Writing your Elevator Pitch

What is an Elevator Pitch? Elevator Pitch (noun) – A succinct and persuasive sales pitch. Sometimes you may only have an elevator ride to tell someone important about your idea. Make sure you know exactly what you’ll say!

Step 1: Brainstorming Focus on a few different questions. The following questions will help you brainstorm, but keep in mind if you want to be concise and use time efficiently, you won’t want to use all of them in your Elevator Pitch. Figure out which work best for you. Who: Who are you? Who are your customers? What: What do you do? What is your goal? What is unique about you/your business? What is the next step?

Step 2: Grabbing the Audience Creating an attention-grabbing hook is how you’re going to keep your audience listening. Try identifying the problem you seek to fix or ask a question to engage your audience. “Have you ever tried writing in a crowded room or on the bus, but found it the noise too distracting?”

Step 3: Organizing When you organize your pitch, you want to make sure you’re presenting in an order that makes sense. Try this order: Attention grabber. The problem. Introduce yourself. Explain how you’ll solve this problem. What you need from the listener.

Step 4: Edit + Draft Writing everything out and reading it over will give you a good idea of what you would have to work on. While you’re reading it over, ask yourself: “Is this something that a total stranger would listen to based on how I’m presenting it?”

Step 5: Practice When go-time arrives, you won’t be using note cards. Practice your pitch over and over until its memorized. The more you practice, the more natural you’ll sound. Record yourself and watch where you stumble.

Step 6: Execute It’s go time! Remember: Being relaxed and keeping a cool demeanor will go a long way. Don’t rush through the speech…you’ve chosen your words wisely and want them to sink in. Be confident. If you don’t believe in what you’re saying, no one else will. Make eye contact.

Coming to a Close A well-executed elevator pitch will help you make sure your issue and solution are addressed succintly. Being prepared goes a long way. “Preparedness is the key to success and victory.” –Douglas MacArthur