How to Perfect Your Personal Elevator Pitch in 3 Easy Steps

Melissa Harris is a newspaperwoman-turned-marketing-exec who has perfected her elevator pitch and wants to help you perfect yours as well.

InterimExecs Chief Executive Officer Robert Jordan knows that the thousands of interim and fractional executives he has spoken with over the years need this. In fact, Jordan needed it himself. So he invited Harris, CEO of M. Harris & Co. to a Zoom chat during which she offered a Master Class on how executives can be far more effective in talking about themselves.

Here’s her 3-step approach to introducing yourself in a short, powerful, memorable way.

Step 1: Open Strong

This requires an active, powerful verb and a short, punchy sentence.

One of her favorites: Kevin Pang stops thumbs from scrolling.

And then there’s Jordan, who matches interim executives with companies that need short-term help.

“There’s an active verb. You ‘match,’” she tells Bob during their chat.

In her 2024 book, Everybody Needs an Editor: The Essential Guide to Clear and Effective Writing, Harris and co-author Jenn Bane, call the elevator speech “a short story about yourself.” It needs to be so short that it can be finished in the amount of time it takes for a short elevator ride.

Too often — like 99.5 percent of the time — Jordan says, interims fail this test. They’re great operating executives, but they need help describing themselves. He tells them the potential client has seen their credentials. So when a potential employer says “Tell me about yourself,” they just want to hear that person’s best elevator pitch.

But too often, Jordan says, interim job seekers start talking … and don’t stop. They will relate stories from their many years of experience from project management to the C-suite. They will say, “Let me tell you about the time I did this, and let me tell you about the time I did that.”

People don’t want to hear about every step along your career path or every bit of your work experience. But they do want to hear a “short story about yourself.”

Step 2: Prove It

The perfect elevator pitch compels whoever you are speaking with to ask a follow-up question. This is where you “prove” the claim you made in that strong open.

Harris, who teaches a class at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, says one of her students offered this opening statement: ‘I’m solving one of the biggest challenges in the world by driving performance improvement in current operations.’”

It offers a strong first impression — if he can back it up. How does he do that? By offering details.

“What performance improvements in operations have you actually made? What have you changed? How much revenue has been generated from that or money saved? How many fewer people are needed? How much more efficient is it? Did it win an internal award?

“Prove. Show. Don’t tell,” she says.

Step 3: Cut the Jargon

That same Booth business student added this to his bio: He’s “incubating strategic initiatives.”

“I have no idea what that means,” Harris says.

Jargon is the language that only people in your industry speak and understand. In this case, only people with an MBA understand what “incubating strategic initiatives” means. Maybe.

A more effective elevator pitch allows you “to introduce yourself to a wide swath of people, not just people who have your same degrees or who go to the same conferences. You want to matter to more people. And in order to do that, you have to cut out the language that only people in your industry understand,” Harris says.

Whether your target audience is a recruiter at a job interview, colleagues at a professional networking event, or hiring managers at a small business or nonprofit in need of an interim CEO, a good elevator pitch is key to your personal brand. And your personal brand is the sales pitch that allows you to build your network.

Great Elevator Pitch Examples

I’m Melissa Harris and it’s my job to make you unforgettable.

I’m Robert Jordan and I have talked with thousands of interim executives and tens of thousands of company founders.

I’m Kevin Pang and I stop thumbs from scrolling.

Read More:

Anatomy of a Business Turnaround: A Master Class with Paul Fioravanti

Do You Really Need a Chief Technology Officer If You Are Not Running a Tech Company?

________

Is your organization in need of new leadership? Reach out to InterimExecs CEO Robert Jordan to hear more about what he has learned from talking with tens of thousands of company founders and how an InterimExecs RED Team member can help lead your organization into the future.