How to Create & Deliver an Elevator Pitch (+ Examples)

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An elevator pitch is an abbreviated sales pitch that sellers give when they only have about 30 seconds to convince a new lead to consider purchasing their product or service. The goal of this pitch is to communicate the key information to a potential customer you've just met and pique their interest in your business. Once you have their attention, you can plan a longer meeting so you can qualify them, tell them more about your offer, and enter them into your sales pipeline.

How the Elevator Pitch Works

Salespeople use an elevator pitch to quickly learn a new lead's high-level goal or pain point, then communicate the related benefits of their product or service and how it could bring value to their life (traditionally, keeping it to the average length of an elevator ride). To create an effective elevator pitch, you can identify your unique selling proposition, then incorporate it into a sales pitch and condense that pitch into three key elements, or you can write an elevator pitch separately.

The three key elements of an elevator pitch include:

• Identification of the Lead's Problem: Start by identifying a general problem that your lead needs to solve, typically by asking a pointed question.
• Positioning of Your Product as the Solution: In one sentence, describe your product, its primary function, and a unique aspect of it that would solve the lead’s problem.
• Strong Call-to-Action: Lay out specific steps for a follow-up call or meeting, since elevator pitches don’t typically result in an immediate purchase.

When you give a sales pitch to a lead, you'll usually have had prior interactions with them, so you can spend time tailoring the pitch to their specific needs and diving deeper into the benefits and value. On the other hand, elevator pitches are more ad-hoc and give you less time to prepare and pitch. With this in mind, let’s take a look at how to create and deliver an elevator pitch of your own on cold calls or at networking events, plus examples and tips you can follow to improve your pitch.

How to Create an Elevator Pitch

When you’re creating an elevator pitch, you'll plan to learn about a brand new lead's situation at a high level and write a general explanation that works with a majority of your target market. Unlike a full sales pitch, in situations where an elevator pitch is necessary such as at a business networking event, you usually won't have had prior contact to carry out a true discovery process and uncover the lead’s objectives.

Here are the steps to creating a winning elevator pitch:

1. Identify Your Unique Selling Proposition: Identify your primary differentiator that your audience will value.
2. Plan a Discovery Question: Each encounter should start with a question; the answer will dictate how you position your product or service.
3. Craft an Explanation of Your Product or Service: Write a brief explanation of your product and its primary function, including the problem it solves and your USP.
4. End With a Strong Call-to-Action: Decide how you'll get your lead to agree to a follow-up meeting or take the action you want.

Now, let’s talk about each of these steps in detail so that you can craft a quality elevator pitch of your own. We've also created a free general elevator pitch script template, which we'll break down within the steps so you can use it to create or inspire your pitch.

1. Identify Your Unique Selling Proposition

First, determine your unique selling proposition (USP), which is your company’s primary differentiator from your competition that adds value to your ideal customer. Your USP should be only a few words long and include a few key aspects of your company, such as the affordability of your product or service, how easy it is to use, or any guarantees you offer your customers.

To figure out what your USP is, follow these steps:

1. Choose a Differentiator: Use competitive analysis, customer surveys, and/or other research methods to understand what makes you unique and why it matters to your ideal customer.
2. Craft Your USP: Write two potential USPs that explain your differentiator and value, then test each one to determine which captures your audience's interest.
3. Use Your USP: Incorporate your USP into a sales pitch, and add it to your website and other marketing assets.

These steps can guide your sales pitch script and help center your elevator pitch on what really matters to your ideal customer. Examples of USPs include “Our proprietary X technology is 50% faster than our competition’s,” “We make our X with all-natural ingredients, free from synthetics contributing to long-term health consequences," and “We offer a free five-year warranty with every purchase.” Assuming they focus on what matters to the ideal customer, these are great messages.

Now that you’ve narrowed down your USP, it’s time to get working on the elevator pitch script.

2. Plan a Discovery Question

With a sales pitch, you’ll often hold a discovery call to learn about your lead's budget, needs, decision-making authority, timeline, and/or other info before diving into a sales pitch. With an elevator pitch, you won’t have that luxury. Because of this, starting out your elevator pitch with a scripted question helps you decide how you’re going to position your USP. It should be a general, open-ended question that allows for a variety of answers that you can leverage with your pitch.

Here are some solid discovery questions to open your elevator pitch with:

• Pain Points Question: “What problems do you run into when handling X?”
• Goals Question: “Do you have any growth goals for the year?”
• Challenges Question: “What takes the most time out of your workday?”
• Current Process Question: “How do you usually handle X?”

All of these have a chance to expose a problem that you can solve. You can then talk about your product or service and lean on the aspect of your USP that most closely aligns with their problem. In addition to informing your pitch, this question also makes the pitch flow more naturally in the conversation, since they offered information for you to work with.

Here's the discovery question part of our free template, which asks about the way your lead currently handles a process or task:

3. Craft an Explanation of Your Product or Service

Memorize a 10-second description of your product or service and deliver it in every elevator pitch. This will make your pitch easier to remember and ensure that every lead gets the same base level of information. Making this part standard will also keep you from leaving out vital information on what you have to offer, while still keeping your product description short.

You’ll want to include the following in your product explanation:

• Product or Service Name: The title of your business and/or the product or service that you think could best benefit them.
• Various Levels or Tiers Offered: A brief description of the variants you offer and what they include and/or how they differ.
• Purpose of Your Product or Service: How the product or service was designed to benefit the user and solve their problem.
• Your Intended Audience: Who the product was designed to serve.
• Your USP: What makes your business, product, and/or service different from the competition.

These are useful bits of information to each of your leads, which is why you'll keep this part the same every time you give an elevator pitch. Below is how you can position your product or service plus its tiers, purpose, intended audience, and USP:

4. End With a Strong Call-to-Action

Like any good pitch, a strong call-to-action (CTA) is the way that you convert interest to action. For a CTA to convert consistently, deliver it as a specific offer as opposed to an overly casual question. Instead of asking “Would you want to talk more about this later?,” offer a specific time slot for a follow-up meeting.

Your strong CTA should look something like this:

• Request Permission to Plan a Conversation: “Can I get you set up with a follow-up call for 11:00 a.m. tomorrow?”
• Ask About Their Availability: “Are you available to meet at my office after 1:00 p.m. sometime this week?”
• Make a Suggestive Statement: “Let’s talk about this more when we aren’t in a rush. Does 3:00 p.m. Thursday work?”

Doing it this way gives your lead a more direct outline of the next step in your process, and puts them in a position to give you an answer right then and there. While most sales questions are open-ended by design, the CTA should always be a yes-or-no question or a direct instruction. Your elevator pitch is simply a quick intro to your product, and this CTA is meant to give you more time with the lead to dive deeper, like the below:

How to Effectively Deliver Your Elevator Pitch

Now that you’ve created your elevator pitch, it’s time to figure out how best to deliver it. Words on paper aren’t worth much if you aren’t able to communicate them effectively to your target audience. So, we’ve compiled a list of steps to help you get the most out of your pitch.

Here are the steps to deliver an elevator pitch:

1. Practice Your Elevator Pitch Script: Rehearse your written script to ensure you're ready to present it on the fly.
2. Gather Any Supporting Materials: Have on hand any physical or digital materials that make it easier for your new contact to understand who you are and what your product does.
3. Start With an Appropriate Amount of Small Talk: Make very little small talk on cold calls and emails, but spend more time on initial pleasantries at networking events.
4. Deliver Your Elevator Pitch: Following your script, start with a question to discover the problem, then explain your product as the solution and illustrate your USP.
5. End Your Elevator Pitch With a CTA: Suggest next steps to the lead so you two can plan a longer conversation if they believe your solution can help them.

Let's look at each of these delivery steps more closely.

1. Practice Your Elevator Pitch Script

Run through your pitch in the mirror, time it, and practice it with your coworkers as much as possible so that your delivery is consistent and peer-reviewed and you’re familiar with tailoring your pitch to a lead you've just met. Trying to think on your feet and deliver a brief, polished elevator pitch can be stressful, but rehearsing it can make you feel more comfortable and confident.

2. Gather Any Supporting Materials

Get prepared to share materials that can help your new lead learn about your business and/or get in touch with you. If you're headed to a networking event, bring a few business cards and/or brochures with you. If you're sending a cold email, include a relevant link or attachment. And if you're making a cold call, be prepared to send digital materials in a follow-up email or calendar invite.

3. Start With an Appropriate Amount of Small Talk

If you meet a potential lead at a networking event, make some small talk before diving into your elevator pitch. This can help you come off as authentic and keep you from seeming salesy. However, keep small talk minimal on cold calls and in cold emails — a brief intro can help get a lead open to hearing your elevator pitch, but it's also important to get to the point quickly in those settings.

4. Deliver Your Elevator Pitch

Recite the script you've written and practiced, portraying confidence and a desire to help your new contact throughout. Ask your discovery question, and give them time to respond, whether they choose a short, simple answer or decide to elaborate. Next, lead into the explanation of your product or service, how it relates to your lead's answer about their problem or goal, and why the product is better than anything else they'll find out there.

5. End Your Elevator Pitch With a CTA

Tell the lead that you believe your business can help them and that you'd love to learn more about them in a longer conversation. Ask if they're available at a specific time and date, as well as whether they'd prefer to meet in person or via phone or videoconference. When you find a time that works, let them know what they can expect from you, e.g., a calendar invitation with the meeting details or an email with some materials to look over before the conversation if they'd like.

4 Best Elevator Pitch Examples to Emulate

While it's helpful to understand how to write and deliver an elevator pitch using a template or from scratch, what really makes everything come together are examples of these steps in action. We've provided four sample situations below, including B2B and B2C scenarios. All four examples start with a discovery question, then go on to explain the product or service using the key details we discussed above, then end with a strong CTA that suggests next steps.

Feel free to take verbatim the verbiage from the example that most closely matches your own business or use bits and pieces of each one to inspire your own elevator pitch. Keep in mind that it's also a good idea to continually improve your elevator pitch according to how the leads you speak with respond to it.

Top 5 Tips to Improve Your Elevator Pitch

In addition to the key elements to include, the steps to follow when creating and delivering your pitch, and the examples to emulate, there are a few main tips you should keep in mind if you want to up your elevator pitch game. These include keeping the pitch brief, memorizing it, using statistics when helpful, being conversational and confident, and responding to objections properly.

All of these tips will help you to maximize your lead’s attention span. You want to be respectful of their time, and you don’t want the time limitation to cause you to fumble your pitch or fail to grab their attention.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Bottom Line: Elevator Pitch

An elevator pitch is a concise way to demonstrate the value of your product as quickly as possible. By compressing your messaging, you make your pitch more “portable” and allow for opportunities to present themselves even in time-restricted lead generation and lead nurturing situations. If you can master this process, you’ll grow your network and convert more leads in no time.