Elevator pitch examples, with a word budget for every length

This page is for anyone who has to explain what they do in the time it takes to ride an elevator: salespeople at events and on calls, founders meeting customers or investors, consultants, job seekers, students and people changing careers.

How long an elevator pitch should be

Most pitches should take 30 seconds, with a 15-second version for introductions and a 60-second version for when someone asks for more. The useful limit is words, not seconds. Psychologists Keith Rayner and Charles Clifton put estimates of normal speaking rate at 120 to 200 words a minute, which gives this budget:

Aim for the low end. Nerves make most people speak faster, and a pitch you can say slowly sounds more confident than one you have to rush. If your 30-second pitch is over 80 words, cut it.

The structure behind every example

Every example on this page follows five parts. The order can change, but each part should be there.

1. Who you help. Name a kind of customer the listener can picture, or might be. "Finance teams at companies with lots of locations" beats "mid-market organizations".
2. The problem, in their words. The thing that's annoying, slow or expensive for those people, said the way they'd say it.
3. What you do about it. One sentence, no feature list.
4. One proof point. A specific result, with a number if you have one you can back up.
5. A question. Something they can answer about themselves, which turns the pitch into a conversation.

An elevator pitch isn't meant to close a sale. Its job is to earn the next five minutes. For a longer pitch to a qualified buyer, use the structures in the sales pitch examples.

Fill-in elevator pitch template

I help [type of customer] who [situation they're in].

Most of them [the problem, in their words], which means [what it costs them: time, money, stress].

[Company or I] [what you do, in one plain sentence].

[Proof: one customer or result, e.g. "A 14-branch agency went from a 12-day close to 5."]

[Question about them, e.g. "How does your team handle that today?"]

The most useful line to get right is the problem. If you can't say it in words a customer would use, talk to three customers and write down how they describe it. The value proposition template helps you find that line before you build the pitch around it.

Elevator pitch examples by situation

Illustrative examples. The people, companies and figures are fictional, to show the structure.

I work with finance teams at companies that have a lot of locations, like staffing agencies with a branch in every county. Most of them take two weeks to close the books because every branch sends a spreadsheet that someone retypes. Our software, Tallyworks, pulls each branch's numbers into one ledger automatically. One 14-branch agency went from a 12-day close to 5. How long does month-end take your team?

Hi, I'm Jo from Tallyworks. We help companies with lots of locations close their books faster, without the branch spreadsheets. Do you look after finance for one site or several?

I run a staffing agency that supplies warehouse and production workers, mostly for peak season. The problem we hear most is overtime: people working 50-hour weeks for three months, then quitting in January. We put trained temporary workers on site within a week and replace anyone who doesn't work out. One distribution center halved its peak overtime last year. How do you staff your busy season now?

Hi Maria, it's Sam from Crestway Staffing. I saw you're hiring 30 seasonal associates for the new Reno site. When a warehouse hires that many at once, the hard part is usually getting people back for week two. Is now a bad time, or can I take 30 seconds to explain why I called?

I'm building Shiftbill, invoicing software for small staffing agencies. Most agencies bill clients from spreadsheets built from weekly timesheets, and billing mistakes are why clients pay late. Shiftbill turns approved timesheets into invoices in one step. Our first agencies cut invoice disputes by more than half in three months. How do you get from timesheets to invoices today?

Small staffing agencies run payroll for hundreds of temporary workers every week, and most still bill their clients from spreadsheets. Billing errors are their biggest cause of late payment, and late payment is what kills small agencies, because they pay workers weekly but get paid in 30 to 60 days.

We built Shiftbill, which turns approved timesheets into client invoices automatically. We launched in March. Forty-one agencies now pay an average of $600 a month, and none has cancelled. Most found us through one trade association newsletter, which suggests a low-cost channel to many more.

We're raising $1.5 million to hire two salespeople and build payroll integrations. Could I send you our one-page summary?

I'm a fractional controller. I work two days a month with companies that have outgrown their bookkeeper but aren't ready for a full-time finance hire. Usually the owner is making decisions from a bank balance because the books are two months behind. I get them to monthly numbers they can trust, within a quarter. Who looks after the numbers at your company now?

Hi, I'm Alex. I finish my accounting degree in May, and I've spent the last two tax seasons preparing returns at a free tax clinic, about 120 returns in all. That's where I found I like the client side as much as the numbers. I'm looking for an audit or advisory role where I'd work directly with clients. What does your first-year program look like?

I've spent four years in customer support at an accounting software company, the last two leading a team of six. The part of the job I've enjoyed most is the calls where a customer is about to leave and we work out what's actually wrong. Last year I started sitting in on renewal calls, and I helped save three accounts our sales team had marked as lost.

That's why I applied for this account manager role. I want to own the relationship end to end, not just the support tickets. From the job description, it sounds like your biggest priority is keeping customers through the first year. Is that right?

I'm Priya, a second-year business student. This summer I ran outreach for a campus food bank's fundraiser: I built a list of 200 local businesses, wrote the emails and got 23 sponsors, about twice the year before. I'd like to do the same kind of work properly, in a sales development internship. Does your team take interns in sales?

I taught high school math for eight years, and I'm moving into sales development. Teaching is a lot of what SDRs do: getting a skeptical audience to pay attention for 30 seconds, asking questions and handling pushback every day. I've finished a sales training course and booked 14 meetings in a volunteer project for a local nonprofit. What do your best SDRs have in common?

Our reps spend about four hours a week each building call lists by hand. That's 40 hours a week across the team, a full person. I'd like to test a list-building tool with three reps for a month and compare meetings booked against the rest of the team. If it doesn't beat the manual lists, we stop. Can I set that up for next month?

Notice what the examples have in common. None starts with a job title. Each has one number. Each ends with a question the listener can answer about themselves. The cold call opener is the elevator pitch adapted for the phone; the outbound call scripts give the branches for whatever the prospect says next.

Worked example: rewriting a weak pitch

Illustrative example. Jordan, an account executive at an accounting software vendor, starts with this pitch:

Hi, I'm Jordan, and I'm a senior account executive at Tallyworks. We're a leading provider of cloud-based, AI-powered financial management solutions for mid-market organizations. Our platform offers end-to-end automation across the record-to-report process, including multi-entity consolidation, intercompany eliminations, automated reconciliations and real-time dashboards. We integrate with over 200 systems, and our customers include companies in healthcare, staffing, logistics and professional services. We were recently recognized as an innovator in our space. If you have some time, I'd love to set up a demo so I can show you everything our platform can do for your team.

After the rewrite:

I help finance teams at companies with lots of locations, like staffing agencies with a branch in every county. Their month-end close drags because every branch sends a spreadsheet that someone retypes. Tallyworks pulls those numbers into one ledger automatically. A 14-branch agency went from closing in 12 days to 5. How long does month-end take your team right now?

What changed: the job title and company history went, because the listener doesn't need them yet. The feature list became one problem. The vague award became a specific result. The demo request became a question the listener can answer in a sentence, which keeps the conversation going. (Use only results you can document; if someone asks "which agency?", you need an answer.)

Choose the version by setting

If you know who'll be in the room, research them first so your pitch names a problem they actually have. For sales events, Bebop can find the companies that match your customer profile and write a playbook for each, so you walk in knowing which conversations matter.

How to practice your pitch

1. Write it long. Put down everything, without editing.
2. Cut it by a third. Remove your title, history, adjectives and all but one feature.
3. Count the words. Use the table above. For 30 seconds, aim for 60 to 80.
4. Say it aloud with a timer. Reading silently hides the sentences you can't say.
5. Record it once. Listen for filler words and the place where you speed up.
6. Test it on someone outside your field. Ask them to repeat back who you help and what you do. If they can't, simplify.
7. Make three lengths. A 15-second, 30-second and 60-second version, so you can match the moment.

Mistakes to avoid

• Starting with your title. "I'm a senior account executive at..." tells the listener nothing they care about.
• Jargon. If the listener has to translate a word, they stop listening to the next one.
• A feature list. One problem and one result are memorable. Six features aren't.
• Claims you can't back up. "The leading provider" invites a question you can't answer.
• Asking for too much. A demo, a meeting or a job offer is too big a request for 30 seconds.

Checklist

• It's under 80 words for 30 seconds, and you've timed it out loud.
• The first sentence is about the listener or a customer like them.
• The problem is described in words a customer would use.
• There's one specific, true proof point.
• It ends with a question the listener can answer about themselves.
• You have 15-second and 60-second versions ready.

Next step: to draft your own from a fill-in formula, use the elevator pitch template. Once your pitch earns a longer conversation, build it out with the sales pitch examples, which cover discovery, demo and email pitches.