The 30 Second Elevator Pitch Speech

In order to have a chance of closing the deal, you first need the audience to listen to what you have to say.

“It doesn’t matter what you are selling; maybe it’s an idea for a new business, an existing product or service, or a project. It also doesn’t matter who you are selling it to; maybe they are an investor, a potential customer, or a potential client.”

An elevator pitch, speech or statement is a simple, easy to grasp explanation of a product or service and its value proposition.

Elevator Pitch Examples & Best Practices

As you can probably guess, the name “elevator pitch” stems from the idea that it must be possible to deliver the overview in the time span of an elevator ride,  which is about 1-2 minutes.

The “elevator pitch” is quite often the breaking point in sales. Your first few sentences are everything and your elevator pitch can be the difference between a hang up and a callback.

Impress All The Right People

There are many ways to master the business elevator pitch, here are a few that are guranteed to get you impressing the right people:

1. Keep it short, clear & simple

We are a society that thrives on instant gratification and 140 character limitations. Shoot for a 30-second pitch (or about three sentences of content). All that you are looking to do is hook your listener.

2. Script, test and then memorize your pitch

Actually write out everything that you plan to say, practice it and know what you are talking about. As noted in the Inc.com article, James S. O’Rourke, a professor of management at the University of Notre Dame, suggests testing your pitch on someone two decades older as well as two decades younger than you to be sure that both parties are equally engaged.

3. Step outside the box

Keep your pitch ‘big-picture’ as the majority of people are uninterested in tedious technicalities. Try painting a picture of your product/concept using metaphors and similes.

4. You are also pitching yourself so be genuine

Get your listener to like you. This is the first impression. And remember, whether you like it or not, you are being judged on it.

5. Don’t Forget to Sell

People rarely ‘buy’ from you unless and until they feel they have a relationship with you and your company. They feel they have a relationship with you only when they believe that you understand their needs, their situation, their vision, their constraints, and their goals.

As Thomas Jefferson said, the most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

Great 30 Second Elevator Speech Examples

1. ExecutivePlan

Elevator Pitch Example ExecutivePlan helps entrepreneurs raise capital by creating more powerful, effective, and memorable business plan executive summaries. With angel investors alone, investing approximately $20 billion annually in small businesses. There are hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs at any given time seeking capital. The problem is that only 1 to 4% of angel investment applicants successfully raise angel investment.

The ExecutivePlan offers guides, articles, videos, ebooks, and tools to help entrepreneurs write business plan executive summaries. We also provide expert executive summary reviews to help increase the entrepreneur’s chance of getting in front of an investor. We are seeking an investment of $50,000 to develop software to help automate the process of business plan and executive summary reviews Please check out our website at www.theexecutiveplan.com.

2. Small Business Insurance Template

We specialize in helping small businesses, often with fewer than 50 employees with a value based approach to the insurance market. We become the advocates for these smaller companies, helping you get the best coverage and rate balance, making sure we minimize risk, while keeping premiums affordable. Because we specialize in small business, regardless of your company’s size, you’re still a very important client, and you won’t get lost in the shuffle.

3. Niche Insurance Company Template

We specialize in helping trucking companies with 50 or more power units with all of their insurance needs. This includes all trucking related insurance services including property and casualty, liability and benefits. We’ve been doing this for over 20 years and no other agency offers our deep expertise in this area.

4. Yogurt Shop Example

Each WhirlyBird Yogurt store will offer 10 flavors of yogurt and 25 toppings to people within a five-mile radius of their carefully selected locations, ideal for people who want a healthy meal or snack. As an example, now the 300,000 people who live and work in Meadowbrook won’t have to drive more than five minutes to get great yogurt, served by friendly people in a sparkling clean store. Frozen yogurt has been the fastest growing category in over-the-counter snack foods for the past 3 years, with year-over- year growth rates of 17%. WhirlyBird’s founder, Ronald Smith, has 10 years experience as a regional manager of quick-service restaurants, where he learned how to run efficient, profitable stores. With that experience, Mr. Smith is confident about opening WhirlyBird Yogurt Stores at the rate of 1 every 6 months and building a business that is profitable from year one and surpasses $25 million in revenue within 5 years.

5. Software Company

JD Software provides custom online commerce and back-office solutions to businesses with less than $10 million in sales that can’t afford the high prices of big-name consulting firms. These business customers will be eager to drive their sales and improve efficiency, now that it can be accomplished with a fraction of the time and money required by the big-name firms. Our founder, John DelMonte, has 8 years’ experience as a senior project manager for EDS, where he learned how to manage projects from start to finish using skilled independent contractors. With a market of over 8,000 small businesses in San Diego with revenue ranging from $1 million and $10 million, JD Software Solutions will be cash-flow positive and profitable in less than 12 months.

6. Online E-commerce Business

Our company is called ConstructionBoots.com, an e-commerce website that sells brandname construction boots. There are currently no companies serving this niche exclusively. ConstructionBoots.com will drive traffic to the site by linking to other websites catering to the construction industry as well as through word-of-mouth. In industry surveys, over 90% of construction workers have these three traits: 1) they have a favorite brand of boots, 2) they know their size, and 3) they hate shopping at stores. In our own polling, over 70% indicated that they would prefer to buy their boots online and have them delivered. Accordingly, we expect a great market response and rapid sales ramp-up.

Do you have any more elevator speech examples, suggestions or samples?

Please let us know, we’re always trying to improve our content to provide as much value as possible. Also, always remember: be brief, stay focused, and think big – the road to the perfect elevator pitch awaits!