Pitch Perfection

Networking should be your biggest source of business if you get the message across.

I walked into a 4Networking meeting on the 1st of August 2010. 12 years later, to the day, I bought the company. Some business people still don’t grasp the power of networking, so in this blog I’m going to offer some tips to help you make the most of networking and build your business in the way that I’ve used it to create my own coaching company The Networking Rebel.

Networking should be 80% of your marketing activity.

And it starts with your Elevator Pitch. This is the opportunity that needs to be grabbed to introduce yourself when you find yourself with someone for a short space of time. What would you say if you were in the lift with Richard Branson for forty seconds and he asks, “what do you do?”

Perfecting the pitch

Nearly every networking meeting will give you the chance to make your pitch, usually in a round of forty or sixty seconds. So, you need to make sure you stand out and give others a reason to continue the conversation. Crafting the pitch is an art form, as it needs to cover some specific areas.

• Who are you? Your name, and what your business is called.
• What problem do you solve for your customers?
• How do you do it? Give some evidence to back that up, a testimonial maybe?
• A Call to Action. What do you want them to do when they’ve heard your pitch?
• The Kiss Off. Something to remember you by. A photographer may say: “Let me shoot you”

Using your pitch

That’s a lot to pack into 40 seconds. You need to time it, practice it, and refine it, until you are word perfect and don’t need to read it off a piece of paper. That way you are looking at your audience, or the camera in an online meeting. It will boost your confidence and that will come across to your listeners. If you fumble your words, don’t worry just keep going and it will improve every time you deliver your elevator pitch. Everyone in the room has been there, and they all want you to succeed.

A few more things to think about

As if I haven’t given you enough to ponder, here’s a couple more tips to get you pitch perfect.

• Avoid props: There’s nothing more distracting from your message than starting to pull tricks out of your sleeves like a magic act, unless of course you are a magic act…
• Keep to the set time. This is your elevator pitch; you can save your business journey for later. If it’s 40 seconds, stick to that.
• And lastly… Practice. Practice, practice, practice. On a dog walk, in the shower, repeat it until you are pitch perfect and sound confident.

Over the last twelve years I have perfected a foolproof system covering a few steps that anyone can use to craft an elevator pitch that has taken me from networking novice to the owner of 4Networking. Your pitch is only the first step to networking, because it’s all for nothing if you don’t follow up afterwards. Remember that networking is 20% showing up and 80% following up. And that’s what we will look at next time…

If you’d like help getting your pitch perfect, then I’m here for you. Use my booking link to start your networking rebelution. I’ve been coaching networkers for years and making sure everyone I work with goes out into the world with a pitch they are proud of. 

I thought I would share a testimonial from one of my fabulous clients

Wow! I thought I already had a good 40 second pitch, but the session with Caroline was just amazing. She opened my eyes up to some of the things I wasn’t getting quite right and helped me come up with a fantastic new 40 second pitch which I am buzzing about and can’t wait to put into practise!

If anyone hasn’t already had a session with Caroline, I’d 100% recommend booking one – she’s FAB!

Dan Holmes