Post a JobWelcome to the 60 Second Pitch
What is a 60 Second Pitch?
A 60 Second Pitch is just what it sounds like.
For 60 seconds, you'll be pitching your services, letting everyone know who you are, what exactly it is that you do and how your product or service can make a difference in the lives of other people and positively affect how others do business.
A 60 Second Pitch, also known as the "Elevator Pitch" is a quick and precise verbal presentation of a need that people have and why they should be fulfilling that need through you. The name Elevator Pitch comes from the amount of time you have to impress someone on the way to the top floor when seeking out investment from venture capitalists in ritzy metropolitan offices.
Within that precious minute, you need to not only convey who you are, what you do, and how your business is the perfect fit for a market or niche, but you also need to share that information convincingly, intelligibly, and with passion while not appearing blatantly salesy.
Communicating the message itself is a challenge. That's why the team at Voices.com is here to help you to prepare for your pitch and put your best foot forward.
How to Write a 60 Second Pitch
While there isn't a universal method of delivering a pitch, there are aspects that should be included in a pitch meant to attract new customers, a buyer, or investment.
When it comes to putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, the first things you'll need to consider when starting your pitch is who your audience is, what their pain is, and how you can alleviate that pain for them. If there is no pain, there is no sale. Without a need waiting to be met, your services have no place. Figure out whom you are targeting in this pitch and also why they particularly need what you have to offer.
Once you have identified your audience and their needs, highlight a way that your services can fulfill that need and create a better quality of life for the people who could benefit from what you do.
Starting off with a brief story that your audience can relate to is a good tactic for opening a pitch but there is no one formula that you can follow as everyone is different and so are their objectives. Some people open with famous quotations with hopes to establish instant credibility by association with the person quoted.
Speaking of quotations, Donald Trump once revealed the following about 60 Second Pitches:
"They have to be enthusiastic, succinct and fast"
In other words, in addition to the fact that you need to have a presence and an interesting argument presented, you also have to identify the problem or a need (the pain) that you are solving and the benefit quickly in order to keep people listening and engaged. Getting to the point as it were right away also provides the audience member with all of the qualifiers up front and lets them know whether or not what you have to say for the remaining time is either going to be of use or interest to them.
Helpful Tips
Generally, a pitch should be about 150 words or so depending on how you pace yourself. It's a comfortable amount of words that you can commit to memory or adlib from in public. So long as you have a few key points that you want to hit on and can remember those key points, you should be good to go regardless of if the entire pitch is memorized.
By keeping your verbiage uplifting and positive, you'll be able to achieve the objectives you want to reach without introducing any negativity or dampening the mood. Use words that instill confidence like When, I can, I will, I am and so on.
When you are compiling your pitch, be conscious of how you are coming across and test it out on a few people who you know will tell you the truth. It may take several attempts to tweak the pitch to meet the criteria that will be judged and also present your business in the best, most distilled manner.
At the end of your pitch, people should be left with a clear idea of what it is that you do and ask follow up questions that delve deeper into what you presented with the potential for an interview or meeting to discuss more about your business and how you can be of service to them.
Things To Avoid
Avoid using words that imply doubt like Not, If, Maybe, Perhaps, I think, Somewhat, or Likely.
Another point to keep in mind, especially for those of you who wear production hats, is to keep the tech talk to a minimum and really emphasize what you as a person can do for another person who needs your services. A pitch should be clear and to the point, easily understood by anyone in a crowd. Keep jargon on the top drawer and use layman terminology that everyone can interpret.
This is also a time for you to promote yourself not an opportunity to provide an education in a minute for those listening to your pitch about the industry as a whole, the history of voice over or any other aspect that detracts from you and your core business.
Final Thoughts
No one knows your business better than you do -- remember that.
If you've made it this far, you must be serious about doing the 60 Second Pitch. Since you are, I'd like to personally invite you to participate in a workshop we'll be holding online to help you with your pitch at Voices.com. You can signup to join the webinar "Preparing your 60 Second Pitch" at voices.webex.com
How to Submit
To participate in the 60 Second Pitch, all you need to do is send an MP3 recording (performed by you) to 60secondpitch@voices.com along with your complete contact information. This contest is open to everyone in the voice over industry. There are very few rules, but I'd like to take the time to address the rules that are in place now:
• Keep your content clean. Consider your pitch as family friendly for a general audience.
• Sponsors may not enter as participants.
• Voices.com has the unlimited, non-exclusive right to use your submitted MP3 on our website during the contest or for promotional use.
• Deadline for entries: July 20th, 2007
• Winners Announced: July 27th, 2007 via the VOX Talk Podcast
