Every savvy brand knows that they need an elevator speech – that quick conversation blurb that hooks in the person who just asked you one of two questions (or both):  What do you do? What does your company do?

Sounds easy enough. It’s not. Trust me. I write one every few weeks for a different brand. Here are some stumbling blocks you might come across as you try to craft the perfect elevator speech.

1. It sounds too stiff. Sounded great when you wrote it down. Now read it aloud. Doesn’t sound so great anymore, does it? Time to rework. This time pretend you’re a human. Talking to another human. And go.
2. You’re saying too much. It’s an elevator speech for a reason. You’re supposed to be able to say it when you’re talking to someone in an elevator. You can’t be everything to everyone, and you don’t have time to be. This is the essence of your brand, not your company brochure. Cull it down. Sometimes we write a “two-floor” speech in addition to the main one. Sometimes it becomes the main one. (Even better.)
3. Lack of flexibility. While the essence of your brand needs to be communicated through every person and every communication piece your company puts out, people say things in different ways. Some things that sound perfectly normal coming out of a business owner’s mouth sound downright arrogant coming out of an employee’s mouth. You can nip this in the bud by using elevator bullet points instead of an elevator speech.
4. Too much flexibility. On the other side of the coin, if you don’t give your team at least a little guidance on what to say or the top three bullet points they need to hit during casual conversation, you will have conflicting information going out about your brand. And that can be deadly.
5. You’re fooling yourself. Know who you are and what you are capable of doing. If your elevator speech does not match up with what your product, brand or company can actually deliver, people will soon realize this. And they’ll Tweet about it to all their friends.
6. You forgot to practice. The more you say it, the better it will sound. Practice with your spouse. Better yet, practice with your dog or cat – they’re much less critical and you won’t annoy them if you do it over and over again. Make sure your whole team does this.
7. Garlic. You ate it for lunch and didn’t have a mint afterward. Now you can’t recite your elevator speech because no one even asked you the question to begin with. Way to go. Carry Altoids or Binaca with you at all times, please.

Good luck. Here’s to hitting all the right buttons.