Love in an Elevator: Grow Your Practice with a Great Elevator Pitch
Networking…It’s a word that strikes fear in the hearts of many, especially introverts, but it IS important — so much so that I spent an entire chapter of my book talking about it!
An integral part of networking is learning to describe your work and passion in a few, short sentences. This brief introduction is often called an elevator pitch because it explains your professional passion in the time it takes for an elevator to travel a floor or two—about fifteen to twenty seconds.
An elevator pitch is needed for the many situations in which you have only a short window of time to introduce yourself, from meeting a new acquaintance who asks “So what do you do?” to a formal interview that begins with “Tell me about yourself.”
The best elevator pitches quickly paint a picture, not just of what you do, but also who you are—not merely “I’m a child therapist,” but “I love to help withdrawn children connect to the world again through play therapy.”
In this one short sentence above, you can see how the speaker includes the main components of a well articulated message:
Your name (in this example we assume it’s been given)
Title (child therapist)
Preferred niche (withdrawn children)
Passion or enthusiasm for working with that population (love helping them connect)
How you can help (through play therapy)
Though it might seem simple from the outside, once you start crafting your own elevator pitch, you’ll find it can take a lot of work to discover and hone what you want to say!
Once you have a good message, you also want to deliver it well. A great book that I read in the early days of my practice was Lynn Grodzki’s groundbreaking book, Building Your Ideal Private Practice: A Guide for Therapists and Other Healing Professionals. I took to heart her tips for polishing and delivering my elevator pitch, which included:
Keep your elevator pitch short and easy—no more than three sentences.
No jargon—it must be understandable to non-professionals.
Be positive and enthusiastic. Share your passion and not your frustrations.
Focus on a specific work area that is important to you, preferably your chosen niche. Change your emphasis according to your audience. For example, if you attend an ADHD seminar hoping to attract referral sources, by all means, speak about your passion for helping children with ADHD, even if you are currently counseling couples.
Learn to love your elevator pitch. The more you practice it, the more you will believe the message and feel confident in sharing your expertise.
Don’t deliver your pitch in a boring monotone. Speak naturally, varying your speed, tone, and emphasis, or people won’t listen.
Leave time for your audience to ask questions.
Trust me, once you have an elevator pitch you love, you’ll find plenty of opportunities to use it: Group meetings where you must briefly introduce yourself, networking events where you are expected to explain what you do, public settings where you introduce yourself to an audience, and almost any social situation where people ask about your work.
You can find several example pitches, as well exercises to help you craft your own, in Chapter 8 of my book, GetReal, GetGOING: The Definitive Roadmap to Starting the Private Practice of Your Dreams.
