How to Write a Winning Elevator Pitch

You don’t have to be in sales to benefit from a great elevator pitch. The right elevator pitch can open doors. It can help you land a new job, sell a product or service, earn new clients or investors for your business, or propose a new idea to your boss. Your elevator pitch is the way you tell someone everything they need to know about you or your business in a very short amount of time. The goal is to hook them; to whet their appetite for more information. An effective elevator pitch takes some thought, but perfecting your pitch is more than worth the time and effort. The right elevator pitch can be your secret weapon. It can stop strangers in their tracks and convince them you’re someone worth listening to.

Here are some surefire tricks for writing an elevator pitch that does the selling for you:

Start with a Headline: If you were the top story of the day, what would your bold print say? Start with an introduction, followed by a quick statement that summarizes you or your business and what you do. Keep it concise and easy to understand.

Know your Audience: To really wow your listener with your elevator pitch, you’ll need to tailor it to your audience. Not every listener will be interested in the same details. Whenever possible, do a little research about the person you’ll be pitching to or their business, and try to adjust your tone, style, and the details of your pitch to their specific interests. What is most important to this person, and what will they most want to know?

Think Like a Brand: Leading brands like Nike, Apple, and BMW, are unmistakable. That’s because brand marketers expend a lot of time, money, and effort developing strategies to set brands apart from their competitors by identifying their unique selling propositions. Treat yourself, your business, or your product like a brand by thinking about the one thing you or your business can offer that no one else can. Incorporate your unique selling proposition into your elevator pitch to communicate to your audience why they should choose you over anybody else.

The Rule of Three: An elevator pitch doesn’t have to tell everything about you or your product; in fact, it shouldn’t. Your pitch should communicate only the most important selling points. Save the details for later. Instead, to get your foot in the door, to get them to pay attention, or to persuade them to listen to what you have to say, stick with no more than three big ideas you’d like to convey. Write down all the top benefits of your business or service, and assign each of them a rank by importance. Once you’ve identified your top three, come up with a sentence or two that clearly communicates those benefits as succinctly as possible.

Talk About Benefits, Not Features: Cool product features are fine, but they aren’t really why customers buy. Customers buy products and sign up for services that provide a benefit to them. They help fulfill a need, fix a problem, or make their life easier or better in some way. Figure out what you, your product, or your company does to benefit the customer, and weave those ideas into your pitch.

Provide some Proof: Anybody can say they’re the best, but a great elevator pitch leaves the listener with little reason to doubt, because it’s backed up with evidence. What have you or your business accomplished? How has your service saved customers money? What results have you produced? Don’t bore the listener with a lengthy list of accomplishments, but pick one or two compelling details or facts that prove your case.

Take the 30-Second Test: Your elevator pitch should be short and sweet – about the length of an elevator ride, to be exact. Time yourself as you recite your pitch, and be strict about sticking to 30 seconds or less. This doesn’t mean you should sound like an auctioneer. Speak slowly and clearly, and be honest with yourself. If it takes longer than 30 seconds to recite, get out your red pen and do some editing. Keeping your pitch under 30 seconds is a great exercise in getting to the point.

Call to Action: Don’t forget to tell the listener what they are supposed to do. It seems obvious, but without a clear request for an investment, a purchase, or a job offer, your audience could feel confused about the point of your speech. Make it easy for them to give them what you want, by including a clear request at the end of your pitch.

Rehearse: Ironically, it takes a lot of practice to sound like you’re speaking off the cuff. Practice presenting your elevator speech at least 50 times, and you may be surprised how much you’re able to improve it as you go. With practice, you’ll also begin to sound more confident and convincing.

Here’s an example of how to put it all together:

Headline: Hi, I’m Dee Signer, and I’m an award-winning web and graphic artist, and I’ve been helping companies like yours stand out in a crowded marketplace for the past seven years.

Target your audience: I know that your industry, home landscaping, is very competitive, and having a great logo and website can be critical to helping you attract new customers.

Unique selling proposition: But, I have created a one-of-a-kind, design system, guaranteed to deliver a unique logo and website design that gets you more clicks – and more customers.

Three big selling points: My system is simple to use, includes a free, one-on-one consultation, and when your design is finished, you own all rights to it for life, no strings attached.

Proof: After using my system, my past three clients have gone on to see their web traffic increase by 30%.

Call to action: Why don’t I help you fill out your online design request form right now, so we can get your one-on-one consultation scheduled for this week. Ready to get started?

They say you only have one chance to make a good first impression, and your elevator pitch can ensure you make the most of those precious moments. Mastering your elevator pitch also helps you identify the most important benefits of your product or service.  It can also produce better results by quickly grabbing the listener’s attention and by quickly focusing the conversation on the things that matter most.  The perfect elevator pitch will help you transform casual encounters into lucrative business opportunities.

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