An elevator pitch is a short presentation made by a salesperson to a potential client or customer. The term is meant to convey the concept that the pitch could be delivered during the course of the typical elevator ride. An elevator pitch can also be made in the form of a letter. The basic structure is the same whether in written form or presented in person.
Elevator pitches are used in a wide variety of business situations. Entrepreneurs seeking capital send elevator pitch letters to prospective investors. Aspiring authors send these letters to publishers to attract attention for their manuscripts. Service providers send pitch letters to introduce their services to prospective business clients.
The main characteristic of elevator pitches is brevity -- they are short and to the point. The words are carefully chosen to maximize the impact of the message. Pitch letters are brief in recognition that the reader is a busy person with many other such letters coming across her desk. She appreciates the fact the sender is not wasting her time with a verbose presentation. An in-person verbal pitch can be as short as 30 seconds, but there is not a standard length. A pitch could be as long as three minutes. Similarly, an elevator pitch letter is generally no longer than one page.
The pitch letter is written in an engaging manner. It explains what is new and different about the product or service being offered. The letter is written with the needs of the reader in mind. What problem can the sender or his company solve for the reader? What are the benefits to the reader of doing business with the sender? The letter expresses the competitive advantage of the sender’s company or offering versus other choices available to the reader. The letter also expresses why the offering represents a great opportunity for the reader. An author, for example, would show that the number of potential readers for his book is enormous.
The goal of the pitch letter is a call to action -- to motivate the reader to take the next step in a proposed transaction with the sender of the letter. Many times the sender hopes the letter will enable her to arrange an in-person meeting with the prospective customer or at least a phone call. In the motion-picture business, a screenwriter sends pitch letters to producers and agents in the hope they will ask to read the writer’s script. An entrepreneur hopes that prospective investors will ask to read his full business plan.
Unless you know your reader and his specific needs, it is very difficult to determine what you should say in the letter to get him excited about what you are offering. It is a challenge to express all the positive attributes of your product or company in so few words. Writers of pitch letters often fear they have left something important out of the letter because of the tight space constraints. They also may resort to making exaggerated claims about the superiority of their offering in an effort to impress the reader, which often has the opposite effect.
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