.
So before possibly running into the person who can help propel you forward in one way or another, make sure you pass the Mommy test, cause if you can explain it to your Mom, then you can always adapt it and explain it to anyone else.