If you attend networking events, you know that if you can’t quickly and effectively explain what your company does, you end up with a lot of people turning their heads to see who they’d like to meet next. Putting together a winning elevator pitch, a short, engaging introduction that includes your company’s value proposition, isn’t hard. And the payoff in terms of new business can be huge. Don’t blow it. Here are five things to keep in mind when putting together your pitch:

1. Get to the point--Start with something that grabs their attention, then explain how you solve your customers’ problems. What are the benefits of your product or service? Keep the focus on “you” (the customer) not “we” (your company). Don’t fill your pitch with rhetoric and jargon; try to speak like a real person instead of a spec sheet. Remember, you’re networking, you’re not on a sales call. Aim for 30 to 60 seconds.

2. Get your team on the same page--Everyone in the organization should know the company’s value proposition. Get colleagues involved in the creation process. If you can, turn it into something fun. Have a contest to make it interesting. In any case, make sure everyone knows it and is comfortable giving the pitch themselves, from the CEO to the company’s delivery people. You never know who’ll be asked what your company does.

3. Bring customers on board--There might be aspects of your service or product that your customers really like and find useful that you never considered a selling point. Do some informal interviewing of clients, or put together a short survey for customers to fill out (you can consider offering customers something in return). You’ll get valuable information for your pitch (as well as possible testimonials) and your clients will see that you don’t take their business for granted and are looking for ways to meet their needs.

4. Keep it alive--Once you get the pitch developed, discuss the importance of it within the company and reiterate its importance every month or so. Often, people will use the pitch for a while, but then forget, or get lazy, and you end up with a myriad of different pitches that may or may not reflect the spirit of the original. Include parts of the value proposition in newsletters, on T-shirts and buttons, and discuss it in company meetings. When situations change within the company, don’t forget to update your pitch.

5. Adapt to the networking situation--Give the person you’re speaking with a break and let him or her know there’s a real live human being behind the pitch. No one wants to hear a pitch that sounds like it’s read off a cue card. Tailor the pitch to the person you’re speaking with. Make it exciting and make sure your passion for the company and its products or services comes through. If you’re not enthused, don’t expect the person you’re pitching to be.