Tips on Writing Your Pitch

The purpose of an elevator pitch is to get the person to whom you are speaking interested in hearing more about you and your product or services.

There are two parts to any good pitch. The first part is the answer to the question “what do you do?” and the second is the answer to their reply “how do you do that” or ‘tell me more”.

Elevator pitches should be very short, ideally under 15 words in the first part. The second part can be a bit longer if you are painting a vivid picture but under 25 words if you’re just explaining your product or service. It is advisable to mention in the first part who your best prospects are. These can be categorized in a number of ways. Job title and industry are the most common and also most effective. For example, you may work with attorney, doctors, salespeople, HR managers, the financial services industry or manufacturing. Be as specific as you can in this part.

You should also mention what results clients get by working with you. Results are the things that change in your prospects life or business when they work with you. For example, you might drive customers to someone’s door, increase referrals to a business, take the stress off an overworked manager, speed up a process, or make someone happy. Again, specificity is key. Be creative, but don’t get too corny. This has to be something you can say easily and comfortably, as well as something you believe.

A easy format to use for your elevator pitch is “I work with (your target market) to do (the results you get). Here are a few examples to get you started:

I work with salespeople to make them rich and happy.
I work with HR managers to reduce turnover by 10%.
I work with manufacturers to speed up production lines.
I work with attorneys to get them off the stock market roller coaster.

The second part of the pitch is more descriptive. It can be very helpful to paint a picture of the problem you solve and then associate your product or service with the picture. For example:

“I work with HR managers to reduce turnover by 10%.”
“How do you do that?”
“You know how HR managers are responsible for hiring new people but there are many questions they’d like to ask but can’t due to privacy laws? I have an assessment they can give to applicants that tells they what they need to know to make sure they are hiring the right people without violating any regulations.”

Remember, this part is still about the results your clients get more than what you do. Don’t get too wordy here or try to explain everything about the work you do. Keep it simple. You’ll have plenty of time to have a deeper conversation in an appointment. Your goal is to be interesting enough to get that appointment.