Talk in an Elevator Day: How to Perfect Your Elevator Pitch for Networking Events

Networking at an event is a fantastic way to meet new people and like-minded individuals, creating connections and fostering professional relationships. 

Attending a networking event puts you in a room full of other business professionals from all industries, but ensuring that you make sure the time is well spent is important, which is where the perfect elevator pitch comes in.

What is an Elevator Pitch?

An elevator pitch is a brief description of yourself, where you work and your role, helping to get all of the important information across to those you are in conversation with and making those all-important connections.

An elevator pitch is an easy way to start a conversation, but how do you create the perfect pitch that grabs attention?

How to Create the Perfect Pitch

Your elevator pitch is supposed to be short and sweet, like you’re stuck in an elevator and someone has asked you the “What do you do?” question. Whilst it’s unlikely you’ll ever be stuck in an elevator making professional small talk, an elevator pitch is a great thing to have under your belt.

At the Cornwall Chamber we have hosted many business networking events, so we’ve seen a fair few elevator pitches in the works, so here’s how to write an elevator pitch.

1. Draft Your Pitch

Winging it can work sometimes, but if you attend a lot of networking events it’s best to get it down to a t for an attention-grabbing pitch that will draw in listeners.

Start by listing ten pieces of information about yourself and your job, the ten that feel the most important to you. After this, go back through and start narrowing down those items, adding extra information to the important ones you want to keep in your pitch and eliminating the extras.

2. Who, What, When, Where, Why and How

Now you have your important information listed, it’s time to start labelling them under the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How method. 

Who are you, what do you do, where you do it, when did you start, why do you do it and how does it work? You can afford to be a little picky when creating this, getting rid of the when of it all until it comes up more naturally in the conversation that stems from your pitch.

3. Add Some Interest

Structuring your elevator pitch is great to avoid forgetting any important information, but you don’t want to sound too robotic either, no matter how passionate you are about what you do.

Try adding some interesting stats or facts from your job that will grab attention, engage those you are speaking with and turn this from a pitch into a conversation.

4. Get Practising

As they always say, practice makes perfect. Start practising your pitch to ensure that when the time comes you are ready to produce a great elevator pitch that gets the ball rolling for some excellent networking conversations with other business folk in your area.

Create Your Elevator Pitch for Networking Events Today

It's time to get talking!

At the Cornwall Chamber of Commerce, our networking events are designed to bring local businesses together to help create useful opportunities. Once you've perfected your elevator pitch you can try it out at one of our networking events.