Whether you're introducing yourself at a networking event, telling new colleagues about your business, or pitching to another professional — you want to capture attention and get it fast.
In situations like these, you need a short and easy-to-grasp explanation of your company and its products, like an elevator pitch.
In this post, we'll discuss why you should use a pitch, discuss different types, learn how to write your own, and give you tips on how to make a memorable one.
What is an elevator pitch?
An elevator pitch — also known as elevator speech — is a short, memorable description of what you do and/or what you sell. The goal is to earn a second conversation, not to convince the person you're talking to that they should hire you or buy your solution.
An elevator pitch is never an opportunity to close a deal. It's an opportunity to close more of your prospect's attention and time. It's a quick introduction to you, your company, and how you can help your prospect.
Elevator Speech Example
Hi, I'm an account manager with Vacation Locator. We help travelers across the world plan their perfect holiday based on their interests, budget, and location preferences. With travel experts assigned to each account, we find the best deals and most unique experiences for each client, so they can enjoy their vacation, instead of stressing out about planning it. On average, we're able to save travelers up to 30% on expenses such as hotel and airfare.
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Download Now: Free Elevator Pitch Templates
E-pitch templates to better sell your product, fund your business, or network.
- 4 Fundraising Pitch Templates
- 2 Networking Pitch Templates
- 2 Sales Pitch Templates
When to use an elevator pitch?
Pull it out at networking events, conferences, warm calls — and even job interviews or career fairs. Keep your elevator pitch goal-oriented (e.g., "I help companies like yours increase production by up to 30% without additional cost.") and always end with a business card or request to connect on LinkedIn.
If you're curious about what an elevator pitch should look like, or simply ready to jumpstart the pitch creation process, download the templates below. We've compiled several types of templates — from sales pitches to funding requests.
No matter which type of pitch you're delivering, concision is essential. You don't want to waste your prospect's, investor's, or fellow professional's time. With that in mind, how much time should you spend on an elevator pitch?
How long should an elevator pitch be?
An effective elevator pitch is meant to be no more than 30 seconds, just like the length of time you ride in an elevator. You want to keep your words easily digestible, so avoid trying to get too deep into specifics as it can drag on the conversation — and lose your prospect's attention.
You should have an effective elevator pitch prepared before you need it, since you have such a short time to deliver it.
To show your value in under a minute, your pitch needs purpose, flow, and a hook to reel in attention.
How to Write an Elevator Pitch
1. Use elevator pitch templates.
Download Free E-Pitch Templates
Get your pitch started by using HubSpot's easy-to-use templates. As you write your pitch, you can adjust it as required to address the specific needs of the recipient.
The templates include three different types of pitches: For sales prospects, investors, and potential network connections. No matter what you aim to do with your pitch, having a strong starting framework is essential. Telling your or your company's story in less than a minute can be a challenge, and using templates can help you more effectively hone your message.
Once you've downloaded your templates, tailor them by following the steps below.
2. Introduce yourself.
Before jumping into your elevator pitch, you'll need to introduce yourself to the person you're talking to. Write a sentence about who you are and what your role is at the company (e.g., "I'm a sales rep at Better Than the Rest Cable."). This will help you start the conversation off on the right foot.
Remember not to ramble. Researcher Diana Tamir shows that when we talk about ourselves, our brains show activity in the areas linked to value and motivation. Our bodies are rewarded when we talk about ourselves, so, especially when we're in high-stress situations, we resort to what feels good.
Tamir says, "This helps to explain why people so obsessively engage in this behavior. It's because it provides them with some sort of subjective value: It feels good, basically."
The problem with rambling in an elevator pitch scenario is that you haven't earned the prospect's interest or attention yet. They don't care who you are yet, how long you've worked in your company, or what job you had before. Keep the information about yourself to a minimum and earn the right to share more later in the deal.
3. State your company's mission.
Have a clear understanding of what your company does. What's the company's mission and goals for its product or service? Include a section in your pitch where you introduce the company. The more you know about the business, the easier it will be to cater your pitch to the person you're talking to.
For example, "I'm a sales rep at Better Than the Rest Cable. We help hotels across the U.S. pair with the perfect cable provider and plan for their region and needs."
This is a succinct description of what the company does — without getting into the weeds. If you were to be cut off after these two sentences, the prospect would still know exactly who you are and what your company does.
4. Explain the company value proposition.
What does your company do exceptionally well that sets its product or service apart from the rest? Write a brief, 1-2 sentence statement about the value the product or service provides to current customers.
You've introduced yourself and your company, now it's time to get to the goods. Let's see what that looks like:
"I'm a sales rep at Better Than the Rest Cable. We help hotels across the U.S. pair with the perfect cable provider and plan for their region and needs. With regional experts assigned to each account, we help hotels identify the most cost-effective and guest-delighting cable plan for them."
In one sentence, you've told the prospect what sets us apart and how you can bring them value. You've likely piqued their interest, but how can you really grab their attention? Read on.
5. Grab their attention with a hook.
Pull in your audience with an exciting story about a customer or the company founders. Or offer up a fascinating fact or statistic about the product. An attention-grabbing hook keeps people engaged with what you're saying. Let's finish up our pitch below with an attention-grabbing statistic.
"I'm a sales rep at Better Than the Rest Cable. We help hotels across the U.S. pair with the perfect cable provider and plan for their region and needs. With regional experts assigned to each account, we help hotels identify the most cost-effective and guest-delighting cable plan for them. On average, we're able to save hotels up to 25% on their annual cable bills."
6. Read and edit the pitch.
Read your pitch aloud and make sure it sounds natural. If your pitch is overly formal, you could come off as stuffy and uptight. Instead, make your pitch conversational. This will keep your audience captivated and more likely to continue the conversation.
Download Now: Free Elevator Pitch Templates
E-pitch templates to better sell your product, fund your business, or network.
- 4 Fundraising Pitch Templates
- 2 Networking Pitch Templates
- 2 Sales Pitch Templates
Elevator Pitch Templates
Now that you know how to write an elevator pitch, download HubSpot's eight free elevator pitch templates to put your learnings into action. These templates can be used to make a sale, start networking, or jumpstart a deal for business capital.
Featured Resource: 8 Free Elevator Pitch Templates
Download Free E-Pitch Templates
Our templates follow established best practices for elevator pitches. Each one includes:
- A personal greeting: Start every pitch by establishing a human connection and making your prospect feel seen and heard.
- A statement of your company's mission: Your mission can be blended with your value proposition and vice versa. But this piece of information is essential to get your prospect's buy-in, quickly.
- A hook to get your audience's attention: The hook can be as simple as a probing question or a highly personalized statement that's been tailored to your prospect's needs. Either way, the hook will often seal the deal.
- A real example: See the template in action by reading a filled-out example, allowing you to visualize what your pitch may look like as you refine and edit it.
Using these templates allows you to save precious time and focus on the essence of the pitch instead of minute details, such as how to start it off or how to organize it. Your prospect's time is valuable, and so is yours.
30 Second Elevator Pitch Examples
If you're looking for some inspiration, look no further. The following elevator pitch examples illustrate different ways to describe what you can offer in 30 seconds or less.
1. An Attention-Grabbing Question
Has your boss ever asked you to "whip up a quick report before the end of the day"? You say yes with a sinking heart — because you know it'll be the opposite of quick. The founders of my company, AnswerASAP, constantly dealt with this problem in their roles as marketing executives. So they created a tool that puts all your data in one place and creates unique reports within 30 seconds or less.
This elevator pitch is effective because:
- It grabs your attention with a question.
- It reminds you of an annoying — and frequent — pain.
- It demonstrates empathy for your situation.
- It's straightforward and doesn't use jargon.
2. The Credibility Boost
As an account executive for AnswerASAP, I talk to hundreds of marketers per month. And 99% of them hate creating reports. It's time-consuming, it's tedious, and it's usually not your highest priority. That's where our tool comes in — it pulls from all of your data to create any report you want in less than the time it takes to pour a cup of coffee.
This elevator pitch is effective because:
- It demonstrates the speaker's authority.
- It reinforces how strongly you hate making reports.
- It uses a common metaphor to highlight the tool's ease of use.
3. The Surprise Ending
You want to know how many leads from your webinar campaign became customers versus leads from your trade show booth. But only customers who bought two products — and weren't already in your database.
How long would it take you to create that report?
If you had AnswerASAP, a data and reporting tool, you'd already know. It creates reports in a matter of seconds.
This elevator pitch is effective because:
- It has a "surprise ending."
- It illustrates how valuable the product is creatively.
- It forces you to compare your current situation to a better world.
4. An Outlandish Stat
Your marketing team members will each spend approximately 8,730 minutes of their work year putting together reports. Across your teams and departments, how much money can you save if you took that chore off their to-do lists with AnswerASAP, the reporting tool that automatically pulls your data into an easy-to-read (and send) dashboard? We've saved companies thousands of dollars per year, and they're operating more efficiently than ever.
This elevator pitch is effective because:
- It grabs your attention with numbers while aggravating a pain.
- It makes you realize the true productivity cost of reporting.
- It sparks your frustration.
5. The Short and Sweet
The founders of my company were originally marketers. The worst part of their day, by far, was … Want to take a guess? No, it wasn't arguing with Sales. They detested making reports. I don't blame them. You know what a pain in the neck it is. That's why they created AnswerASAP. You can create any report you want in a matter of seconds.
This elevator pitch is effective because:
- It's short and sweet.
- It explains the inspiration for the product.
- It includes the company's origin story — a move in keeping with seminal cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner's theory that people are 22 times more likely to remember a fact when it's presented as part of a story.
Download Now: Free Elevator Pitch Templates
E-pitch templates to better sell your product, fund your business, or network.
- 4 Fundraising Pitch Templates
- 2 Networking Pitch Templates
- 2 Sales Pitch Templates
6. A Customer Story
Siena Rosen, a marketer at Dunder Mifflin, used to spend 30 minutes per day manually creating reports. Now that she uses AnswerASAP, that's gone down to four minutes. She's making twice as many reports in less time. Our tool helps marketers like Siena answer any question on their mind (or their boss's) nearly instantly. If you're curious, I can explain more.
This elevator pitch is effective because:
- It uses a customer example to give the product credibility.
- It shows a clear and compelling "before and after."
- It demonstrates value.
- It gives you a chance to say, "Sure, tell me more," or "I'm good, thank you."
7. The Reality Check
Every day, the average marketer spends half an hour putting together reports. Most of the time, these reports are barely glanced at — or worse, ignored altogether. AnswerASAP, which stores all of your data from every tool your business uses, is a game-changer here. Just type what report you want: For example, "A bar chart of revenue from every lead source in the past month." You'll get your report in 30 seconds.
This elevator pitch is effective because:
- It makes you realize the true productivity cost of reporting.
- It sparks your frustration.
- It helps you understand exactly how the product works with a simple example.
8. The Joke
How many marketers does it take to do monthly reporting? None if they've automated the process with AnswerASAP. Each employee that uses this tool saves 30 minutes per day on average, which is time they can spend on marketing tasks more worthy of their time such as improving performance on campaigns and increasing ROI across the board.
This elevator pitch is effective because:
- It engages the audience (at least, if you use a joke that's actually funny).
- It provides instant relatability.
- It draws on a known truth about the industry and positions an unexpected solution.
9. The Emotional Appeal
When I started my career in marketing, I thought I would be making a difference for my organization right away, but as the junior member of the team, all the reporting and administrative tasks were pushed onto me. I was spending so much time creating reports for key stakeholders that could've been diverted to more important revenue-generating activities. If you're not using AnswerASAP, you're spending too much of the organization's time, money, and talent on something that can be generated by our tool on-demand in 30 seconds.
This elevator pitch is effective because:
- It evokes emotion and empathy through storytelling.
- It establishes a pain or problem you can relate to.
- It draws a hard-hitting conclusion as a natural "moral of the story."
10. The One-Liner
AnswerASAP saves marketers time by eliminating the tediousness of data-gathering and formatting to create beautiful marketing reports in less than 30 seconds.
This elevator pitch is effective because:
- It demonstrates the company's value proposition.
- It is short and sweet if you need to get to the point.
11. The Mutual Connection
As I understand it, we have a mutual connection — Zachary Koch. He's actually a customer of ours. His company was able to cut its software development lifecycle in half by leveraging our solution. You two are industry partners of a similar scale, so you would likely see similar results. Would you like to hear more about what we did for him and could do for you?
This elevator pitch is effective because:
- It immediately builds trust.
- It references easily verifiable results.
12. The Advisor
In working with other budding B2B SaaS companies, we've found that one of the key issues they struggle with is content marketing. This past year we helped a number of your industry peers to create, publish, and promote blog content to support their inbound marketing efforts, resulting in an average 20% increase in leads generated. Would you like to hear more?
This elevator pitch is effective because:
- It demonstrates familiarity with a prospect's work.
- It provides actionable insight with hard results.
13. The Networker
Hi, it's nice to meet you! I'm Nathan with AnswerASAP. We've been able to help our clients cut down the time they spend creating reports from 30 minutes to 30 seconds, giving them more time to focus on revenue-generating work. Would you like to know more?
This elevator pitch is effective because:
- It's short and simple.
- It shows how the product has helped other customers.
Download Now: Free Elevator Pitch Templates
E-pitch templates to better sell your product, fund your business, or network.
- 4 Fundraising Pitch Templates
- 2 Networking Pitch Templates
- 2 Sales Pitch Templates
14. The Salesperson
Let me ask you something: do you actually enjoy manually creating reports? Neither do we. In fact, we at AnswerASAP hate it so much that we've created an automated reporting tool that keeps all of your data in one place, allowing you to create customized reports in 30 seconds or less. We know you're a growing company that needs a quick and easy way to create reports without taking away time from high priority tasks, and AnswerASAP can help you with that. Is this something you'd like to learn more about?
This elevator pitch is effective because:
- It speaks to a common pain point.
- It demonstrated value.
14. Business Owner to Business Owner
I'm obsessed with your products at ABC Inc. and I'm so inspired by the work that you do. However, I'm going to be honest, I noticed some major opportunities to improve your reporting processes and overall efficiency. Have you ever thought about switching to an automated reporting system? It could help lower your time spent creating reports down to just a few seconds.
This elevator pitch is effective because:
- It shows that the speaker is genuinely invested in your company's success.
- It demonstrates how the product can positively impact your company.
Now that we've seen some great elevator pitch examples, let's discuss what you should try to avoid.
What Not to Do in an Elevator Pitch
Now that we've looked at some good examples, let's look at what not to do.
1. Don't ramble.
I've been a rep at Sales-R-Us for five years now. They're the best company I've ever worked for. I've loved my time there. I started as a BDR and have worked my way up to a senior position. I've never looked back. I also love the services we sell. I can't wait to tell you about them. Sales-R-Us help companies become more efficient with their sales through training, evaluation, leadership management, and that's just to name a few. We have a unique approach that's been honed by lots of sales experts over the years, and I've seen our solution really help a lot of companies and teams. I've had many clients whose businesses have been saved because of our genius solution. I know we can do the same for you. Would you be interested in learning more?
This elevator pitch is not effective because:
- It's way too long.
- The rep spends way too much time talking about themself.
- It never gets specific or actionable.
- It never provides actual examples or attention-grabbing facts.
2. Don't use too much jargon.
At Stratosphere Solutions, our OS-level virtualization delivers software in containers, all of which share the system of a lone operating system kernel. These containers are isolated but can communicate with one another through well-defined channels. Ultimately, this lets you use fewer resources than traditional virtual machines.
This elevator pitch is not effective because:
- It's inaccessible to someone without relevant technical knowledge.
- It features too much jargon.
- It tries to condense an extremely complicated topic into 30 seconds.
- Its value proposition isn't clear-cut.
3. Don't insert your prospect's personal information.
I visited your Instagram and noticed that you have a pitbull. I have a pitbull, too! I bet he sometimes distracts you when you work from home, which is the absolute pits when you're trying to put together a report for your boss. Your dog — what's his name? — may be asking for your attention, but I assure you you can still create a report as easy as 1-2-3 with AnswerASAP. While petting your pupperino.
This elevator pitch is not effective because:
- It sacrifices the hook in favor of creating a "personal connection."
- It's too familiar with the prospect to the point of discomfort.
- It makes assumptions about the prospect's work-from-home tendencies.
- It uses informal slang ("the absolute pits," "pupperino") for unnecessary humor.
4. Don't under-emphasize the problem you're solving.
It's possible that you may run into issues when putting reports together for your boss. For instance, things may go awry every once in a while, such as disappearing data or disagreeing sources. With AnswerASAP, you can lay those worries to rest. We have a few features that will help you with those issues if you ever run into them.
This elevator pitch is not effective because:
- It treats a customer problem as a possibility and not an urgent reality.
- It's vague ("things may go awry") and doesn't emphasize how those issues can hurt the prospect.
- It doesn't specify the product features that will solve the prospect's challenges.
- Because it never goes into detail, it shows little research and care.
Remember, an elevator pitch should only come at someone else's prompting. If you're spontaneously reciting it to random people, you're not doing yourself any favors. But if they ask, you want to be prepared with an interesting, well-crafted pitch.
Elevator Speech Best Practices
1. Keep it brief.
The purpose of an elevator speech is to be as brief as possible while capturing a prospect's attention. Try to stay under sixty seconds — including your introduction. Even if you're delivering your elevator speech during a formal presentation, where you have time to elaborate if needed, keep the bulk of your pitch under sixty seconds.
If you don't, you won't be able to use your pitch when you're chatting with prospects in situations with tighter time constraints — such as a tradeshow or a chance meeting.
2. Practice multiple times beforehand.
You may have written the most incredible elevator speech for your product, but if you hamper the delivery by misremembering or even forgetting parts of your pitch, it won't be an effective tool. Be sure to practice by yourself, with your manager, and with your colleagues.
The goal isn't just to memorize it, but to practice your tone, pace, and overall delivery.
Download Now: Free Elevator Pitch Templates
E-pitch templates to better sell your product, fund your business, or network.
- 4 Fundraising Pitch Templates
- 2 Networking Pitch Templates
- 2 Sales Pitch Templates
3. Come prepared with additional materials.
When you're delivering your elevator pitch, be prepared to provide your prospect with what they need to continue the conversation. Whether that's a business card, a brochure, or a short demo, carry all that you might need with you.
The elevator speech is your opportunity to begin a deal on the right foot and speed the nurturing process. Typically, you might take weeks emailing a prospect before they're ready to schedule a meeting with you, but an elevator pitch speeds that work. You want to have the materials you need to keep the conversation going.
4. Be positive and enthusiastic.
It's essential to show your personality during your elevator pitch, but whether you're a quiet, calm introvert or a charming, excitable extrovert, you should still convey positivity and enthusiasm.
You can use your body language and expression to keep things positive, even if your tone is quiet and calm. You might highlight the amazing benefits your prospect will enjoy if they sign up, or tell a positive story from one of your previous clients.
Most importantly, you should make it obvious that you want to help your prospect more than anything — which will make you sound positive by default.
5. Vary the tone of your voice.
As you deliver your pitch, vary your tone and modulation to keep your listener engaged. This will help you emphasize the most important parts of your speech — such as the benefits — while keeping your prospect's attention. The pitch may be short, but you'll be surprised at how easily people can tune out based on your tone alone. We don't want to risk it! Especially if it's a prospect you've never spoken with.
Reel in Clients with an Effective Elevator Pitch
While a short speech may seem insignificant, those first conversations can hold some weight. With a well-crafted pitch, you can turn a single conversation with a prospect into a long-lasting customer, or even into a business partner. We hope you found these examples helpful and are inspired to craft your own effective elevator pitch.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
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