6 Steps To Creating A Winning Elevator Pitch To Attract Investors To Your Fashion Brand

Imagine you find yourself in an elevator with a serial investor in startups and you have just about 30 seconds to sell your fashion brand to that person, what will you say? How will you make your business attractive enough to catch the attention of this investor?

This is why an elevator pitch is important. With an elevator pitch, you can be sure that you are never caught off guard when the opportunity arises for you to sell your fashion brand to potential investors. This could happen in an elevator, a networking event, or even a cocktail dinner.

What Is An Elevator Pitch?

An elevator pitch is a short but precise description of an idea, product, or company. It is meant to be persuasive enough to spark interest in what your organisation (or fashion brand) does. An elevator pitch can also be used to create interest in yourself, but we will be focusing on elevator pitch fro startup today.

Ideally, an elevator pitch should be shorter than an elevator ride, which means it should be done in 30 seconds or less. At the end of your elevator pitch, the investor should be curious to know more about your startup.

“An easy way to think of your pitch is as an executive summary that provides a quick overview of your business and details why you are going to be successful.” – Noah Parsons.

Your elevator pitch should be interesting, memorable, and concise. It should also explain what makes your fashion brand and the products you sell unique.

Steps To Creating A Winning Elevator Pitch

1. Introduce Yourself

The first step in creating an elevator pitch is to introduce yourself. You cannot just walk up to someone and start talking about your business without first introducing yourself. Who are you? What do you do? 

For example, ‘I am Joy Chris, Creative Director at “Beauty For Ashes.”

2. Explain What you Do

Next, explain what your company does. Let them know what exactly it is your fashion label is about. What’s the mission of your fashion brand? Keep this as short as possible.

3. Talk About the Problems your Fashion Brand Solves

Every successful fashion business has to solve a problem in society. Let investors know exactly what problem your fashion brand solves in the shortest possible way. Let them know the benefit your fashion brand offers.

Identify the value your fashion brand offers to your clients or customers.

4. Highlight your USP

Identify what makes your fashion brand stand out of the crowd. Here, you want to communicate your unique selling point (USP) to the potential investor. For an investor to want to invest in your fashion brand there has to be something unique and different about it.

What are you doing better than your competitors? What strategies do you apply to your fashion business that makes you better? How do you solve the problem you see in society better than others? Your elevator pitch must communicate your USP as effectively as possible.

5. Engage with a Question

After you have communicated your USP you need to engage your audience. To avoid your elevator pitch being a monologue, ask questions that will interest the investor.  Ask a question that relates to the investor and fashion brand. 

6. Put it All Together

When you have written out content for all of the sections, put them all together. When it’s all together, look for ways to cut down on unnecessarily long sentences and ways to better describe something.

Read your pitch out loud and use a stopwatch to time how long it takes. Remember, your elevator pitch should be about 30 seconds long. The pitch needs to be short and compelling and catch the attention of the investor.

Extra Tips In Creating Your Elevator Pitch

1. Keep it Simple

Remember, the goal is to catch attention so keep it simple. Do not use industry jargon in talking to the investor. Make every statement relatable and in layman’s terms. 

2. Be Prepared to Answer Questions

You are supposed to be knowledgable in your niche, so, you should be ready to answer whatever question is thrown at you. 

3. Go Over your Pitch Multiple Times

As they say, ‘Practice makes perfect.’. You need to practice your elevator pitch over and over again till you get it right. You can practice with family and friends or with a business partner.

You know how in going for a job interview, the interviewer will most likely ask you to ‘Tell me about yourself.’ if you have not practiced it, you’re most likely not going to be able to answer that question right. The same goes for an elevator pitch. Practice till you get it right.

4. Keep in Touch

After your elevator pitch, you can hand over your business card or ask if you can visit the investor at his office. Keeping in touch is a very important part of getting the investor to invest in your fashion business. 

With the above steps and tips in writing and delivering an elevator pitch, you should be able to present the perfect pitch to get your fashion brand an investor.