Elevator pitches are a crucial tool for any entrepreneur or business professional looking to make a quick and impactful impression on potential investors, partners, or customers. In just a few short minutes, an effective Elevator Pitch can communicate the core value proposition of a product or service and persuade the listener to take action.
However, crafting a great elevator pitch can be a challenge. That's why we've compiled a list of 12 elevator pitch examples to inspire and guide you in your next pitch.
From tech startups to social enterprises, these pitches showcase different approaches and techniques that can help you create a winning pitch. So whether you're pitching a new business idea, a product, or yourself, read on for some valuable insights and inspiration!
What is an elevator pitch?
An elevator pitch is a brief introduction of your company, the products/services you offer, and the problems you seek to address. The main purpose is to initiate and further the conversation with the audience.
It should be short and crisp, like an elevator ride, and thus the name.
How to write a powerful elevator pitch?
Follow these tips to write a captivating pitch:
- Introduction
Start with an engaging introduction that will hook the reader to the content. It can be a question or a statistic that would create interest to learn more.
When you grab the attention of the reader, they will be open to know about your business.
- Problem presentation
To make your pitch powerful, you should include a problem statement. The pitch should also speak about how you came up with a solution.
This will help people relate to their problems and will look up to you for their solutions. Portraying results in numbers helps grab attention easily.
- Use templates
Use of templates enables you to easily include all relevant information. An ideal elevator pitch should be short but also include all key elements.
In such a case, templates are handy and ensure not to miss out on any detail.
- Highlight company objectives
Make sure to highlight your company objectives through your pitch. For example, if your business is to help people improve team productivity, you should mention how you do it.
But at the same time, you shouldn’t try to cram more information to seek attention.
- Make the pitch attractive and conversational
Your pitch should be conversational and intend to attract the readers. It should not be dull with uninteresting information.
12 Elevator pitch examples for your next pitch
Here are 12 elevator pitche examples that you can use in your next pitch.
1. Include impressive statistics
Engaging with your audience becomes easier when you start with impressive statistics. It is one way to establish trust. Look at this example:
“Did you know 60% of a worker’s time is spent coordinating work, even with ways available to connect remotely?” You might be plagued with productivity issues if it continues! Project management tools can come to your rescue. |
2. Attention-grabbing question
Start with a captivating question that kindles the interest of the reader. They should be motivated to read the pitch since it addresses their pain points.
Are you facing difficulties in accelerating your sales process? Well, many sales teams that follow proper strategies are able to see visible improvements. Do you want to be one among them? |
3. Keep your pitch short and sweet
Your elevator pitch should be crisp and to the point. When it is brief and carries information that is most needed, it is much preferred by the audience.
Analyzing your sales performance becomes much easier with our sales productivity tools. Connect with us, and we can take you through its features and how it can help your team. |
4. Include customer story
When you include a customer story in your pitch, it helps build trust. It is easier to understand the problem situation and how you helped your customers out of it when expressed as customer testimonials or case studies.
Our customers who had difficulties in sales conversions were able to optimize their conversion rates when they chose our sales conversion tools. You can read more about their story here (provide link). |
5. Relatable pitching
Creating a pitch that is relatable to the audience’s needs will help generate the desired response. It indicates that you have approached the correct buyer persona.
Glad that I got to meet you finally! How is your business going on? I heard you are struggling with lead prospecting. We think lead scoring would help you land the right leads. Do check out the tools available at our portal. |
6. Emotional pitch
This elevator pitch uses the storytelling approach and establishes a pain that many can relate to. By creating an emotional pitch it is easy to generate interest in the reader.
“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.” |
7. Highlight how you can help
The elevator pitch should explain how you can help. This will enable the audience to relate their problem and also get an insight into how to solve the same.
Hi, I am Sally, a SaaS SEO expert with a wide range of experience. I help brands optimize their search engines in a short span of time. Here’s a link to schedule a call, so we can meet and discuss how I can help scale your growth. |
8. The one-line pitch
When your pitch can convey the intent in just one line, it can gather more attention. It is simple and to the point.
ABC.io helps save marketers time with reporting and analytics tools that offer real-time tracking information. |
9. Establish authority
Your pitch should establish in clear terms what your product can achieve. For example, the below pitch mentions that any kind of report can be generated in just 30 seconds.
Every day, an average marketer spends half an hour putting together reports. This though is not looked into and goes wasted. ABC.io stores all of your data from every tool your business uses. 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. |
10. Advisory pitch
By presenting a situation where your business was able to help, your pitch is also helping the reader to opt for a solution to see visible improvements. It indicates that you are familiar with the pain point of the reader.
In working with some popular upcoming B2B SaaS companies, we've found that one of the key issues they struggle with is content marketing. The previous 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 25% increase in lead generation. Do you wish to learn more about this? |
11. Include a comic aspect
You can even add a comic touch to a serious aspect in your elevator pitch. This is one strategy to win attention easily.
Did you know that the average person can only pay attention for eight seconds? That’s not even long enough to place my coffee order in the morning. But seriously, I think that’s why so many companies struggle to hit deadlines. |
12. Use a specific example
Saying through specific examples, can achieve greater reach for your sales pitch. The following is a good example of this.
Good afternoon, my name is Brad, and I represent XYZ, a company that specializes in project management tools. Our software can help you streamline your projects, reduce costs, and increase efficiency. Our clients have seen an average of 20% improvement in project timelines and a 15% reduction in costs. Would you like to see similar improvements in your organization too? |
5 Elevator pitch examples from top companies
1. Airbnb
The elevator pitch example from Airbnb addresses travelers and homeowners. It presents a problem statement which is the cost of hotel rooms that is bothering travelers. By mentioning the example of the Couchsurfing platform, it has given validity to the statement that homeowners are increasingly willing to rent their space to tourists.
2. WeWork
An elevator pitch should highlight the benefits that the audience would get if they engage with your business. WeWork, through its pitch shown below, mentions the percentage of savings in cost, which is an attractive factor for the readers.
“There are 40MM independent workers in the US as consultants, freelancers, and small business owners. Solving office space is tough and expensive, especially in cities like New York. We created the concept of space as a service. We have 20 locations in the city- where people can rent a desk or an office without any of the complications of a traditional lease. They can effectively save at least 25% of the cost. They get access to a shared front desk, mailroom, and a community of like-minded people.” |
3. Stryve
The elevator pitch by Stryve, a cloud-based ATS that helps in recruitment, seeks to convey the solution straightforwardly. It is directly addressed to their ideal customer profiles.
4. Tesla
This is the elevator pitch by Tesla, delivered by Elon Musk in 2014. It shows what solution the company intends to offer and what they need to make it happen.
“What we are trying to do with Tesla is to change the world by bringing electric cars — sustainable transport — to the world and showing people that an electric car can be fun and sexy and fast and long-range. But in order to be successful in that, we need people to take a chance on the company. We need people who are willing to be early adopters of new technology.” |
5. Uber
This is a simple elevator pitch from Uber. It lets people know what the company does and the efficiency with which it is done.
"Uber is a transportation network company that connects passengers with drivers through a smartphone app. With just a few taps, you can get a ride in minutes, and our technology ensures that you're matched with the closest available driver for a seamless experience." |
FAQs
1. What is the ideal length of an elevator pitch?
An effective elevator pitch should ideally be no more than 30 seconds. Within this short span, it should be able to convey the information in a captivating manner.
2. What should you focus on in your elevator pitch?
You should focus on the critical message that needs to be conveyed to the reader. It should include a problem situation, a solution to the same, benefits, and a call to action.
3. What to avoid in an elevator pitch?
An elevator pitch should avoid: rambling, being vague, not focusing on benefits, not personalizing the pitch, trying to cram more details, and assuming the other person knows all details.
4. What are the essential elements of an elevator pitch?
The elevator pitch should introduce a problem and offer a solution that you have expertise in. It should inspire action from the reader.
The bottom line
An elevator pitch is an opportunity to display your strengths. It should be succinct, easy to understand, and drive a call to action. We hope the above templates will be of great help in preparing your pitch. Include a personalized approach and create engaging pitches to stimulate interest in the audience.
