[Editor's Note: This post originally appeared at Productivity in Context]

First, you may be asking, “What is an elevator pitch?”

I’m glad you asked:

This is the 30-60 second business description of what you do and why someone should work with you. It’s called an “Elevator Pitch” because it describes the challenge: “How would you explain your business and make a sale if fate placed you in an elevator with your dream prospect and you only had the time it takes to get from the top of the building to the bottom?”

Thanks must go to to K. Stone of Life Learning Today, who wrote an incredible piece at Dumb Little Man. There she lays out all of the steps that you need to put your own elevator pitch together. So go get a pencil and a blank sheet of paper, and follow along:

How to Craft Your Killer Elevator Pitch

• Write down what you do. Write it several different ways. Try writing it at least 10-20 different ways. Don’t edit yourself at all. You will edit later. This first step is for generating ideas. Don’t hold back. Ideas can be goofy, serious, wild, funny, or conservative. It doesn’t matter. The goal is to get at many ideas as possible down on paper.
• Write a very short story that illustrates what you do for people. If necessary, the story can be long. You will boil it down later. Paint a picture with words.
• Write down your objective or goal. Do you want to make a sale, gain a prospect, enlist support for an idea, earn a referral, or something else?
• Write 10-20 action statements. This is a statement or question designed to spur the action associated with your goal.

Got that? That is the root of your pitch. Now go back and put the best parts together to make a seamless whole.

What are you shooting for?

A good elevator pitch contains some essential elements, the first three being:

1. Concise. Your pitch should take no longer than 30-60 seconds.
2. Clear. Use language that everyone understands. Don’t use fancy words thinking it will make you sound smarter. Your listener won’t understand you and you’ll have lost your opportunity to hook them.
3. Powerful. Use words that are powerful and strong. Deliver the “Sis-Boom-Bang” to grab their attention!

Read the rest of the post to find out more details.

Here is my own elevator pitch, submitted for your consideration:

Elevator Pitch

Click the little arrow to listen.

“I teach people how to use basic tools and simple practices for taking control of their workflow situation. I write articles and consult on practical ways of being more productive at work and at home.
These practices are designed to give you more time to do the things that matter to you!

I have created custom calendar and organizer products for clients with specific needs that could not find a commercial product to suit them. I’d be happy to get together with you over a cup of coffee and discuss how you feel about your own workflow process.”

First, you may be asking, “What is an elevator pitch?”

I’m glad you asked:

This is the 30-60 second business description of what you do and why someone should work with you. It’s called an “Elevator Pitch” because it describes the challenge: “How would you explain your business and make a sale if fate placed you in an elevator with your dream prospect and you only had the time it takes to get from the top of the building to the bottom?”

Thanks must go to to K. Stone of Life Learning Today, who wrote an incredible piece at Dumb Little Man. There she lays out all of the steps that you need to put your own elevator pitch together. So go get a pencil and a blank sheet of paper, and follow along:

How to Craft Your Killer Elevator Pitch

• Write down what you do. Write it several different ways. Try writing it at least 10-20 different ways. Don’t edit yourself at all. You will edit later. This first step is for generating ideas. Don’t hold back. Ideas can be goofy, serious, wild, funny, or conservative. It doesn’t matter. The goal is to get at many ideas as possible down on paper.
• Write a very short story that illustrates what you do for people. If necessary, the story can be long. You will boil it down later. Paint a picture with words.
• Write down your objective or goal. Do you want to make a sale, gain a prospect, enlist support for an idea, earn a referral, or something else?
• Write 10-20 action statements. This is a statement or question designed to spur the action associated with your goal.

Got that? That is the root of your pitch. Now go back and put the best parts together to make a seamless whole.

What are you shooting for?

A good elevator pitch contains some essential elements, the first three being:

1. Concise. Your pitch should take no longer than 30-60 seconds.
2. Clear. Use language that everyone understands. Don’t use fancy words thinking it will make you sound smarter. Your listener won’t understand you and you’ll have lost your opportunity to hook them.
3. Powerful. Use words that are powerful and strong. Deliver the “Sis-Boom-Bang” to grab their attention!

Read the rest of the post to find out more details.

Here is my own elevator pitch, submitted for your consideration:

“I teach people how to use basic tools and simple practices for taking control of their workflow situation. I write articles and consult on practical ways of being more productive at work and at home.
These practices are designed to give you more time to do the things that matter to you!

I have created custom calendar and organizer products for clients with specific needs that could not find a commercial product to suit them. I’d be happy to get together with you over a cup of coffee and discuss how you feel about your own workflow process.”

I am a big fan of the Chamber of Commerce. Part of the reason is the opportunity to meet other business people in a relaxed social setting at the regular get-togethers such as Business After Hours, Lunch-and-Learn, or Breakfast Seminars.

Sometimes these meetings have a structure, with a focused presentation, other times they are more free-form with food and beverages. All the time they are a great way to meet others in your community that you can work with, or can send more business your way.

I always attend a networking event with two goals in mind:

• Meet at least one new person and introduce them to someone I already know that would have an interest in developing a business relationship with this new person.
• Re-connect with someone that I may not have seen/spoken to in a while and get caught up on what they are working on.

By following these steps I have often been able to help others create business relationships and establish myself as a Connector. This often brings people (and business opportunities!) to me that I may never have had the chance to meet otherwise. The most popular type of networking event is the Business After Hours which has some excellent opportunities as well as its own special pitfalls to watch out for.

One thing to remember – have a good supply of business cards with you. So many people do not ring cards with them, and they miss out on opportunities. I also recommend having a short stack of 3″x5″ cards in your pocket for writing quick notes about the people that you meet.

The Challenges of the After-Hours Event

Your typical Business After Hours is an unstructured event with some finger food and a beer/wine bar. We can look at an event like this as having two main challenges and three primary opportunities.

The Challenges

1. First, the bar. Avoid the bar as best you can. Getting tipsy at one of these events may be expected by the majority of the participants, but no one has to know that you have been carrying the same glass of wine for two hours. Consuming alcohol reduces your ability to stay focused on the reason you are at the event: meeting people that can bring you business. Limit your alcohol consumption or avoid it altogether to get the most out of your attendance.
2. Your close friends and co-workers. Since you already have a relationship with some of the attendees it can be easy to spend most of your time talking shop with your co-workers or friends, rather than catching up with folks that you do not get to see very often or meeting the new people. I suggest that you work toward a goal of meeting 2-3 people that you do not know at each networking event. Ask them about themselves and their business, with an eye toward introducing them to someone that you already know.

As you can see, the challenges are insidious in that they are so easy to fall into. Stay focused on your own goals and you will be able to get the most out of your attendance and reap the benefits of the opportunities that the event can deliver.

Networking Brings Opportunities for Your Business

The primary opportunities of a Business After Hours event can build your authority, credibility and your bottom line. Have your elevator pitch ready to deploy!

Most people that attend these events are looking to sell something, that something being their product or service. You need to attend the Business After Hours with the goal of selling yourself – not your business, not your new product. Use the networking event to sell “Brand You” and set times for follow-up with the people that you meet. These follow-up meetings or calls are the time for selling your business.

The Opportunities

1. Build Authority by meeting new people and introducing them to others in your existing network. If you meet someone who has a new company that makes widgets and you know someone that makes widget-packaging machines, get them together. This will demonstrate your knowledge of the market and showcase a benefit of developing a relationship with you.
2. Offer Value by listening to the people that you meet. Encourage them to talk about their business and interests. You need to work toward engaging them about them, and by explaining how you help others. Not by promoting your own business. That will come as your relationship grows.
3. Get more business! By engaging the people that you meet and learning more about them you develop your credibility in the community. Bringing other people together into new relationships establishes your ability as a Connector and creates a positive balance in your Emotional Bank Account. Be prepared to help someone else get more business and they will come to you for help later. That is how relationships work!

Do you have a business networking anecdote to share? Have you followed these steps in the past and seen the benefits? Share with us in the comments!

“All things being equal, people want to do business with their friends. All things being not quite so equal, people STILL want to do business with their friends.” ~Jeffrey Gitomer

That is the point of Networking. Create a friendly relationship with the people that you may be able to do business with, or people that may be able to refer business to you, and you will do more business!

Networking is about creating a connection with other people that leads to a relationship. Building these relationships is the number one thing that you can do to build your business. If it seems that I am repeating myself, or using the word relationship a lot, it’s because I am. It is intentional. The internet is a fantastic tool for doing business, but it is only a tool. It is a cheap and easy way to get your name and brand out into the world, but you still have to be there in a very real sense. It is up to you to engage the people that find you online with your friendliness and authority on the topic of your business.

I am not going to dig too deeply into the idea of friendliness, as that is something that you should be pretty familiar with. Essentially it boils down to one concept: Be nice. Authority, on the other hand, can be a little trickier.

How do you showcase your authority?

Give value first, prove your reliability second. It is as simple as that.
Well, there is a little more, but those two points are a good start. Let’s begin with “Giving Value“.

• What value is involved when people meet you?
• What value do you provide with your business?
• What is in it for the people who visit your website?

Take a moment to consider the answers to these questions. While you are at it, think about how you feel when you meet other people. What do you like to get from them? I have found that total strangers generally have at least one thing in common with me, whether it is geography, background, work, skills, hobbies, or interests. It is your job to find that common ground and plant a seed of interest there. The relationship that grows from that seed will provide the backdrop for many of your future interactions with that person. Even if the relationship begins with something as basic as a common interest in a hobby, you will always have something to talk about before you start talking about business.

The elevator pitch

When it is time to talk business, are you prepared to tell your new acquaintance about what it is that you do? You should have a brief but complete statement rehearsed and ready to say whenever you meet someone new. Called an “elevator pitch”, it is a 30-40 second statement about you and your business that describes exactly what it is that you do, and how it can benefit a potential customer.

My own elevator pitch that I developed for Productivity in Context is:

I teach people how to use basic tools and elemental practices for taking control of their workflow situation. I write articles and consult on practical ways of being more productive at work and at home; so that you have more time for the things that matter to you.

Depending on the situation, I may add a little more context, and a means of getting in touch with me. Let’s break that pitch down a little, so that you can see how it was constructed.

1. What do I do? I teach people how to use basic tools and elemental practices for taking control of their workflow.
2. How do I do it? I write articles online and offer personal consulting.
3. What’s in it for you? You gain more time for the things that are important to you.

There you are, a complete value statement that informs a new acquaintance of what I am about, and creates an opening for me to offer further value by displaying my authority on the subject matter. My blog at Productivity in Context is generally the initial vehicle for displaying that authority. The secondary authority-builder is typically in the form of an e-mail conversation, one that starts when someone wants more specific information about how they can apply those tools and practices to their specific situation.

You can count on me

Proving your reliability is the second essential part of giving value and building authority. When people come to you for help, in the context of your business, you should always give them a basic answer that they can use to solve their problem. And give that answer for free (there is the value again).

Obviously, creating a detailed solution would be a business matter for negotiation, but a simple description of the tools or service that the person can use to solve their problem doesn’t cost you anything while it helps your relationship grow. In fact, the possibility of doing business with this person is directly proportional to the usefulness of your answer.

Why Network?

To build your business, that’s why.

1. Give value.
2. Showcase authority.
3. Prove reliability.

Follow these three steps when you meet new people, and your business will grow.