How do You Introduce What You Do? A Guide to Elevator Pitches
As an affiliate, you do lots of work online, but there comes a time when you're offline and you're trying to explain what you do. That little snippet that explains your career choice is vital to building trust with others. It only has to be 30 seconds at most, but it can be 30 seconds that makes or breaks your impression, which is why I've chosen to write this post.
I'm hoping that by the end of this post, you're able to have a quick response that clearly communicates to people what you do, so you can get more people to buy into your dream.
The Richest People in the World Understand the Importance of Buy-In
Most of us know a few of the richest people in the world. People like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and others. One thing they all have in common is the ability to get multitudes of people to buy into what they're doing.
Even ideas that might seem silly to us, are ideas they seem to get people to buy into. They had to start somewhere though.
When Jeff Bezos started out, I'm sure his elevator pitch wasn't nearly as glamorous as it is today, but he had to introduce his online bookshop in a way that would get people to know, like, and trust him, and even consider buying from him. From the early days of his book shop, it's turned into one of the largest e-commerce stores in the world! Buy in is important.
Bill Gates was likely in a comparable situation as Bezos. Personal computers weren't a craze as much as they are today when he started. At some point, he had to get people to believe he had the potential to change the world by distributing personal computers and software.
Where does that powerful introduction start for you? How about today?
The Elevator Pitch
Making an elevator pitch doesn't have to be very complicated, but making sure it's at the tip of your tongue, quick, easy to repeat, and "clicks" in the recipients minds are the most important ingredients. It's also nice to invoke a little curiosity, so the recipient is interested in asking questions and learning more about what you do and how to get involved.
Many affiliates have challenges explaining what we do. In fact, it took me nearly 18 months to translate what I'm doing to my mom in a relevant way! Up until then, I would hear her tell her friends, "she does some online stuff" or "she makes videos and writes online", but it was never catchy enough that it would gain buy-in.
Variations of the Elevator Pitch
Some examples of elevator pitches in other industries could be:
I'm a Lead Pastor at [church name] where we focus on helping people from all walks live the gospel"
"I'm a Singer of R&B and I make music to help people take their minds away from drama and focus on improving their lives."
For affiliates, some examples could be:
- "I own a digital media agency where I encourage others to eat better and live longer"
- "I own a digital media agency where I encourage others to start and grow businesses"
- "I help business owners learn how to get more customers and sales online"
- I help affiliate marketers learn how to get more customers and sales for their clients"
The key is picking an elevator pitch and being sharp with it. If you start rolling your eyes, fidgeting, or you stutter alot, it could influence whether or not the recipient believes you, trusts you, wants to ask more questions, and buys into what you do.
The goal of the Buy In
This isn't a network marketing company or a scheme of any sort, and you don't want to give the impression you're promoting a scam or something phishy. As a result, the goal isn't to get everyone to "join your company". The goal is to generate awareness about what you do, so they can keep you top of mind, then later on down the line when they run into someone who needs your solution, they can refer them to you.
It's also possible for the person you meet to be interested in being a customer, buying products from one of your affiliate partners, wanting to read your blog or watch your videos, or even share your information with a friend!
It's a snowball effect that takes place as you continue talking to people, networking, and sharing what you do: online and offline.
My Challenge for You
- Create your elevator pitch
- Share it with someone (even an innocent bystander)
- See how they respond and if they buy-in
- Tweak and refine until it seems to make sense to recipients
Question for You
- How do you tell people about what you do online?
- Do you fidget, roll your eyes, or get nervous? Why or why not?
- What's your best advice for someone who struggles with their elevator pitch?
My best advice is to think about it, pick one, and practice. I'd love to hear yours in the comments below.
Recent Comments
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I'm so glad the post was helpful for you! Best wishes in your business. If you really like these blogs, you might also enjoy my video training as well. You can find them here: https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/tdomena/training
Thanks for the link. It is much appreciated. I do find your training very helpful and useful. Best wishes to you.
Brian
This is great advice and definitely something I will put into practice. I did exactly what you describe when trying to explain affiliate marketing to my mum (stutter, stumble, umm...).
I think it's easier now that we have established some content and are proud of what we are creating. I will focus on this when asked in future and respond "we have a trail running website, it's a blog, advice and inspiration for all things trail running".
I’ve been there too and I can tell you the stuttering makes them less confident about what you’re doing. Hahaha. Your site is about running on trails? Do you help people lose weight, navigate better, stay motivated, or how do you help? I’d see how to add in what the benefit would be if the end user visited. Also, I’d tie in the benefit to my sales goal if possible.
For example, “I run a digital agency that publishes content about running on trails. We do this because we know those who run trails have better overall health and fulfillment in life (I made that up). Visitors stopping by can expect reviews on gear, buyers guides, and trail running advice so they can get the most out of running the trails.”
Thank-you, I like it! Identify a problem and provide a solution :-) Thanks for your advice, much appreciated :-)
Great advice. I like to keep things simple. I never thought of an elevator pitch and trying it out on someone. I will definitely think of one.
Thank you Tiffany.
Another great post.
I am slowly learning how to develop my confidence to tell people what I do online.
It is early days for me, & the elevator pitch is something I need to work on.
Denis
To be honest I have not perfected my elevator pitch yet. I am a good listener and conversationalist, but not great at putting myself out there.
I need to work on this.
Fantastic post! At the moment I tell people I'm looking into online marketing, the powers of online media and marketing and its influence on our current way of life.
I believe what we are doing here is not a scam, not phishing of any sort; we are simply looking at the online world in a different way and seeing online marketing/affiliation for what it is; a profitable, influential platform for creative people to explore and make a living from.
Online marketing/affiliation and the likes can be used for a hefty profit if you exploit people who are vulnerable. One reason I joined here is because it is the opposite of that; this is a place for creatives to explore the online world, support one another in their journeys and use their knowledge to create an honest living.
Taylor.
I agree creative people can explore the internet. You sound very artistic in your explanation of "studying the online world". Best wishes on growing your business!
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Thank you! I am only a couple of weeks into WA and this is such an awesome post. I just had a co-worker ask me about everything and I fumbled around with what I needed to say as well. He is intrigued by it all, but my question is, how do we refer them to WA? Do we have our own links within our dashboard to give to potential customers who want to join WA?
Thanks again for this post! It has really opened my eyes on how we need to be and present ourselves.
Clint
Hi - click on the dollar symbol at the top of the page and go to links and tracking. You can email your personal link.
Oh thank you so much Diane. That's one thing I really enjoy about WA, we are constantly learning new things everyday and the support from everyone in the community is top notch. I tend to feel a little overwhelmed at times with all the information at our fingertips. 🙂
I'm so glad the post was helpful. I've fumbled too because it's difficult to know what other people will be able to understand--that's why I used to fumble. It looks like Diane already answered your question about referring people to WA. You can also check out the affiliate bootcamp if you want to learn more about how to attract more people to WA.
Ok awesome, I still haven't finished my training yet, but I have heard of the bootcamps. Those definitely sound interesting.
Best wishes as you go thru it. It was very helpful for me.