Back in Tasmania six years ago, there was no networking opportunities. So I rarely had to explain to people in-person what I did. Then we moved to Wollongong and women’s networking events were everywhere. When I nervously attended the first event, creating an elevator pitch to use was the furthest thing from my mind. Over time, I realised how important having a strong introduction was.

The purpose of an elevator speech is not to get a transaction, but rather to elicit a conversation. It’s about piquing their interest in what you do and how it relates to what they’re going through. You can then carry that conversation through to converting someone, if you wish.

In the early days, I introduced myself as “Kellie O’Brien and I’m an online marketing consultant”. I didn’t focus on the transformation I provided. And I didn’t give a good first impression either, as I fumbled my way through explaining who I was.

For example people don’t walk around saying “I’d love to spend money on a marketing consultant”. Instead, they’re thinking “I wish I could work out the best way to attract a steady stream of new leads and clients”.

If you’re leading with your title rather than how you help people, then this exercise, complete with elevator pitch worksheet, will help.

What is an elevator pitch and why is it important

Firstly, an elevator pitch is a brief introduction to your business or yourself that succinctly conveys your message. The idea behind an “elevator pitch” is that you can deliver your pitch in the time it takes to ride an elevator.

There is an event locally where business owners stand before the audience and deliver their elevator pitch in 60 seconds. A timer displays on a screen to see if you can successfully complete the task. However, often an elevator pitch doesn’t exceed 30 seconds. Listening to someone introduce themselves for 60 seconds in real life might be a quick ticket for them to find the nearest exit.

The pitch should communicate the value and benefits of your services or product.

So why is an elevator pitch important? If you’ve ever met someone and stumbled over your words explaining what it is you do, you’ll know how having something prepared will present you in the best light.

You’re not asking people to buy from you, but you want something that allows them to want to ask more questions and, ultimately, to remember you.

So when it comes to elevator pitch vs value proposition, what’s the difference? In one of the last blogs, we went through putting together your value proposition. So you may be wondering what the difference is and whether you need both.

The two are very similar. An elevator pitch is the introduction to you and your business that you speak to others. You want to get this across in the shortest time possible. A value proposition shares what your business does to help your clients achieve their goals. You can use it on your website’s homepage or in a business plan. It may simply be one line or it might be a longer description.

In the end, what’s in your elevator pitch and your value proposition may be similar – and that’s OK. You may even find it helpful to go through what you wrote in your value proposition when creating an elevator pitch. In fact, the templates I use with clients to help create their elevator pitches use their value proposition within it.

Keep reading to see what I mean.

How to make a perfect elevator pitch

As I’ve mentioned before, blank screens rarely yield creative outcomes. Having a place to start – whether questions, a template or a framework – tends to at least allow us to start. Even if we find the end result vastly different from the template, it beats starting with nothing.

Before starting, I want you to answer some questions to ensure you have all the pieces you need to form your elevator speech. You can download the worksheet to help you write out the answers to the following questions.

Q1. What are the top 3-5 problems or pain points your ideal client experiences? 

For example, it might be not attracting enough clients, can’t get their staff to do what they ask, diets aren’t working to lose weight, or they’re holding themselves back from achieving their goals.

If we were focusing on a business coach, it might be:

1. Can’t get staff to understand instructions and follow them
2. Losing productivity because of miscommunication
3. Business not functioning like it should and creating more work

Q2. What emotions are they feeling because of this?

We’re looking for the feelings that are a direct result of our top 3-5 problems. Go through this word list of emotions to see which fit:

• anger, sadness, frustration
• lonely, disconnected
• guilty, shame, disgust, embarrassed, self conscious
• fear, nervous, anxious, stressed, scared, afraid
• overwhelm, hopeless, cowardly, powerless, uneasy, unsure, vulnerable

Looking at our business coach example, two obvious ones would be:

• overwhelmed
• frustrated

Q3 What does your ideal client want and what transformation can you provide?

This will be very specific to the service you offer or what your business does as a whole. It could be increased profits, better relationships through improving their communication skills, giving them time freedom, maybe it’s losing a certain amount of weight, or you could provide the confidence to allow them to make better decisions in their life or business through astrology.

If you’re unsure what the outcomes are for your business, a great way to find them is to start with the surface level outcome and then ask “so what? Why should they care about that?” Keep asking yourself “so what?” until you reach what lies underneath their greatest needs and wants.

With our business coach, it might be:

• Mastering their mindset
• Increase their profits
• Having more time to focus on what matters to them

Q4. What feeling will your clients have when they achieve these result/s?

Next, look at a list of positive words that ties into describing the outcome. Go through the list and find the words that best describe that feeling your ideal client ultimately wants.

• empowered, confident, optimistic, courageous, self motivated, enlightened, strong
• ecstatic, excited, joyous, happy, delighted, proud, enlightened,
• relief, content, calm, acceptance, love, carefree, relaxed, focused, grateful

A business coach might want to help their clients feel:

• empowered
• calm
• focused

Q5. Why are you the best person to help with this problem?

You need to tap into your background here and your “why” story. Why do you do what you do and why should someone listen to you?

It may be that you’ve lived through what they’ve lived through. That life experience can be particularly important to certain types of clients. Perhaps you’ve had a background in this area before. Many times business owners have worked in the corporate world and transferred those skills into their own business. This is important for a prospective client to know. Others have had a passion for a topic and gone on to study it.

You may want want to dive a little deeper with this section of your pitch. To do that, you can ask what was the triggering event that led you to do what you do. That moment may help share your why story within your pitch.

In my case, it’s not one specific thing – it’s a series of breadcrumbs that led me to doing what I do. So I might pick the pieces that are relevant to specific audiences.

The other way you can answer this questions, depending on which template you choose, is by sharing your vision from the vision and mission exercise.

If you struggle to find the answers to any of these questions before creating an elevator pitch, sit down with an ideal client and ask them. Of, if you were your most aligned client five years ago, then turn back the clock to remind yourself of what life was like for you then.

Our business coach might now go from:

BEFORE: I’m a business coach and I work with small businesses

AFTER: I’m a business coach and I help overwhelmed small business owners get back more time and money, so they can focus on growing their business. I empower them to confidently lead their team while mastering their own mindset for increased productivity and profits.

Which business coach do you want to work with?

Elevator Pitch templates to help you write your introduction

I want to give you a few templates you can use when creating an elevator speech for you and your business. You may need to write a 60-second elevator speech, a 30-second pitch or an introduction. Having something that’s adaptable to all situations is important.

Here are two templates.

Who We Are Template:

We are a (type of business) that helps (ideal client) by (value proposition) so they can (your clients’ goals or desired transformation). Our vision is to (why you matter).

EXAMPLE: I am a life coach that helps women over 50 unearth their higher purpose so they can live a more fulfilled life. My vision is to see women building lives that bring joy to them and their families.

Depending on the situation, you can lead to a call to action – whether to a service, booking a chat, learning more on your website or following you on social media.

Who We Help Template

With this one we’re putting the benefits to your prospect at the front of the statement. It may be that you’ve already stated your name and even what you do before you use this one. Or you may insert who you are directly after the first line of your statement. There are no hard and fast rules. Do what comes naturally to you.

You know how (pain or problem they have)? Well, I help (ideal client) to (value proposition) by (how you do it). I feel I’m a good person for this because (why you matter).

Often, this one starts better with a story. Here’s what I mean.

Creating an elevator pitch with storytelling

Sometimes, it can sound strange to launch into an “I help people with…” speech. It can also result in glazed over eyes from some. This is where it’s important to use storytelling – as the last template highlighted. If you start with a story, you can then get them to lean in and learn more.

This is really what you want your elevator pitch to do. As we said in the beginning, we’re not looking for a transaction, we’re looking to start a conversation. And a conversation takes two people. You need to get them to want to ask you questions about what you do.

With my own pitch, I often start with “You know how sometimes you feel like you’re throwing darts at a marketing map? Well, I help service-based business owners…”

One day a frustrated client said she felt like she had no marketing strategy, she was simply getting up each day and throwing darts at a marketing map and hoping for the best. Where you can, use your client’s own words.

In a recent mastermind, a client who’s starting an aquaponic urban farm used the story of the waterways drying up due to traditional farming methods and fish supplies depleted due to pollution and overfishing. It catches the ear of the people most interested in investing in his business or collaborating with him.

What story could you share? Maybe it’s a client’s story, your own story or a story that highlights why you’re doing what you do.

Examples of an elevator pitch for business

I want to share a service based business pitch (my own) and a product one (a client’s hoola hoop business), but you can find lots of creative pitch examples about.

Hula Hoop Example

With this one I want to highlight how a pitch can change over time. With this client, they started with one version, but each week in the group program it slowly evolved as they become more confident about what it was they do, who they served and what the transformation was.

First version:

Are you sick and tired of feeling self conscious or uninspired at the gym? Well I run (business name) and we are inspiring a fun based movement revolution that makes you feel confident and free. We curate fun and bold activewear into one place online.

Final version:

We’re inspiring a fun based movement revolution at (business name) through our hula hoops, activewear and hula hoop dance classes for beginners. We’ve found that many like us don’t enjoy exercise or going to the gym because they find it intimidating or boring. That’s why we believe movement should be FUN.

Kellie O’Brien Example

With my pitch, I want to show you how you can adapt it for different scenarios. Let’s start with the overall framework that I pull from:

I am an (online marketing consultant) that helps (service-based business owners) by (empowering them to use storytelling, strategy and systems in their marketing) so they can (move their ideal clients from discovery to investment). My vision is for (women to contribute to the family finances in a meaningful way, and build a legacy business that repays them and their family long into the future).

I might then use this framework in different ways:

SHORT: I’m an online marketing consultant and I help you move your most aligned clients from discovering who you are online through to investing with you using storytelling, strategy and systems. 

LONG: I’m an online marketing consultant and I help service-based business owners like you move your most aligned clients from discovering who you are online through to investing with you using storytelling, strategy and systems. My vision is for you to not only attract immediate clients and cashflow BUT build a legacy business that repays you and your family long into the future.

IN A NETWORKING SITUATION: You know how sometimes you feel like you’re throwing darts at a marketing map and hoping for the best? Well, I help you develop a smart strategy to move your ideal clients from discovering who you are online to investing with you, using storytelling, strategy and systems. This means you can generate a consistent flow of clients, while building a legacy business that repays you and your family long into the future.

How to deliver an elevator speech

Once written, say it out loud. If your pitch doesn’t feel natural and roll off the tongue, it’s time to tweak it. Keep refining your script till you no longer sound like a robot.

You then need to practice it. In my group programs, participants practice saying it to the group regularly and to any guests that present to build their confidence. You’ll end up knowing it off by heart and know how to adapt it to different types of people and situations.

If you don’t have a group, get honest feedback from friends and family. Think about how you might use this elevator pitch in every day life. Who will you be delivering it to?

Want to go deeper into creating an elevator pitch. Download the elevator pitch worksheet with tips and templates.

If you’re looking for a step by step to help you create your elevator pitch, download the worksheet. Don’t expect your first version to be perfect. It will evolve over time.

And if you need help, reach out or become part of the next Online Marketing Mastermind where you’ll have the opportunity to not only create your pitch but practice it with people who can help you refine it.