Codie’s Corner: Mastering Your Elevator Pitch

We’ve recently discussed how to sell yourself as a travel agent, which is important as you talk to people about what you do. However, now we need to take it a step further and work on shortening this description for instances when you need to get your point across in a short amount of time.

What you need to work on is an elevator pitch. The reason it’s called an elevator pitch is because it’s supposed to only take as long as an elevator ride to deliver, which is usually less than a minute or two.

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A short speech about your agency will come in handy when you’re at trade shows interacting with several people throughout the day and at social events when you have opportunities to discuss your job in casual conversation.

You never know when you’ll run into a potential client—it could happen when you least expect it. Instead of excitedly stumbling over your words trying to explain how awesome your agency is, be prepared and have a short elevator pitch you can pull out of your back pocket.

Being brief is key, but also confident and intriguing. You want to give the person just enough information that they are interested in working with you, but not too much that you overwhelm them with unnecessary rambling.

This most likely won’t be too difficult, but the first thing you’ll want to keep in mind is sounding excited when talking about what you do. If you’re not excited, there’s no way the person standing next to you is going to be.

You’ll also want to keep it personal. Instead of talking generally about what travel agencies do, talk about yourself specifically and why you are a great agent to work with. If you’re working at a trade show and there are several companies for your potential client to choose, you’ll want to make sure they’ll have something to remember you by.

If you’re struggling with what to include in your speech, try asking yourself a few questions.

What makes your agency special? Is it family-owned? Has it been around a while and withstood the test of time? And what about you—why do you love to travel so much? Was there a life-changing trip you took that made you a world traveler?

Try to think about a few key points that make your job interesting. Think about the various hotel and cruise representatives that you work closely with, the insider information you receive from different sources and the promotion codes you receive that allow you to provide discounts for your VIP clients.

It’s also fun to talk about your niche market if you have one. Whether it’s a specific destination such as the Caribbean, Europe or maybe a theme park like Disney World or a type of travel you specialize in like honeymoons, family travel or adventure travel.

Brainstorm these topics and write down a few key points you think are necessary to be included in your elevator pitch, and then put them together in a few sentences.

You’ll want to practice your pitch on family and friends to make sure you’re comfortable using it in conversation and also to receive feedback in order to improve it. Keep in mind your elevator pitch might change over time as your role as travel advisor develops and grows.