What is your elevator pitch? What makes your pitch effective?
To help you make your elevator pitch effective, we asked startup founders and business owners this question for their best examples and insights. There are several elevator pitch examples to learn from that may help you create your own pitch in a way that brings out the essence and uniqueness of your startup business to your audience.
Here are 12 elevator pitch examples these startup leaders around the world shared for your benefit:
- Inform First Then Sell
- Make it Quick and Easy to Grasp
- Lead With Your Values
- Personalize the Offer
- Show You Know Your Audience
- Present a Practical Alternative
- Keep it Short and Actionable
- Show Why Your Business is Unique
- Be Clear and To the Point
- Make the Impossible Seem Easy
- Tell Everything that is Needed in a Quick and Simple Way
- Make Your Audience Understand Who You Are and What You Have
Inform First Then Sell
An elevator pitch is in essence a short description of an idea, product, or company that explains what you do in a way that is easily understood by the listener. A good Elevator pitch is trimmed and streamlined. It isn’t about impressing or talking up your services at length. Its most important element is getting the needed information across as quickly as possible.
What makes my elevator pitch effective is streamlining the informative portion. The faster you’re able to let your listener know your business the more free time you have to spend on selling them on your pitching. If your pitch is thirty seconds long, you’ll want to try to get your information across in the first ten. This leaves you twenty seconds to add a bit of spice. Workshop the first part of your pitch until it becomes a science, then you can figure out the golden words you need to sell it with the time left over.
Max Schwartzapfel, CMO, Schwartzapfel Lawyers
Make it Quick and Easy to Grasp
My elevator pitch is, “I’m Shaun Connell and I’ve spent my entire career dedicated to writing and publishing for a variety of audiences. I’ve written for magazines, blogs and websites, both for myself and for other people. And I help others do the same.”
My elevator pitch is effective because it’s a quick and easy way to explain what I do without being too wordy or complicated. It helps me make sure that every person I meet knows I’m available to help them take the next step with their idea – whether that means helping them get started or guiding them through the process of making sure they’re prepared for success.
Shaun Connell, Founder, Writing Tips Institute
Lead With Your Values
My elevator pitch is, “I help startups and small businesses because I believe that successful entrepreneurs give people hope, and that matters today more than ever. I do this through digital marketing and setting up systems that produce incremental and sustainable growth in traffic, conversion, and retention.” This tells people that I’m not in it just for the money.
My values are tied to the service I provide, and I do a good job because I care about the results. Success for my target market is much more meaningful to me than a paycheck, and much bigger than their organization. It feeds into my entire worldview. Show people your “why” during your elevator pitch, and you can build an instant emotional connection with them. This is far more powerful than using logic, reason, and promises of revenue growth alone to close deals.
Dennis Consorte, Digital Marketing & Leadership Consultant for Startups, Snackable Solutions
Personalize the Offer
I get the best results when my pitches are highly personalized. This way, I not only show the recipient that I respect them and their work but also demonstrate that I am sincerely interested in cooperation and do not send them a random offer. People appreciate such actions, and when there is an opportunity, they are eager to establish a relationship, being the first step to prosperous cooperation.
Magdalena Sadowska, Community Manager & Content Writer, PhotoAiD
Show You Know Your Audience
An elevator pitch is a brief, persuasive speech that you can use to quickly describe your business, product, or service. The key to an effective elevator pitch is to make it clear and interesting while still conveying the essential information. In other words, you need to be able to quickly grab your listener’s attention and give them a reason to want to learn more about what you’re offering.
An effective elevator pitch will also be tailored to your specific audience. For example, if you’re pitching a new app to potential investors, you’ll want to focus on how the app will make money. On the other hand, if you’re pitching the same app to potential users, you’ll want to focus on how it will make their lives easier. By tailoring your pitch to your audience, you’ll be much more likely to get the attention and interest you’re looking for.
Jim Campbell, Founder, Epic Caribbean Vacations
Present a Practical Alternative
There is a way to tap into the psychological rush of the lottery while still making healthier financial decisions for yourself. That’s what our company does – and you can’t get that anywhere else. If you’re financially vulnerable, like 40% of all Americans are, you don’t have to play the lottery. You can save money with us. Doing so means you get the chance to win big every week, just like playing the lottery. But instead of losing money, you have your money in an insured account.
Even if you don’t win a jackpot, we still pay a savings bonus that’s five times the national average savings account APY. It’s the best win-win in the financial world. That’s my elevator pitch. It works because it’s unique and it offers people a safe and exciting way to earn interest on their money. Everybody wants that.
Trevor Ford, Head of Growth, Yotta
Keep it Short and Actionable
“I create digital content for global brands to create and grow their digital footprints and increase their rankings on Google.” My elevator pitch reflects two things that most businesses need: a digital presence and online visibility. I use action words that describe what I do and keep it short (true to the elevator pitch name). I also name-drop Google, which helps others to put into perspective the importance of digital content. It’s enough to encourage them to ask questions and spark a conversation, where we can get into more specifics.
Alli Hill, Founder and Director, Fleurish Freelance
Show Why Your Business is Unique
The premise of our business/service is simple: we developed an online tool used for counting words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and pages in real-time. Additionally, we offer spelling and grammar checking. You might think anyone could develop a site like ours. However, our team was able to build our site from 0 to 600,000 visitors a month in just over one year. How did we do this? By offering a great service in addition to relevant content on our blog. By highlighting this impressive figure, we are able to show that we are serious in how we run our website and that doing so helps us stand apart from the competition.
Gerald Lombardo, Founder, The Word Counter
Be Clear and To the Point
My elevator pitch is simple: I’m a great programmer and I can help your company succeed. I have the skills and experience to get the job done, and I’m passionate about helping businesses achieve their goals. I’m also a quick learner, so I can adapt to new situations and technologies quickly. What makes my pitch effective is that it’s clear and to the point. I don’t try to overwhelm my listener with too much information, but I do make sure to highlight my key strengths. My pitch is also sincere and enthusiastic, which shows that I truly believe in my ability to help my listener’s company succeed.
Admir Salcinovic, Co-Founder, Pricelisto
Make the Impossible Seem Easy
My elevator pitch is “I strive to eliminate voluntary turnover caused by bad leadership or poorly designed organizational structures”. This typically grabs someone’s attention because it is a pretty lofty goal. When they ask how I plan to do this, I am then able to discuss how my team deploys to multiple organizations providing coaching and consulting services using proven methods designed to have a sustainable, cascading impact starting with the executive leadership team, flowing down to every individual contributor. Giving just enough information to pique their interest helps me set up follow-up calls to sell my services.
Tamica Sears, HR Consultant, Sears Coaching
Tell Everything that is Needed in a Quick and Simple Way
My elevator pitch is: I run a local lawn care and landscaping business that does extremely high-quality service at a competitive price. This tells you everything you need to know: what I do, why we’re so successful, and why you should choose our services. Additionally, it is open-ended enough that you’ll probably ask a few follow-up questions like, what services do you offer, how long have you been in business, or how’d you get started? Any of these will keep the conversation rolling and only increase your interest and understanding in my business.
Tom Monson, Owner of Monson Lawn & Landscaping, Monson Lawn & Landscaping
Make Your Audience Understand Who You Are and What You Have
The most efficient elevator pitch should be brief and compelling enough to draw the listener’s attention. Your message should not be both too short and too long. Remember that it’s easier for people to be distracted during video meetings. My powerful move is using jargon. This is how I demonstrate that I am familiar with what I am talking about. Your audience should understand who you are and what qualifications and skills you have.
Daria Globchak, Copywriter, Elai.io
