How to Deliver a Great Elevator Pitch That Gets Results
Liam Sandford
Liam Sandford is a public speaking coach, marketing leader, and 2x best-selling author, including the book Effortless Public Speaking. He helps introverted professionals and leaders take control of public speaking anxiety and use speaking to market themselves, build influence, and communicate with impact.
Every professional, entrepreneur, or leader will face moments where they need to explain what they do quickly, clearly, and memorably. That’s the purpose of an elevator pitch. But delivering a great elevator pitch is not about cramming everything into 90 seconds. It’s about clarity, relevance, and impact. If your pitch leaves the listener unsure of who you are, what you do, or why they should care, it has failed, no matter how polished it sounded.
In this article, you will learn how to craft an elevator pitch that captures attention, communicates your key message, and drives action. Using the Nano Speech framework, actionable clarity principles, and audience focused thinking, you can transform your pitch from a generic introduction into a compelling professional statement.
What an Elevator Pitch Really Is
An elevator pitch is often misunderstood as a short, rehearsed spiel that fits neatly into 90 seconds. In reality, it’s much more than that. It’s the concise articulation of your key message, the reason someone should care, and the action you want them to take. Think of it as your opportunity to create clarity and connection instantly.
It’s also about impact. Every line of your pitch should serve a purpose: capturing attention, communicating value, and driving action. When executed well, even a brief pitch can leave a lasting impression, while a longer, unfocused one can leave your listener confused or disinterested.
Keep Your Elevator Pitch Short
Focus on essentials. Your pitch should clearly communicate your core message, why it matters, and the action you want the listener to take, without including unnecessary details about your role or background. Many people make the mistake of thinking that talking longer means they’re providing more clarity, but in reality, too much information dilutes the impact.
Imagine being in a networking event where someone speaks for two minutes about their entire career. The listener will often tune out halfway, remembering only fragments. By keeping your pitch short and focused, you give yourself the best chance of being remembered. Practice distilling your role, value, and outcomes into one or two sentences, and only expand if prompted by the listener. A concise pitch demonstrates confidence, respect for the listener’s time, and makes your message more memorable.
Focus on Impact
Every word of your elevator pitch should drive the listener to care about what you do and why it matters. Avoid talking about yourself for the sake of it; instead, highlight outcomes, benefits, or solutions that matter to them. Think of your pitch as a bridge connecting your expertise to their needs. If the bridge is weak, they won’t cross it. Ask yourself: what would make someone lean in and say, “Tell me more”?
Emphasise clarity and relevance over cleverness or jargon. Use examples or scenarios they can relate to, and always conclude with a reason for them to act, whether scheduling a call, connecting later, or considering a partnership. This intentional focus on impact ensures your pitch is persuasive, memorable, and actionable.
The Nano Speech Framework for Your Elevator Pitch
The Nano Speech framework, open, body, close, is perfect for structuring your elevator pitch. It ensures clarity, flow, and memorability, even in a high pressure situation. Using this framework prevents rambling, helps you stay on message, and ensures every second of your pitch has a purpose.
Open With a Hook
The opening of your pitch sets the tone for everything that follows. Start with a question, a brief story, a striking statistic, or a compelling insight to immediately capture attention. The goal is to create curiosity and make the listener want to hear more.
A weak or generic opening can make the rest of your pitch fade into background noise, no matter how strong your message is. For example, instead of saying, “I work in marketing,” you could open with, “I help startups double their customer growth in six months.” This immediately signals value and relevance, giving the listener a reason to pay attention. Your hook should be authentic, concise, and tailored to your audience’s perspective.
Deliver the Body Clearly
The body is where you communicate your main message. Keep it simple and single minded: what you do, for whom, and why it matters. Avoid long lists of tasks or qualifications. Think about it as answering three questions in one sentence: who you help, what you do, and the outcome you deliver. For example, “I help small business owners automate their accounting so they can focus on growth.” Every word should add clarity and relevance; if it doesn’t, remove it. Practice saying your message aloud, refining it until it’s smooth, memorable, and easily repeatable. A clear body ensures the listener instantly understands your value without having to ask clarifying questions.
Close With an Action
Your closing is what transforms a description into an actionable conversation. Avoid ending with vague phrases like “That’s me done” or “Thanks for listening.” Instead, give a clear next step or ask that directs the listener toward engagement. You are delivering an elevator pitch for a reason. That reason is what you close with, focusing on the outcome you want.
The goal is to make it obvious what you want the listener to do and make it easy for them to take that step. For example: “If this sounds relevant, I’d love to schedule a 15-minute call to discuss how we can help you streamline your operations.” A strong close leaves no ambiguity and maximises the likelihood that your pitch translates into tangible outcomes.
Crafting Your Message for Maximum Clarity
Clarity is the cornerstone of a great elevator pitch. If you can’t explain what you do in one sentence, you need to refine it. A listener should understand your role and value without guessing or asking follow up questions. Simple language, precise phrasing, and a focus on benefits over features are key. Testing your message and refining it over time ensures your pitch is both concise and memorable.
Be Clear, Not Clever
Being clever might make you feel smart, but it rarely makes the listener understand. Avoid jargon, acronyms, and overly sophisticated language that only you understand. Clarity requires simplicity. If you can say it in five words, don’t use ten. For example, instead of saying, “I optimise digital ecosystems for strategic market advantage,” you could say, “I help companies improve their online sales.”
Simple language is easier to remember, repeat, and act upon. It also signals confidence because you’re not hiding behind complex phrasing. Practice stripping your pitch down to its core, then rebuild only with essential context.
Why They Should Care
People don’t care about you or your business. They only care about what you can do for them. Make your pitch about them, not about you. Highlight outcomes, benefits, or solutions that solve a problem they face or make their life easier. For example, instead of “I’m a software developer,” say, “I help companies reduce manual tasks by automating workflows.”
This framing shows immediate relevance, makes your message more compelling, and increases the chances the listener will take action. Always ask yourself, “If I were in their shoes, why would this matter to me?” Consider the listener’s perspective and craft your pitch to speak to that directly, rather than assuming your own enthusiasm is enough to engage them.
Refine Through Repetition
Clarity is rarely achieved on the first try. Test your pitch in low pressure settings, get feedback, and adjust accordingly. Repetition helps embed the core message in your memory, allowing for smoother, more confident delivery. Recording yourself (without overanalyzing) or practicing with peers can highlight areas for improvement. Over time, repetition not only strengthens clarity but also builds confidence, ensuring your pitch is consistent and compelling every time. Iterating in small increments prevents overcomplication and keeps your pitch aligned with audience needs.
Why Your Elevator Pitch Should Be Adaptable
Your pitch isn’t a one size fits all statement. Different audiences care about different things, and tailoring your pitch ensures relevance and impact. Understanding the listener’s perspective allows you to highlight what truly matters to them. Carefully craft the parts of your pitch that address their interests, needs, or pain points.
At the same time, your pitch should be flexible, not memorised word for word. Use an outline rather than a script so you can adjust in real time depending on cues from your audience. This adaptability makes your pitch feel natural, confident, and responsive, which strengthens engagement and credibility.
Understanding Your Audience
Before giving a pitch, research or observe who you’re speaking to. Understand their challenges, priorities, and language they resonate with. Tailor the benefits and outcomes of your pitch to their needs, not your standard talking points. For example, a marketing manager cares about leads and ROI, while a CEO might care about growth strategy and efficiency. Knowing what matters allows you to highlight the elements of your work that connect directly with their interests, making your pitch instantly more persuasive and relevant. Thinking about your audience in advance also gives you confidence because you know what matters to them and can anticipate questions or objections. For more on understanding your audience, check out the Ultimate Guide to Public Speaking.
Don’t Script, Instead Outline
A rigid script can sound robotic and reduce engagement. Instead, create a flexible outline with your hook, core message, and desired action. This allows you to adapt your pitch on the fly, respond to questions, or emphasise points based on the listener’s reactions. Think of it as a roadmap, not a teleprompter. By practicing with an outline, you gain confidence to improvise naturally while keeping your key message intact. Adaptability also demonstrates social intelligence and responsiveness, which increases the listener’s trust and interest. The outline ensures that no matter the audience, you maintain coherence, clarity, and relevance.
A Good Elevator Pitch Is Crafted Before You Need One
Your elevator pitch shouldn’t be improvised on the spot. This will create an unclear mess that doesn’t land what you want with the person you are pitching to. The best pitches are prepared in advance, refined through practice, and polished until they convey your value quickly and clearly. Crafting your pitch ahead of time also allows it to reflect your personal brand consistently. A well prepared pitch is an opportunity to showcase who you are, what you do, and the outcomes you deliver. When you think in advance, you can tailor your message for different situations, ensuring it lands with maximum impact.
Showcase Your Personal Brand
Your elevator pitch is an extension of your personal brand. It tells people not just what you do, but what you stand for, the outcomes you deliver, and why they should trust you. For example, a strong personal brand pitch might sound like: “I help small business owners automate their accounting so they can focus on growth.”
It’s simple, clear, and positions you as a problem solver. When your pitch reflects your brand, it builds credibility and trust immediately, even in a brief encounter. Thinking about your pitch as a personal brand statement also encourages consistency: people hear the same core message from you across meetings, networking events, and introductions, which reinforces your reputation over time. Having this level of clarity in what you offer provides a quick statement that you can use over and over again which helps you cement your brand.
Common Mistakes to Avoid in Your Elevator Pitch
Even experienced professionals fall into traps that undermine the effectiveness of their elevator pitch. Recognising and avoiding these common mistakes can make the difference between being remembered or forgotten.
Being Longwinded
Talking for too long is one of the most frequent mistakes. Listeners tune out if your pitch is unnecessarily lengthy or detailed. Longwinded pitches dilute the main message, confuse the listener, and reduce your credibility. Use the Nano Speech to craft a clear and concise pitch. Every word should either reinforce your value or be removed. Practice trimming your pitch until it’s tight, clear, and compelling without leaving out essential meaning.
Not Knowing When to Stop
Failing to end at the right moment can be just as damaging as overexplaining. A pitch that drags past the point of interest risks losing attention, making your message less memorable. Train yourself to recognise cues from your listener through eye contact, nods, or questions which signal engagement or impatience. Pausing strategically allows your audience to absorb your message and ask follow up questions. Knowing when to stop also strengthens your confidence, demonstrating that you value the listener’s time and attention. Time is important, and so you should respect the time of whoever you are pitching to. If you don’t, you could have delivered the best pitch, and still not get the outcome you want.
Repeating the Same Point
Repetition can weaken your message if done unintentionally. Saying the same idea in multiple ways may confuse listeners or make your pitch seem unfocused. Focus on clarity and precision: state your point once, clearly and impactfully, then move on to supporting information if needed. This approach ensures your message is memorable and keeps the audience engaged, preventing the risk of diluting your core statement.
TL;DR: Key Steps to a Great Elevator Pitch
Keep it short: Focus on essentials, communicate your key message, why it matters, and the action you want.
Use the Nano Speech: Open with a hook, deliver your message clearly, close with a strong, actionable finish.
Craft clarity first: Be clear, not clever, and ensure your audience knows exactly what you do and why it matters.
Adapt your pitch: Understand your audience, use an outline, and adjust delivery in real time.
More From Liam Sandford
Read my book: Effortless Public Speaking. Learn how to speak confidently, reduce stress, and turn public speaking into your competitive advantage. These actionable public speaking tips will help you improve your presentation skills for any audience.
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