Six Simple And Irresistible Alternatives To The Elevator Pitch

“The purpose of the pitch isn’t necessarily to move others to adopt your idea, it’s to offer something so compelling it begins a conversation,” according to New York Times bestselling author, Daniel H. Pink. I recently talked to Pink about his new book, To Sell is Human, The Surprising Truth About Moving Others.

Pink says that today there more opportunities than ever to get your message out. Yet the traditional elevator metaphor of pitching (the 30 second pitch) is in need of a tune-up, especially in the digital marketplace of ideas.

Pink and I talked about his “six successors to the elevator pitch.” You might want to consider some of these before pitching your next idea, product, company, or cause. The six alternatives are:

The one-word pitch. “The ultimate pitch for an era of short attention spans begins with a single word,” says Pink. When someone says ‘search,’ you probably think of Google. When someone says ‘priceless,’ you might think of MasterCard. Pink believes it’s a good exercise to think about the one word that defines your brand. This even applies to a personal brand. For example, the one word that defined president Barack Obama in 2008 was ‘hope.’ According to Pink, “Reducing your point to a single word demands discipline and forces clarity.”

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