How to Write a Compelling Elevator Pitch That Sticks

A carefully crafted pitch delivers your unique value proposition, anticipates questions before they come up, and lets you start strong without tripping or scrambling for an answer. It’s the sales pitch for your startup and it makes a good first impression on listeners.

It is a versatile tool that can be used to:

• Spark interest from potential investors
• Sell directly to consumers at events
• Guide your copywriting and personal brand
• Pitch to bloggers and open up strategic partnerships

A good hook should be flexible and depend on how well the person knows you, if they do at all. By the end of your introduction, the listener/reader should know:

• Who you are (work experience, education, etc.)
• Your brand and business model
• Your product/service category and what you’re selling

One can start with the name of the brand, and personalize the approach for the listener and their existing knowledge in order to hook them from the get-go.

You need to exemplify who your target customer is and the opportunity you’re tapping into.

• The pain points you’re solving.
• The passions you’re letting people express.
• The gap you’re filling and opportunity you're creating.
• The amount of time/money you’re helping people save.

You can illustrate these needs with some facts, testimonials and stats if you have the time.

Instead of glossing over your competition, acknowledge it—especially if you’re pitching to someone who knows your industry or market. Drawing attention to the competition gives you an excuse to explicitly differentiate your business from others.

A comparison regarding what value you are adding helps you start a conversation with a one-up position over the competition. Be sure to avoid buzzwords and include key points about what makes you the best solution.

You want to tell them just enough so they really want to find out more, and want to book that meeting/call where you can go into more detail, or are prepared to make time immediately to talk in more detail. But what you do want to make sure you land within that elevator pitch is how your business makes money.

The next steps can be: 

• Handing someone your business card.
• Recommending a product or sending a sample.
• Asking someone to connect with you on LinkedIn or by email to discuss working together.
• Suggesting that the person pass your information along to their own circles.

Templates offer a good starting point, but you want to make it your own as much as you can. As always, practice makes perfect, and the more feedback you get over time, the more you can improve your pitch.

My name is [YOUR NAME], founder of [YOUR COMPANY]. We offer [PRODUCT/SERVICE] for [TARGET MARKET] to [VALUE PROPOSITION].

Unlike [THE COMPETITION], we [KEY DIFFERENTIATOR]. And we recently [RECENT MILESTONE].

[CALL TO ACTION]

My name is Vicki, a marketer at Acme Tech. We offer a platform that enables both the early entrepreneur and the large enterprise to build and run their own stores.

Unlike most marketplaces where you can sell your products, Acme lets you build and brand your own online store with the tools to sell across a variety of channels, manage inventory, start small, and scale fast.

Today, over one million entrepreneurs use Acme to power their businesses.

If you’ve got a product to sell, visit Acme.com to start your 14-day free trial.

• Social proof is simply people doing what they observe others doing. 
• People are more likely to engage with what is already popular. 
• Social proof is used in advertising all the time. 
• People want to belong and command the respect of others. It results in people copying what’s already popular.

If you propose that your ideas are already accepted, the listener is more likely to engage with it.

• Storify your pitch and make the narrative compelling and attention grabbing.
• Explain the product using a quick analogy(We are the Netflix of Laundry Detergents!)
• Include concrete numbers.
• Use words that are easy to remember and slogans that roll off the tongue or rhyme.
• Use multimedia.