By Adam L. Stock

Mr. Stock is Director of Marketing and Business Development at Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory and Natsis LLP in San Francisco. He has been a business development and marketing professional for 20 years and been recognized by Sales and Marketing Magazine as "Sales and Marketing Pioneer" for his work in law firms. He can be reached at 415.273.7437 and astock@allenmatkins.com.

When you meet a potential client, how do you convey who you are? What you do? And why they should care? And how do you convey it in a concise and intriguing way that will start a conversation? This short conversation starter is often called an “elevator pitch.”

According to Wikipedia, “An elevator pitch (or elevator speech) is a brief overview of an idea for a product, service or project. The pitch is so called because it can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (say, thirty seconds or 100-150 words).”

In the movie Working Girl, the heroine literally conveyed her idea in during an elevator ride to get the boss’ attention and get the promotion to her dream job. While the term is most commonly used in the context of entrepreneurs pitching their ideas to venture capitalists, it is equally relevant to service professionals pitching their services or their unique skills.

A good elevator pitch should answer the following questions (not necessarily in this order):

1. What is my service, product, company or cause?
2. What problem do I solve?
3. How am I different?
4. Why should you care?

Getting the conversation started

Many people deliver ineffective elevator pitches because they try to deliver too much information and “close the deal.” In truth, the purpose of the elevator pitch is to intrigue the audience to get a conversation started. Elevator pitches need to be customized to the person you are pitching. What is compelling to a venture capitalist may not be compelling to a city planner. Here are some guidelines:

1.   Have a hook

The primary goal of an elevator pitch is to intrigue someone to learn more. Like that novel you buy on impulse at the airport, the first sentence has to grab you. One way to do that is to highlight the importance of the problem you are tackling…

“With the outsourcing of manufacturing, protection of intellectual property is the leading legal issue for U.S. technology companies. My firm helps technology companies…”

“California’s new climate change regulations, which are a blueprint for those in other states and at the federal level, have affected every aspect of real estate development and have caused delays in major development projects in big cities. My firm helps developers…”

2. Don’t make me think too hard

Tell the person you are pitching exactly what you and firm does in a straightforward manner. “Allen Matkins helps developers with every aspect of their projects from building them quickly to running them profitably. We help with everything from finance, joint ventures, regulatory and construction issues to leasing and operating agreements.”

3. Establish credibility. Name dropping allowed.

It is important to establish credibility, so name dropping is allowed to establish experience and pedigree. In Toyota ads, Toyota doesn’t tell us how great they are, they tell us how great J.D. Powers thinks they are.

“Our firm has been named the leading California Real Estate firm for six years running by Chambers and Partners.”

“Our wage-and-hour expert has handled this issue for some of the largest companies including Microsoft and Oracle and is consulted as an expert by the New York Times and CNBC.”

4. Show your passion.

Be passionate about what you are talking about. If you are passionate about what we're doing and how we are helping clients, that passion will be communicated.

© 2008 PBDI/SAGE PDI. This article comes from the September 2008 Issue of ORIGINATE!, the online monthly newsletter (with ongoing support resources) dedicated to helping individual lawyers develop business successfully in order to build their careers. The contents of this anniversary issue are complimentary; otherwise articles are usually available to subscribers only. Find out more about subscribing at www.pbdi.org/originate.