Elevator Pitch Examples

What an elevator pitch is

An elevator pitch is a short spoken description of an idea, short enough to give during a ride in an elevator. The book’s board game sets it at 30 seconds, which is roughly 70 to 80 words when you speak at a natural pace. The idea behind it is simple: if you cannot explain what you want in the time it takes to get from the ground floor to the third, you will lose the person before you get to the point.

Most people expect a pitch to win the sale. It rarely does. A good elevator pitch gets you the next conversation, and the book has a scenario that shows why.

A scenario from the book

The Business Playground Creative Quotient quiz in the Blast Off chapter asks what you would do if you found yourself in the elevator with the CEO, with an idea you have been trying to get past the bureaucracy for months. You could:

• jam your finger on the emergency stop button and make your pitch at your leisure,
• blurt it out as fast as you can, not knowing how soon she gets out or others get in,
• make a friendly comment about the stock price and say nothing else,
• ask her for 10 minutes of her time at another date, or
• do none of these things, and kick yourself when you leave the elevator.

The authors say they do not know the right answer. It is a tough one. They think asking for 10 minutes later sounds the most sensible. Stopping the elevator and blurting everything out only happen in cheesy movies, and saying something polite and nothing else, or doing nothing, is what most people actually do.

The lesson for a pitch is the same. Its job is to earn the ten minutes, not to explain everything. That is why the format below ends with an ask.

A four-part format

The Blast Off chapter gives an idea an identity with a few questions. Think about who it is aimed at, what it will make them feel, and how it is better or different from the competition. It also asks for a name. Those questions turn into a pitch with four parts.

1. Name it, and say who it is for. A name can communicate the main characteristics of the idea, like Super Glue, or convey a sense of its purpose, like Nike, the Greek goddess of strength, speed and victory. Say the name early, and say who needs it.
2. Say what it does and how it feels. One sentence on what it does. Then one on what it will make them feel: relieved, proud, safer, faster. This is where evocative language helps. The Far Out chapter says it can dramatize a problem and bring it to life, so use one vivid detail, not a list of features.
3. Say why it is different. How is it better than what they do today, or than the alternatives? If you cannot say, the idea is not ready.
4. Ask for the next step. Not “what do you think?” Something specific: ten minutes next week, a trial with one team, an introduction.

Here is the format as a fill-in-the-blanks sentence:

I’m [your name]. [Name] is a [what it is] for [who], so they can [what it does] and feel [how it feels]. Today they [what they do now]. [Name] is different because [why]. Could we find ten minutes [when] to talk about trying it?

Elevator pitch examples

The book contains no sample pitches. It has the rules of a game and the elevator scenario above. The examples below are written for this guide, using the book’s questions and some of its ideas. Each is about 70 to 80 words. Replace the bracketed words with your own details.

A pitch for a company, based on an idea from the book’s Connected chapter. In the chapter, the authors forced the random word “donation” onto the problem of traffic in Los Angeles, and one of their ideas was companies sponsoring free bus passes for commuters.

Hi, I’m [name]. Ride on Us is a bus pass for your staff, paid for by sponsors instead of by them, so they can get to work without a car and arrive relaxed. Today most of them sit in traffic, which is stressful and bad for the roads. Ride on Us is different because the pass costs your employees nothing and your company gets credit for it. Could we find ten minutes next week to talk about being a sponsor?

A pitch to a manager, for an idea inside a company.

Hi, I’m [name]. I’d like to try one meeting-free afternoon a week, so the team can do focused work and finish the day feeling in control. Right now our calendars are full of meetings and we work on our real tasks in the gaps. A trial is different from a policy: it is four weeks, we measure the result and we stop if it does not work. Could I have ten minutes on Thursday to show you the plan?

A pitch built on the book’s game rules. In the board game’s Elevator pitch square you have 30 seconds to pitch to the CEO’s right-hand person, and you must mention your product’s name exactly five times, say “return on investment” twice, and compliment your listener. The book’s product card is Chewagloo, a blob of mint-flavored glue that you activate by chewing. Here is a pitch to those rules.

That’s a lovely jacket, by the way. Chewagloo is glue you chew. Chew Chewagloo and it turns sticky, mint-fresh and ready to use. Chewagloo gives you a return on investment, because one blob replaces a tube, a brush and a bin. That is a return on investment you can taste. Chewagloo is different from every other glue because it lives in your mouth. Chewagloo: can I have ten minutes?

The game’s rules are a joke, and we read them as one: nobody should pitch like that in real life. But the constraints teach something real. Repeating the name five times makes you notice how rarely we say the name of what we are selling, and a pitch with a name that sticks is easier to pass on.

Common mistakes

• Telling everything. The book’s blurt-it-all-out option is the mistake of trying to cover the whole idea in one breath. Choose the one sentence on what it does, and leave the rest for the ten minutes.
• Starting with the solution. If the listener does not know who it is for, they will not know why it matters. Say who first.
• Having no ask. Without a next step, a good pitch ends with “interesting” and nothing happens. The book’s most sensible option is to ask for a date.
• Forgetting the name. If they cannot repeat the name, they cannot ask for it. Think about the name before you think about the slides.
• Using buzzwords. The game’s “return on investment” rule makes fun of boardroom language. Say what it does in plain words.
• Never saying it out loud. A pitch that reads well can still sound wrong. Say it to someone before you say it to the CEO.

Practice it

The best way to improve a pitch is to give it, and be told you have 30 seconds. The Pitching Ideas Game has the book’s Elevator pitch square, with a timer and the book’s three rules. The Idea Launch Game takes an idea through naming, a short news story and a crew in 30 minutes, which is the groundwork a good pitch needs.

When you have an idea worth pitching, the product launch plan template puts the name, the mission and the crew on one printable page.