We’ve all been in that fun place: at a cocktail party or meeting, sitting on an airplane or train – or even at the kid’s soccer game – and someone asks, “So what do you do?” There are plenty of things you could say in this situation, but because the question sometimes presents an opportunity for business development, it can be helpful to be prepared with a thoughtful response.

While this conversation rarely takes place in an elevator, the response to this question has sometimes been described as an ‘elevator pitch’ because it should summarize what you do in the time it would take to ride up in an elevator with someone – about 30 seconds. Ideally, it should also help to start an interesting conversation.