7 ways to screw up your elevator pitch

Not too long ago in a land very close by, I was giving my elevator pitch. I watched, horrified, as my elevator buddy’s eyes glazed over just as I went into my spiel about algorithms, psychographics, and massive amounts of social data.

I thought I was educating this man into buying my services. I was wrong.

The man—and probably 99.99 percent of other business owners out there—don’t want to be educated about what you do. That’s why they’re hiring you: so they don’t have to learn the arduous processes and procedures around what you or your company does.

Thankfully, soon after my startling realization I had a webinar with Infusionsoft, our CRM, about elevator pitches.

There are actually seven ways you can really muck up your pitch (including my method, No. 4):

1. The opera singer: Me, Me, Me, Meeeeeee. No, that’s not an opera singer warming up; it’s the salesperson talking about him- or herself constantly. Yawn, I’m bored. Maybe I should have taken the stairs.