Elevator Pitch Criticisms

In her presentation on sales, Michelle Golden explains why the concept of the elevator pitch doesn't work for services. She defines the elevator speech as a pre-prepared 30-45 second statement you recite in response to the question 'what do you do?' The point of the short pitch is to make a clear case why people should be involved with what you do. However, it's a struggle to be compelling in this amount of time.

The presentation on sales describes elevator speeches as "in-person spam" that is not inviting to the person being sold to. Instead, salespeople need to deliver information in a way that's relevant to the other person. The speaker believes the elevator pitch epitomizes what's wrong with marketing today, especially outside of the product marketing world.

If what you are trying to sell is solving complex problems, you have to appeal through rapport and gain trust. Rather than making a speech to anyone in general, sales tactics need to be more relevant to the individual. The presentation on sales emphasizes not to broadcast blanket messages, especially on social media. Selling needs to be about relating, connecting and the ancient art of storytelling.