10 Elevator Pitch Examples for Business

For many businesses, there’s nothing more important than cultivating new leads and potential customers. It’s one thing to know how to close a deal; but it’s another to know how to pique someone’s interest in the first place. To grab a lead’s attention, you need to know how to make effective elevator pitches. 

This article will discuss what makes a good elevator pitch and explore some pitch examples for businesses like yours.

What is an elevator pitch for business?

An elevator pitch is a short and memorable description of what your company does, what you sell, or what services you offer. It’s supposed to be short, sweet, and to the point. The goal of an elevator pitch isn’t to sell a product or service but to get the attention of a prospect or potential client. If you are successful, you’ll earn a second meeting or a phone call from the prospect.

Elevator pitches are a key strategy to acquire new clients and customers, whether you’re an entrepreneur, freelancer, small business owner, or salesperson. Acquiring more new customers is critical to set your business up for success – after all, 30% of small business failures can be traced back to cash flow issues.

You can give elevator pitches in person at a lead’s office, over the phone, on a video call, at networking events, or anywhere else. The most important thing is to be prepared to deliver your elevator pitch - you never know when you may need to persuade someone to buy your product or try your brand.

How to deliver an elevator pitch for business effectively

Elevator pitches only provide value if you deliver them effectively. Here are some tips to help you make your case to a prospective client:

• Keep it simple and short, no matter what. If your elevator pitch is longer than three or four lines, it’s too long. Ideally, it should be around 30 seconds or less, yet interesting enough to inspire a follow-up question.
• Your elevator pitch must also include the most important (and interesting) details. Stats representing real-world value are the best for this, but true customer stories or testimonials can also work.
• Mix up your language and avoid sounding “canned.” If you practice your elevator pitch too often and it sounds recited, your prospect will detect that and will be less than impressed by your performance. Try to state the facts honestly and earnestly without reciting anything from a preplanned speech.
• Practice your pitch to memorize all the facts. However, you should still practice your elevator pitches before delivering them to any potential clients. That’s the best way to memorize the stats and figures you’ll use to attract leads. You can download online elevator pitch templates or check out some examples below to help you brainstorm.

Examples of elevator pitches for business

Now that you know what an elevator pitch is and how to deliver one effectively, let’s break down some specific examples.

We’ll provide these examples from the point of view of selling various Lumaverse Brands, as our example. You can tweak or adjust these examples when delivering your pitch to potential clients or customers in your industry.

Attention grabbing pitch

The attention-grabbing pitch is the simplest one: ask the lead if they have a problem that you know they do. When they answer yes, immediately come at them with a solution your company or product can provide. Dive into the details in a few sentences. For example, if we pitched TimeTap, we might say:

“Are you swamped managing customers and scheduling related tasks? TimeTap automates a number of front office tasks, such as scheduling and client management. It saves so much time for you and your administrative staff.”

This elevator pitch is excellent since it’s delivered quickly and grabs the prospect’s attention in just a few seconds.

Surprise ending pitch

Alternatively, you can try to surprise the lead or prospect by starting off slow or subtly, talking about a shared topic you and the lead both know about. Then you spring the “trap” by highlighting the value of your service or product.

“Yeah, we have a lot of trouble juggling all our clients and customers, especially during the busy times of the year. Good thing we use TimeTap. It’s the only way we can manage the workload, especially with everyone clamoring for attention.”

Once you’ve piqued the lead’s interest, you can go into more detail. This pitch also feels much less like an advertisement compared to some other examples listed here.

Credibility boost pitch

Creditability can help establish you or your brand’s authority. It can quickly build trust and confidence. You can use a number or a common example that relates well with the listener. This commonality related to a problem will quickly earn a prospect’s attention.

"I’ve talked to hundreds of small business owners and the one thing that 99% of them mention is how time consuming it is to onboard new customers. This is where our tool alleviates that hassle. You can automate these processes so that you never have to worry about them again."

Short and sweet pitch

The shorter your elevator pitch is, the better. You can always go with a tried-and-tested elevator pitch that is a few sentences long at most, like this:

"We started our company with a mission to simplify group organizing. Our founders were frustrated trying to manage groups via spreadsheets and reply all emails. So, they created an easy-to-use software for group organizers. In minutes people can build a sign up and invite their group to respond."

This elevator pitch idea could be great if you only have a few seconds to make your case to a potential client. It establishes the “why” for your brand and provides the memorable story of how your company started.

Unbelievable stat pitch

Starting your elevator pitch with an unbelievable or outlandish statistic might be wise to get the attention of a difficult prospect. Try something like this:

“Did you know you’ll waste 3000 hours on scheduling and booking tasks this year alone, especially at your reception desk? Think of all the time and money you could save if you had software that made booking appointments and managing customers easier. Let me tell you about TimeTap.”

Such a pitch can resonate with your prospect since it immediately introduces the value of your product or service.

Reality check pitch

With the reality check pitch, the goal is to spark frustration or a pain point in the lead. However, you must be sure to get your solution into the pitch quickly; otherwise, you might have just annoyed your prospect.

“You spend months planning a fundraiser that sells a product and only get 40% of the proceeds. Over half your work lines the pockets of those outside your nonprofit. With AuctionFrogs, you can save time with an easy fundraising process. Plus, with our low flat rate pricing, the more funds you raise, the more you keep.”

Customer story pitch

Many leads and prospects want to hear about satisfied customers before they will take a chance on a new product. Therefore, you can make an elevator pitch around a positive customer story. Make sure the story is authentic and a real use case. You may even consider creating a case study on your blog to direct prospects who want to hear more.

“Dave, had a complex scheduling problem. He needed to coordinate multiple doctors to schedule some appointments. Additionally, he needed to capture patient info when booking appointments. He found a number of simple scheduling tools, but none could provide the level of customization and scalability that he needed. When he started using TimeTap, he found a custom solution that was configured to meet his needs. As a result, everything became much easier and more manageable for him and the rest of his office.”

Emotional pitch

Sometimes, nothing is as effective as a good old-fashioned appeal to emotion. Just be careful not to overdo it; otherwise, you’ll come across as trying too hard.

“SignUpGenius may seem like a generic sign up tool, but it really is helping nonprofits better recruit and organize volunteers. Thousands of nonprofits have found they can easily create sign ups and add powerful features that automate volunteer organizing tasks. This saves them time and allows them to focus more on their mission and mobilze more people to their cause.”

Joke pitch

Humor is also an effective vector for an elevator pitch, provided your joke lands. It may be wise to practice a joke elevator pitch a few times before delivering it.

“I spend about two hours each day doom scrolling on Reddit. Just kidding! But I do have a lot of free time since I started using TimeTap. It automates my booking and seamlessly provides follow up communication and customer management tools in a single platform.”

One liner pitch

Or you could try a one-liner pitch, which only takes, you guessed it, one line and a handful of seconds.

“TimeTap is great because it unlocks unlimited appointments, clients, and services so that any business can maximize profits during the busiest, best months of the year.”

Wrap up

As you can see, making an effective elevator pitch for your business is easier than you may have thought. However, it’s still a good idea to practice with these examples before trying them out on a real-life client. You only get one shot to make your elevator pitch land, so make sure it’s a good one.