Whether or not you’re introducing your self at a networking occasion, telling new colleagues about your online business, or pitching to a different skilled — you need to seize consideration and get it quick.
In conditions like these, you want a brief and easy-to-grasp clarification of your organization and its merchandise, like an elevator pitch.
An elevator pitch — also called elevator speech — can higher introduce professionals to your organization. On this submit, we’ll focus on why you must use a pitch, focus on differing kinds, discover ways to write your personal, and provide you with tips about tips on how to make a memorable one.
In any case, the particular person(s) you are talking with would possibly transform an ideal match for your online business — or know somebody who’s.
What’s an elevator pitch?
It is a brief, memorable description of what you do and/or what you promote. The purpose is to earn a second dialog, to not persuade the particular person you are speaking to they need to rent you or purchase your answer.
An elevator pitch isn’t a possibility to shut a deal. It is a possibility to shut extra of your prospect’s consideration and time. It is a fast introduction to you, your organization, and how one can assist your prospect.
Pull it out at networking occasions, conferences, heat calls — and even job interviews or profession festivals. Maintain your elevator pitch goal-oriented (e.g., “I assist corporations like yours improve manufacturing by as much as 30% with out further price.“) and all the time finish with a enterprise card or request to attach on LinkedIn.
Keep in mind to be partaking and pleasant, and follow your pitch, so it is clear, concise, and well-paced.
In case you’re interested in what an elevator pitch ought to appear like, or just able to jumpstart the pitch creation course of, obtain the templates under. We’ve compiled a number of varieties of templates — from gross sales pitches to funding requests.
Irrespective of which sort of pitch you’re delivering, concision is important. You don’t need to waste your prospect’s, investor’s, or fellow skilled’s time. With that in thoughts, how a lot time do you have to spend on an elevator pitch? Let’s discover out.
How lengthy ought to an elevator pitch be?
An efficient elevator pitch is supposed to be not more than 30 seconds, identical to the size of time you experience in an elevator. You need to hold your phrases simply digestible, so keep away from making an attempt to get too deep into specifics as it could actually drag on the dialog — and lose your prospect’s consideration.
You need to have an efficient elevator pitch ready earlier than you want it, since you could have such a short while to ship it.
To point out your worth in underneath a minute, your pitch wants goal, circulation, and a hook to reel in consideration — all of which we’ll focus on as follows.
Find out how to Write an Elevator Pitch
How do you create an efficient elevator pitch? Let’s have a look.
1. Use elevator pitch templates.
Get your pitch began through the use of HubSpot’s easy-to-use templates. As you write your pitch, you’ll be able to alter it as required to deal with the particular wants of the recipient.
The templates embrace three various kinds of pitches: For gross sales prospects, buyers, and potential community connections. It doesn’t matter what you purpose to do together with your pitch, having a powerful beginning framework is important. Telling your or your organization’s story in lower than a minute could be a problem, and utilizing templates can assist you extra successfully hone your message.
When you’ve downloaded your templates, tailor them by following the steps under.
2. Introduce your self.
Earlier than leaping into your elevator pitch, you will must introduce your self to the particular person you are speaking to. Write a sentence about who you’re and what your position is on the firm (e.g., “I am a gross sales rep at Higher Than the Relaxation Cable.“). This may provide help to begin the dialog off on the appropriate foot.
Keep in mind to not ramble. Researcher Diana Tamir exhibits that once we speak about ourselves, our brains present exercise within the areas linked to worth and motivation. Our our bodies are rewarded once we speak about ourselves, so, particularly once we’re in high-stress conditions, we resort to what feels good.
Tamir says, “This helps to elucidate why individuals so obsessively have interaction on this habits. It is as a result of it gives them with some type of subjective worth: It feels good, mainly.”
The issue with rambling in an elevator pitch state of affairs is that you have not earned the prospect’s curiosity or consideration but. They do not care who you’re but, how lengthy you have labored in your organization, or what job you had earlier than. Maintain the details about your self to a minimal and earn the appropriate to share extra later within the deal.
3. State your organization’s mission.
Have a transparent understanding of what your organization does. What is the firm’s mission and objectives for its services or products? Embrace a piece in your pitch the place you introduce the corporate. The extra you recognize concerning the enterprise, the better it is going to be to cater your pitch to the particular person you are speaking to.
For instance, “I am a gross sales rep at Higher Than the Relaxation Cable. We assist lodges throughout the U.S. pair with the proper cable supplier and plan for his or her area and desires.“
This can be a succinct description of what the corporate does — with out stepping into the weeds. In case you have been to be minimize off after these two sentences, the prospect would nonetheless know precisely who you’re and what your organization does.
4. Clarify the corporate worth proposition.
What does your organization do exceptionally properly that units its services or products aside from the remaining? Write a quick, 1-2 sentence assertion concerning the worth the services or products gives to present prospects.
You’ve got launched your self and your organization, now it is time to get to the products. Let’s examine what that appears like:
“I am a gross sales rep at Higher Than the Relaxation Cable. We assist lodges throughout the U.S. pair with the proper cable supplier and plan for his or her area and desires. With regional specialists assigned to every account, we assist lodges establish essentially the most cost-effective and guest-delighting cable plan for them.”
In a single sentence, you have advised the prospect what units us aside and how one can convey them worth. You’ve got doubtless piqued their curiosity, however how are you going to actually seize their consideration? Learn on.
5. Seize their consideration with a hook.
Pull in your viewers with an thrilling story a couple of buyer or the corporate founders. Or provide up an enchanting reality or statistic concerning the product. An attention-grabbing hook retains individuals engaged with what you are saying. Let’s end up our pitch under with an attention-grabbing statistic.
“I am a gross sales rep at Higher Than the Relaxation Cable. We assist lodges throughout the U.S. pair with the proper cable supplier and plan for his or her area and desires. With regional specialists assigned to every account, we assist lodges establish essentially the most cost-effective and guest-delighting cable plan for them. On common, we’re capable of save lodges as much as 25% on their annual cable payments.”
6. Learn and edit the pitch.
Learn your pitch aloud and ensure it sounds pure. In case your pitch is overly formal, you would come off as stuffy and uptight. As a substitute, make your pitch conversational. This may hold your viewers captivated and extra more likely to proceed the dialog.
Elevator Pitch Templates
Now that you recognize elevator pitch greatest practices, obtain HubSpot’s eight free elevator pitch templates to place your learnings into motion. These templates can be utilized to make a sale, begin networking, or jumpstart a deal for enterprise capital.
Featured Useful resource: 8 Free Elevator Pitch Templates
Our templates observe established greatest practices for elevator pitches. Every one contains:
- A private greeting: Begin each pitch by establishing a human connection and making your prospect really feel seen and heard.
- An announcement of your organization’s mission: Your mission will be blended together with your worth proposition and vice versa. However this piece of knowledge is important to get your prospect’s buy-in, shortly.
- A hook to get your viewers’s consideration: The hook will be so simple as a probing query or a extremely customized assertion that’s been tailor-made to your prospect’s wants. Both approach, the hook will usually seal the deal.
- An actual instance: See the template in motion by studying a filled-out instance, permitting you to visualise what your pitch could appear like as you refine and edit it.
Utilizing these templates permits you to save valuable time and concentrate on the essence of the pitch as an alternative of minute particulars, corresponding to tips on how to begin it off or tips on how to manage it. Your prospect’s time is effective, and so is yours.
30 Second Elevator Pitch Examples
In case you’re searching for some inspiration, look no additional. The next elevator pitch examples illustrate alternative ways to explain what you’ll be able to provide.
1. An Consideration-Grabbing Query
Size of Pitch: 30 seconds
Has your boss ever requested you to “whip up a fast report earlier than the tip of the day”? You say sure with a sinking coronary heart — as a result of you recognize it’s going to be the alternative of fast. The founders of my firm, AnswerASAP, continuously handled this drawback of their roles as advertising executives. So that they created a instrument that places all of your information in a single place and creates distinctive experiences inside 30 seconds or much less.
This elevator pitch is efficient as a result of:
- It grabs your consideration with a query.
- It reminds you of an annoying — and frequent — ache.
- It demonstrates empathy on your scenario.
- It is simple and does not use jargon.
2. The Credibility Enhance
Size of Pitch: 30 seconds
As an account govt for AnswerASAP, I discuss to a whole bunch of entrepreneurs per 30 days. And 99% of them hate creating experiences. It is time-consuming, it is tedious, and it is often not your highest precedence. That is the place our instrument is available in — it pulls from all your information to create any report you need in lower than the time it takes to pour a cup of espresso.
This elevator pitch is efficient as a result of:
- It demonstrates the speaker’s authority.
- It reinforces how strongly you hate making experiences.
- It makes use of a standard metaphor to spotlight the instrument’s ease of use.
3. The Shock Ending
Size of Pitch: 30 seconds
You need to know what number of leads out of your webinar marketing campaign turned prospects versus leads out of your commerce present sales space. However solely prospects who purchased two merchandise — and weren’t already in your database.
How lengthy wouldn’t it take you to create that report?
In case you had AnswerASAP, a knowledge and reporting instrument, you’d already know. It creates experiences in a matter of seconds.
This elevator pitch is efficient as a result of:
- It has a “shock ending.”
- It illustrates how helpful the product is creatively.
- It forces you to check your present scenario to a greater world.
4. An Outlandish Stat
Size of Pitch: 30 seconds
Your advertising crew members will every spend roughly 8,730 minutes of their work yr placing collectively experiences. Throughout your groups and departments, how a lot cash are you able to save in the event you took that chore off their to-do lists with AnswerASAP, the reporting instrument that robotically pulls your information into an easy-to-read (and ship) dashboard? We have saved corporations hundreds of {dollars} per yr, they usually’re working extra effectively than ever.
This elevator pitch is efficient as a result of:
- It grabs your consideration with numbers whereas aggravating a ache.
- It makes you understand the true productiveness price of reporting.
- It sparks your frustration.
5. The Quick and Candy
Size of Pitch: 30 seconds
The founders of my firm have been initially entrepreneurs. The worst a part of their day, by far, was … Need to take a guess? No, it wasn’t arguing with Gross sales. They detested making experiences. I do not blame them. You understand what a ache within the neck it’s. That is why they created AnswerASAP. You possibly can create any report you need in a matter of seconds.
This elevator pitch is efficient as a result of:
6. A Buyer Story
Size of Pitch: 30 seconds
Siena Rosen, a marketer at Dunder Mifflin, used to spend half-hour per day manually creating experiences. Now that she makes use of AnswerASAP, that is gone all the way down to 4 minutes. She’s making twice as many experiences in much less time. Our instrument helps entrepreneurs like Siena reply any query on their thoughts (or their boss’s) almost immediately. In case you’re curious, I can clarify extra.
This elevator pitch is efficient as a result of:
- It makes use of a buyer instance to provide the product credibility.
- It exhibits a transparent and compelling “earlier than and after.”
- It demonstrates worth.
- It offers you an opportunity to say,“Positive, inform me extra,” or“I am good, thanks.”
7. The Actuality Test
Size of Pitch: 30 seconds
Every single day, the typical marketer spends half an hour placing collectively experiences. More often than not, these experiences are barely glanced at — or worse, ignored altogether. AnswerASAP, which shops all your information from each instrument your online business makes use of, is a game-changer right here. Simply kind what report you need: For instance, “A bar chart of income from each lead supply up to now month.”You will get your report in 30 seconds.
This elevator pitch is efficient as a result of:
- It makes you understand the true productiveness price of reporting.
- It sparks your frustration.
- It helps you perceive precisely how the product works with a easy instance.
8. The Joke
Size of Pitch: 20 seconds
What number of entrepreneurs does it take to do month-to-month reporting? None in the event that they’ve automated the method with AnswerASAP. Every worker that makes use of this instrument saves half-hour per day on common, which is time they’ll spend on advertising duties extra worthy of their time corresponding to bettering efficiency on campaigns and rising ROI throughout the board.
This elevator pitch is efficient as a result of:
- It engages the viewers (at the very least, in the event you use a joke that is really humorous).
- It gives prompt relatability.
- It attracts on a identified reality concerning the business and positions an sudden answer.
9. The Emotional Enchantment
Size of Pitch: 30 seconds
After I began my profession in advertising, I assumed I might be making a distinction for my group immediately, however because the junior member of the crew, all of the reporting and administrative duties have been pushed onto me. I used to be spending a lot time creating experiences for key stakeholders that would’ve been diverted to extra vital revenue-generating actions. In case you’re not utilizing AnswerASAP, you are spending an excessive amount of of the group’s time, cash, and expertise on one thing that may be generated by our instrument on-demand in 30 seconds.
This elevator pitch is efficient as a result of:
- It evokes emotion and empathy by way of storytelling.
- It establishes a ache or drawback you’ll be able to relate to.
- It attracts a hard-hitting conclusion as a pure “ethical of the story.”
10. The One-Liner
Size of Pitch: 10 seconds
AnswerASAP saves entrepreneurs time by eliminating the tediousness of data-gathering and formatting to create lovely advertising experiences in lower than 30 seconds.
This elevator pitch is efficient as a result of:
- It demonstrates the corporate’s worth proposition.
- It’s brief and candy if you could get to the purpose.
11. The Mutual Connection
Size of Pitch: 30 Seconds
As I perceive it, we’ve got a mutual connection — Zachary Koch. He is really a buyer of ours. His firm was capable of minimize its software program improvement lifecycle in half by leveraging our answer. You two are business companions of an analogous scale, so you’ll doubtless see related outcomes. Would you want to listen to extra about what we did for him and will do for you?
This elevator pitch is efficient as a result of:
- It instantly builds belief.
- It references simply verifiable outcomes.
12. The Advisor
Size of Pitch: 30 Seconds
In working with different budding B2B SaaS corporations, we have discovered that one of many key points they battle with is content material advertising. This previous yr we helped quite a lot of your business friends to create, publish, and promote weblog content material to help their inbound advertising efforts, leading to a median 20% improve in leads generated. Would you want to listen to extra?
This elevator pitch is efficient as a result of:
- It demonstrates familiarity with a prospect’s work.
- It gives actionable perception with arduous outcomes.
Now that we have seen some nice elevator pitch examples, let’s focus on what you must attempt to keep away from.
What To not Do in an Elevator Pitch
Earlier than we take a look at some good examples, let’s take a look at what to not do.
1. Don’t ramble.
Size of Pitch: 45 seconds
I have been a rep at Gross sales-R-Us for 5 years now. They’re one of the best firm I’ve ever labored for. I’ve beloved my time there. I began as a BDR and have labored my approach as much as a senior place. I’ve by no means seemed again. I additionally love the providers we promote. I can not wait to let you know about them. Gross sales-R-Us assist corporations grow to be extra environment friendly with their gross sales by way of coaching, analysis, management administration, and that is simply to call just a few. We now have a novel method that is been honed by a number of gross sales specialists over time, and I’ve seen our answer actually assist a whole lot of corporations and groups. I’ve had many purchasers whose companies have been saved due to our genius answer. I do know we will do the identical for you. Would you be inquisitive about studying extra?
This elevator pitch will not be efficient as a result of:
- It is approach too lengthy.
- The rep spends approach an excessive amount of time speaking about themself.
- It by no means will get particular or actionable.
- It by no means gives precise examples or attention-grabbing info.
2. Don’t use an excessive amount of jargon.
Size of Pitch: 30 Second
At Stratosphere Options, our OS-level virtualization delivers software program in containers, all of which share the system of a lone working system kernel. These containers are remoted however can talk with each other by way of well-defined channels. In the end, this allows you to use fewer assets than conventional digital machines.
This elevator pitch will not be efficient as a result of:
- It is inaccessible to somebody with out related technical information.
- It options an excessive amount of jargon.
- It tries to condense a particularly sophisticated matter into 30 seconds.
- Its worth proposition is not clear-cut.
Keep in mind, an elevator pitch ought to solely come at another person’s prompting. In case you’re spontaneously reciting it to random individuals, you are not doing your self any favors. But when they ask, you need to be ready with an fascinating, well-crafted pitch.
Reel in Purchasers with an Efficient Elevator Pitch
Whereas a brief speech could seem insignificant, these first conversations can maintain some weight. With a well-crafted pitch, you’ll be able to flip a single dialog with a prospect right into a long-lasting buyer, and even right into a enterprise associate. We hope you discovered these examples useful and are impressed to craft your personal efficient elevator pitch.
Editor’s notice: This submit was initially revealed in August 2019 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.