Alternatives to the Traditional Elevator Pitch

Some people think that the "elevator pitch" is "old news."  In today's world of instant communications we need something different.  Daniel Pink in his book "To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others,." has six alternative "pitches."  Try crafting your next "pitch" in one of these formats.

1.The One Word Pitch-   " the ultimate pitch for an era of short attention spans begins with one word and doesn't go any further."   " Define the one characteristic that they most want associated with their brand around the world. That is one word equity."  What technology company do you think of when you  hear the word search? (Google)What credit card company comes to mind when you hear the word "priceless"? ( Mastercard).

2. The Question Pitch- "Interrogative self talk, questions often pack a surprising punch." Think of the Reagan-Carter presidential campaign when Reagan asked, "are you better of now than you were four years ago?"

3.The Rhyming Pitch-  Remember the OJ Simpson trial and the rhyming pitch Johnny Cochran used? "If it doesn't  fit...  you must acquit"  (In reference to the murder glove in the prosecutions evidence.)

4. The Subject Line Pitch-  In email  the subject line often determines whether or not you will open the email. Construct your pitch as a subject line.

5. The Twitter Pitch-  Twitter has taught us to construct our message with 140  characters.  get even more points if you can do it in 120 characters ( leaving room to re-tweet the message)

6. The Pixar Pitch-  some of the best pitches are told as stories.  Try this format for your pitch. (do you remember "Madlibs"?)  Once upon a time______________________.

Every day_____________________ . One day_______________________________________.  Because of that________________________________.

Because of that__________________________________________. Until finally___________________________________________

I highly recommend Daniel Pink's book, "To Sell is Human:The Surprising Truth About Moving Others"  The alternative pitches is just one chapter our of a great deal of valuable material and thought.  In the book he provides additional detail and examples of each of these six alternatives.