Why You Need a Million-Dollar Pitch Before Your Start a Business You're not ready to launch your business until you can explain in 20 seconds or less how it helps someone.

This article is included in Entrepreneur Voices on Elevator Pitches, a new book containing insights from both sides of the board room to help you craft the perfect pitch. Buy it online from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | IndieBound

I would argue that you should not try to start a business until you can clearly articulate how you help people in a pitch. Pitching is vital to your success so it makes sense that you need to master it before you can launch a business. Why? It forces you to focus on what you can do right now and what problem you solve in the marketplace. It's the value of your business in just a few words.

You will need to pitch your product, idea, or service to:

• Turn strangers into customers
• Attract investment partners
• Hire new employees

Before anyone is going to do business with you, you have to get attention. A million dollar pitch is a short commercial that will attract attention and make the benefits of your company tangible to a customer. It should be 20 seconds or less and help the person take an immediate interest in what you do. It's a simple statement with a specific goal.

Related: 'Shark Tank's' Lori Greiner on the Do's and Don'ts of Pitching

How much time have you invested perfecting your pitch?

If you're saying to yourself right now that what you do is "too complicated" to put in a few words, you probably lack clarity about what you're doing. It might also be a sign you're only thinking about making money instead of how you can add value to others.

A lot of people cannot articulate their value in a few words.

There are so many distractions out there, so you need a well-crafted pitch to cut through all the noise. People call me all the time on my shows with long-winded explanations about their business. When you're pitching, no one wants to hear about your company history. I don't say that to be disrespectful, but because it's just the truth. You have to give someone a reason to want to ask more about you -- that's what a good pitch does. The other party knows the immediate benefit and whether it's big enough for them to want to learn more.

Related: Pitching to Sharks: 7 Ways to Get the Attention and Respect of Investors During a Pitch

What can you do right now?

Have you ever thought "I could do that too" when you hear about someone doing a particular activity to become successful? I always laugh when people tell me stories like this. Let's agree that you can learn anything. Here's my question: is your idea something that you could do if you learned it or is it something that you can do right now?

Before you can be successful, you have to base what you do in your reality. Ask yourself what you can do right now, not what you could do in the future. Unless you're planning a career change, assess your income-producing skills that you currently have and center your pitch around that.

Related: Why This Entrepreneur Raised Millions More Than He Originally Planned

What problem does this solve?

After you figure out what your skill is, you have to ask what problem it solves. If a lot of people are having the same problem then it could be a great idea for a business. Who is your audience? Who do you already know in the marketplace that already needs your product, that wants your product? Most likely it's not going to be people around your street corner. Look for a market that already exists and see how what you do can help that market.

Related: Shark Tank's Barbara Corcoran Shares Her Secret to Pitching Success

Putting it together.

Now that you have a business idea based on these two requirements, create a 20 second or less commercial out of it. The shorter the better. Most people just string something together without much thought. It's your job to create a powerful statement that makes it impossible for someone not to want to learn more about you.

Here's one of my pitches "My company increases sales by 15 to 20 percent and we'll do that in less than 14 days." Look how it's based on something that I can do right now and that solves a problem for a large group of people. Do you think that my prospective customer would be interested in what I have to say after they hear this pitch? I've used it many times so I can answer for you -- yes!

Related: This Woman's Family Couldn't Afford a Computer. Now She Oversees a $100 Million Investment Fund.

Is your pitch effective?

What kind of response are you getting from your pitch? Are you getting people to take action or ask more questions? Aside from creating a compelling pitch, it has to be practiced to be effective. Why do you think I wrote the Closer's Survival Guide? It's a training manual for closing -- it's essentially a bunch of pitches with the goal of closing the customer. I wrote them out and train them all the time. That's what a lot of people miss. They could have killer pitch but are horrible at delivering them. You will only sell someone on your pitch if you train, drill and practice it until it's second nature.

Related: Closing the Deal: 6 Savvy Entrepreneurs Share Their Secrets

3 tips for pitches.

Clarify Your Goal: What is the purpose of your pitch? To have a successful pitch, you need to clarify your goal. Do you want the other party to sign a contract, agree to a meeting or sign up for your email list? If your goal is clear, then it's much easier to create a pitch that serves that purpose.

Ask for Attention: You'll have to get the full attention of the person before they will listen to your pitch. Never start your pitch before you ask them if you can share what you do. The best way to do this is to simply ask them. If you're in an elevator ask, "can you give me your attention for the next 20 floors?"

Make It Memorable: A pitch is not an explanation of how your business operates or your company history -- it's a well-constructed value statement and it has to be BIG. You need to wow the customer and you're not going to do that if your pitch is dull. It has to hit hard using a big claim. If you use my pitch as an example, it has a quantifiable result for the customer. That's a good strategy to use. Show exactly how you can help that person. I always say show me don't tell me.

Building a business one person at a time.

Remember that strangers have everything that you want. Using a well-crafted pitch is the best way to introduce yourself to someone because you created it to get attention. It's your job to make them interested in you. You must network and make your contacts grow so you can grow your business.

Promote and market yourself using your pitch 24/7. The better it is, the more attention you'll get. Don't be like everyone else and "start a business" before you have created a million-dollar pitch. I can tell you from experience that if you follow these simple steps, you'll have a better business and will be able to sell more people on your ideas. Let me know how this strategy works for your business.