Your Political Elevator Pitch, Key To Getting Selected & Winning Elections
Fancy getting into politics and don’t know where to start? Looking to get selected as a Conservative MP? If you’re a candidate, what’s the secret to getting support?
Your Political Elevator Pitch; What Are You Saying?
Your elevator pitch is your own sales pitch: it explains who you are, what you do and what you bring to the table. In terms of a Parliamentary career it can be either spoken or written down and, ideally, it should contain as much detail as possible in as fewer words as possible. – Which catches enough attention and sticks in peoples minds so they can spread the word about you for you.
In general a political elevator pitch is a loose script you can use when you meet someone with the potential to make or break your future and hopeful full parliamentary career.
People are more cynical than ever – and most candidates who knock on doors will repeatedly hear the same responses – “You are all the same….No good the lot of you…You are all in it for yourselves.”
It needs some serious thought to clarify, articulate, hone and deliver your stories, your motivations and your principles but it is well worth doing. (If you need help, why don’t you consider my Getting Selected Course or Getting Re-elected Course which includes preparing for your Elevator Pitch.)
There are a few key factors to keep in mind when creating your superstar sales or political career making elevator pitch:
- It mustn’t sound like you’re reading from a script. In fact there shouldn’t be a script – it should focus on you and your It’s essential to focus your pitch around a few central points – three at most.
- It should never sound like a sales pitch. An effective elevator pitch won’t seem like a pitch at all. Ensure that you’re describing what you do and what your USP is.
- It should be tailored to your audience. The contents of your political elevator pitch should be flexible and suit the person or group you’re talking to, whether that’s fellow candidates, MP’s, your local association, the press or the public.
- It should be short, to the point and relevant. A political elevator pitch shouldn’t be longer than thirty seconds or you’ll start to bore the probably very busy person you’re talking to.
One really important last point before you start crafting your political elevator pitch. You must ask yourself the following question:
Why should they care?
Your pitch must contain a reason for people to actually care who you are and must give them a reason to remember you. What you should also emphasise is the difference between you and your competitors.
And finally, unless you want to be forgotten like many wannabe candidates, you must give the audience something to take away with them, a soundbite, a nugget of gold, so they can start doing the advocating for you. The Americans call this a “takeway”.
You will never meet everyone in your patch – so you have to convert the people who meet you into salespeople or referrals – people who say that they have met you, that they liked you and that you told them X, Y and Z. It is important that what you say is simply put and crystal clear so that if you have said X, Y and Z – that is what people hear and retell – not their version or their spin.
