3 Basic Elements of a Dynamic Elevator Pitch

How to Craft them in English

You happen to find yourself in an elevator with the CEO of your company. Here’s your moment to shine and tell him all about your fantastic cost-cutting idea. You have 30 seconds before the doors open and he or she erases your sweaty palms and palpitating heart from his memory.

30 very short seconds to make your elevator pitch.

Maybe just a tad longer if you’re on the top floor of a New York high-rise.

But, what in the world do you say? More importantly, how do you communicate your amazing idea in just a few measly seconds?

Before we get into how to actually craft one, let’s answer the main question:

What exactly is an elevator pitch?

An elevator pitch is a short and casual speech with the intention of getting someone to go along with an idea or, basically, do what you want them to do. It could be related to an infinite number of things, like:

• being able to hire an additional resource
• opening a new division or office in a specific region
• investing in your company
• buying one of your products
• obtaining a job interview
• simply getting you noticed by someone in an influential position.

Will I actually give my pitch in an elevator?

Not necessarily.

In the fast-paced world of business, sometimes, the maximum time you may have with a key decision-maker could be just a few seconds, or the duration of an elevator ride.

The idea behind the elevator pitch is to create a short appeal to your audience that you would be able to get through within the timeframe of that elevator ride and with maximum impact. People have short attention spans, need to have a reason to care about what you’re telling them, and generally don’t have any time to waste.

The pitch would be relevant in any setting where you have the opportunity to engage in a short conversation with a key individual – such as at a trade-show, a customer event, or even at the airport waiting for a flight to board.

How to construct an elevator pitch that’s going to generate interest

The optimal approach when constructing an elevator pitch is, as many things in life, to keep it simple!

There are 3 basic components of a great pitch:

1. Describe: who you are, what your purpose is, and what you’re promoting

2. Help: how all of what you’ve just described will help the person in front of you

3. Question: divert the attention to your listener and turn the pitch into an engaging conversation or ask for a follow-up if you sense interest

All of this needs to be done in 30 seconds.

When you’re creating your pitch, don’t consider this a loose guideline. Consider this an absolute rule. When you first open your mouth, that person does not care about what you have to say. Make them care by explaining what benefit you bring to them in a concise manner.

English phrases to help you with your next elevator pitch

Describe

Mr/Mrs. _____, please allow me to introduce myself.

My name is __________ and I’m the project leader for the new __________.

I own/I’m the owner of a marketing firm downtown that has successfully rebranded over 200 local, mid-sized companies into world-renowned international symbols.

We have just developed/just launched a new __________ with the purpose of__________.

The aim of our organization is __________.

We strive to__________.

Our focus is __________.

We’re passionate about __________.

Help

I’d like to propose a way in which you can increase employee retention and decrease absenteeism.

If you implement our new CRM system, your company can double its revenue in 6 months by never allowing any lead to fall through the cracks.

By choosing our service, you can save countless hours in managing customer complaints. We’re happy to share that our customers have seen an average of $1 million in savings per year thanks to our system.

We provide companies with time-tracking software that is proven to increase productivity by 20%.

Our focus is on providing our customers with cost-effective apps that allow them to focus their time on more strategic activities, rather than the day-to-day.

Question

How do you currently manage your opportunities/complaints/employee scheduling?

What’s an aspect of your customer interaction that you’ve wanted to improve?

How often do you receive interactions from customers who are only English speaking?

Why don’t/How about I give you a call on Friday so we can discuss in more detail/set up a meeting?

Would you be interested in receiving our product catalog?

Could I stop by your office next week and quickly show you the new prototype?

As a last note, the key is to keep the pitch as casual as possible. The idea is to express what you do and why you may be of interest to the other person without making them feel like you’re actually trying to sell them something.

Let us know about your latest elevator pitch. Did you achieve your goal?

The LV Linguistics team loves writing about anything to do with business culture and enjoys finding ways to use this to help readers improve their English skills. In addition to articles related to the corporate world, entrepreneurship, work-life balance, and more, we’re working hard to create and share English vocabulary and grammar exercises that we hope can help you to excel in your language endeavors.

Please let us know if there’s something that you’d like us to write and post!