The follow-up phone pitch can consist of either: (1) a brief (up to 30 seconds or so) message left on your targeted audience’s voicemail; (2) a short (several minutes) conversation that results in a formal ask for the interview or presentation that you may have mentioned in a previous elevator and/or conference pitch; or (3) a longer conversation (5-15 minutes or more) that allows you to
make a full pitch of your product, concept, idea, etc.
For this assignment, you’ll write a script, practice it, and then use it to perform a 30-second voicemail follow-up phone pitch. But before you start this assignment, be sure to read and watch the assigned materials. In particular, read the article, “The Follow-Up Phone Pitch, and Why You Need to Prepare For It” (http://bit.ly/PhonePitch). A significant part of your grade will be based on how well your follow-up phone pitch follows the guidelines found in that article.
Complete the assignment by doing the following:
1. Read/Watch the assigned materials, particularly “The Follow-Up Phone Pitch, and Why
You Need to Prepare For It” (http://bit.ly/PhonePitch).
2. Write a script to re-introduce yourself and follow up on your previous elevator pitch.
3. Seek feedback from friends, family, colleagues, etc. on your script and refine it
accordingly.
4. Practice presenting your script. Practice in front of another person. Practice by creating recordings and reviewing them for improvement.
5. Create a final audio recording of your follow-up phone pitch voicemail message up to 30 seconds. (You can make this as a “blank” video with the lens covered.) Because there will be no video portion, you’re welcome to read your script, but it should sound
natural and not like you’re reading it. The recording should be done in one take, meaning that you can’t do the recording in portions and then edit them together.
6. Post the audio (or “blank” video) recording on YouTube and make sure the settings are set to “unlisted” (not “public” or “private”) so that it can ONLY be accessed with the URL you provide. (If you would like other people to be able to find your video via the
YouTube search function, you are welcome to list it with the “public” setting, but this is NOT a requirement.).
7. Test the recording to make sure it works. After logging out of YouTube, test the link so that you know it works when you’re not logged in.
8. Provide the following information using the Assignment Dropbox on Blackboard:
a. Your name;
b. The target of your follow-up phone pitch voicemail message (your boss, the
owner of a business, the VP of Sales, a manager from the mobile technology
industry, or whomever else you’re targeting);
c. The purpose of your voicemail phone pitch;
d. The URL of your video/audio recording (be sure that the URL works prior to submitting the assignment; you can set the video to “unlisted” so that only those with the URL can see it, but do NOT set it to “private” or I won’t be able to see it and it will receive a zero grade or be counted late when the correct settings are implemented and the correct URL submitted);
e. Write down three aspects or areas in which you improved your individual skills by completing this project as a whole. Discuss each aspect with at least one sentence per aspect.
9. The assignment is due by the date shown in the Assignment Dropbox.