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An elevator pitch, as the name suggests, is a brief 30 to 60 second “speech” describing your company, product, or services. It should quickly grab the audience’s attention and interest them enough to want to learn more. Mastering the art of an elevator pitch is a crucial skill for entrepreneurs and professionals.
This comprehensive guide will teach you how to craft an irresistible elevator pitch and deliver it effectively.
What is an Elevator Pitch and Why You Need One
An elevator pitch, also known as an elevator speech, is your opportunity to make a stellar first impression. Picture yourself sharing an elevator ride with the CEO of a company you would love to work with or an investor who could provide key funding for your startup. How would you introduce yourself and convey the value you offer?
Here are the key reasons you need to perfect your elevator pitch:
- Grabs attention instantly – You only have a 30 second window. A strong opening hook is vital.
- Explains your key selling points – Summarize the core offering/benefit you provide
- Positions you as an expert – Demonstrate your capabilities and credibility
- Starts a conversation – Sparks interest to continue the dialogue
- Creates opportunities – Leads to meetings, partnerships, investment
In today’s fast-paced business world, you need to be armed with a snappy elevator pitch for networking events, conferences, job interviews, and chance encounters.
How Long Should an Elevator Pitch Be?
Aim for a 30 to 60 second elevator speech. If it’s much longer, you risk losing the listener’s attention. Anything shorter than 30 seconds usually cannot convey enough relevant information to make an impact.
The time constraint requires you to focus only on the most essential details. Here is a breakdown of how to effectively utilize that brief window:
- First 10 seconds – Throw out an intriguing opening line or statistic to capture interest straight away.
- Next 20 seconds – Provide an overview explaining key details about you/company and the problem you solve.
- Final 20-30 seconds – Close with a call-to-action, request, or question to continue the conversation.
How to Write an Elevator Pitch: Template and Tips
Follow this proven framework when crafting your elevator pitch:
1. Open With an Intriguing Introduction
The first impression is everything. You need to say something memorable that demands attention within the first 10 seconds.
Approaches to open strongly include:
- Throwing out an impressive statistic
- Making a thought-provoking statement
- Asking a compelling question
- Sharing an interesting insider factoid
Here are some examples:
“Did you know that close to 400,000 businesses get started each month?”
“Imagine if you could reach your target audience with 100x more relevant web content.”
“Have you found it’s impossible to scale customer service as quickly as you‘d like?”
2. Explain Your Offering
The next 20 seconds are about educating your audience about your product, service, skills or experience. Share details on:
- The problem you solve
- Your solution and how it works
- The key benefits you offer
- What makes you different?
For example, an HR SaaS startup founder might say:
“My company offers an AI chatbot to automate basic HR queries from employees about payroll, time-off requests, company policies and more. This immediately resolves employee questions and frees HR staff to focus on more strategic priorities. What separates our solution is it continues learning and adapting to each company’s preferences using machine learning algorithms.”
3. End With a Call-To-Action
The final 20-30 seconds is the close. Leave them wanting more by:
- Posing an intriguing open-ended question
- Extending a meeting invitation
- Offering a free trial of your software
- Providing a call to action to visit your website
For example, “I’d love to learn more about the key challenges your social media team faces. Do you have 30 minutes next Tuesday to discuss over coffee?”
6 Best Practices for Delivering a Pitch
Mastering both the content and delivery of your elevator pitch is vital for making a stellar impression.
Here are proven techniques to nail it:
Practice Extensively
An elevator pitch should sound natural, not memorized. The best way to achieve that is practicing it out loud at least 20-30 times. Have friends, family or colleagues provide feedback.
Maintain Good Eye Contact
Look them in the eye rather than reading off a script. This displays confidence and helps hold their interest. But avoid staring intensely. Blink normally.
Speak Slowly and Clearly
Nervousness can tempt you to speed talk. Counter this urge. Enunciate each word clearly at a moderate pace.
Use Expressive Vocal Variety and Gestures
Bring energy to your voice, face, and body language. This dynamism engages listeners much more than a flat monotonous tone.
Exhibit Enthusiasm and Passion
It’s hard for listeners to get excited if you seem bored. Smile and tap into the passion you feel for solving the problem you outlined.
Be Concise Yet Compelling
Find the balance between packing in loads of hard-hitting details and still being brief enough to fit the tight time constraints.
Examples of Effective Elevator Pitches
The best way to understand what works (or doesn’t work) in an elevator pitch is analyzing examples across different industries.
Technology – Artificial Intelligence Assistant App
“Nearly 80% of millennials say they’re more likely to do business with brands that use the latest technologies like AI and chatbots. HiBot is an AI-powered mobile app functioning as a smart personal assistant. It schedules meetings, books travel, answers questions, manages tasks and more based on simple voice requests. Leveraging machine learning, each HiBot develops a personalized relationship with its owner to meet their needs. If you’d like to transform customer experience with leading-edge AI capabilities, I’m excited to demonstrate HiBot’s incredible business applications.”
Why It Works: Grabs attention with an intriguing stat. Explains the offering and key capability (AI/chatbot). Shares differentiating detail (personalization). Ends with a call to action.
Marketing Agency Owner
“Do you wish you could generate more leads online but don’t have the in-house expertise? I’m the founder of BrightMarketing, a boutique agency specializing in crafting branded web content, social media campaigns and pay-per-click ads tailored specifically to demonstrably boost your sales pipeline. If you invest just 5 minutes on our website, you’ll see we helped Company X increase leads by 200% in just 6 months. I’d love to discover if we could achieve similarly exciting results for your organization.”
Why It Works: Focuses on their pain point. Establishes credibility and quantifies results. Ends with a compelling CTA.
Product Designer
“I’m an award-winning product designer who has worked with leading Fortune 500 brands like Company A, Company B and Company C to launch and refine dozens of best-selling hardware and software products. My specialized process emphasizes deeply understanding customer needs first, ensuring we design every product to solve frustrations consumers experience with current inadequate solutions. This strategy has resulted in my designs directly contributing over $100 million in incremental sales. I’d jump at the chance to bring my customer-focused design philosophy to your organization.”
Why It Works: Quickly establishes impressive credentials. Explains their design approach and successes. Ends highlighting their suitability to add value.
Weak Elevator Pitch Example
“I started my company 3 years ago. We offer social media marketing services and help other companies with their Facebook ads and Instagram campaigns and stuff. We’ve done projects for some really big names you’d recognize. So yeah, that’s what we do. Let me know if you want to talk more.”
Why It’s Weak: No hook. Details are vague rather than persuasive. Misses opportunities to convey credibility. No effective call-to-action.
Tools to Get Feedback and Improve Your Pitch
It often requires many rounds of refinements before your elevator pitch feels polished. Leverage these resources to solicit objective third-party assessments:
- Toastmasters Meetings: Practice delivering your pitch and get feedback
- Local Networking Events: Chance to give your pitch trial runs
- Online Communities: Reddit, Quora, LinkedIn Groups to request critiques
- Friends/Family: Ask for constructive criticism from people you trust
With an irresistible elevator pitch and some targeted networking, exciting opportunities are sure to come knocking!
