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Pitch your Business on June 24th 2010
Interested in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine area
If South African companies are looking for opportunities in the Limburg region or in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine they don't have to wait until participating at the trade mission in October 2010. On June 24th South African companies have the opportunity to present their company at the event at the Maastricht School of Management. Prior to the event they can send OAVM a video message, in essence an “Elevator Pitch”. It must be a maximum of one minute, including an opening, and any pertinent information about their company.
First contact
A selection of these pitches will be shown at the seminar on the 24th of June so participants at this event can see which South African companies could be interesting to them. This way the first contact can be made to establish a business interest between companies from the Limburg or Euregio Meuse-Rhine region and South African companies. OAVM will use the received business material as an input for more initiatives to come. For more information about the other initiatives between this region and South Africa to come you click here.
What is an elevator pitch?
The Elevator Pitch is a term that is bandied about often. But what is it? Is it actually something you would quickly say to an executive as you were going up in an elevator together? Well, yes and no. Your elevator pitch is your quick personal selling/request statement. It might be used if you were riding in an elevator with Bill Gates; however, there are many more likely uses such as cover letters, email introductions, mentor requests and introductions at career fairs. The elevator pitch is so important because it is the first thing that people ever hear about you.
So how do you structure an elevator pitch so that it works so well in all of these different forms? Think of your elevator pitch as a foundation on which all of the communications mentioned above are built. The key to your elevator pitch is to get the foundation right.
The pitch should be short.
The base of your pitch should take no more than one (1) minute to recite or 200 words to write
The pitch should include the following:
1) Who you are and what your business is about plus a credential. You should think of your credential as either something that differentiates you from you peers or something that establishes a relationship between you and your audience.
2) A specific objective
Get to the point quickly about what you are looking for in a company or organization and what you and your company has to offer. There is no need to soft shoe around your objective; however, your objective should be something that the person can directly facilitate either by making the decision him or herself or connecting you to someone that can get you closer to that objective.
3) Why you are the ideal business partner
This is your chance to communicate what makes you someone that your audience should consider doing business with. People typically like to do business with those that they feel will be successful with in the process. There are a couple of things you should think about when highlighting your qualifications:
industry relevance, trust, genuine interest, leadership, expertise, pedigree and impact.
4) Give the person always several options on how they can cooperate but never start asking for money. Always give at least two options. A person will often flatly turn you down if you give them one option, but if you give them several options, then they often commit to one of them. This is different than communicating your objective. As we mentioned above, the objective is the end goal; here you want to communicate how the person or company can help you in the process that leads to that end goal.
Of course in addition to your pitch relevant other business information such as folders, reviews, references you can send to us so we can help you to reach out to as much as potential business partners as we can. You can send it to our business address below at this page of via email at info@oavm.nl. All information will be treated confidential and will be not be published or used in any other way without consulting you.