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Speaking
Elevator pitch
Aims

Tasks

Learn techniques for creating and polishing an

Write and deliver an elevator pitch.

elevator pitch.

Lead-in
Discuss these questions in small groups.
In the context of sales and negotiations, what is a pitch?
What do you think an elevator pitch might be?
Who would use such a pitch and in what situations?

Discussion
Discuss these questions with a partner.
Which of these situations have you experienced / might you experience in the future? You may need to change
the situations slightly.
a. You are an entrepreneur. You have an excellent idea for a new business, but you need to find someone to
invest in your company. You find yourself face-to-face with a venture capitalist, and you have two minutes to
sell your idea.
b. You are looking for a job. You find yourself face-to-face with a recruiter from your dream employer. You
have two minutes to sell yourself.
c. You are a manager or sales professional looking for clients for your products or service. You find yourself
face-to-face with a potentially important customer. You have two minutes to sell your product/service.
d. You are trying to negotiate a deal with a large company, but you are frustrated because your contacts at the
company have no decision-making powers, and your negotiations are gong nowhere. You find yourself faceto-face with the decision-maker. You have two minutes to sell the deal.

Role play 1
Student A
Imagine you are in one of the situations from the discussion in the previous exercise. You have two
minutes to give your pitch to your partner.
Student B
You are a busy and important person. Listen to your partners pitch politely. After two minutes, decide
whether you are interested in your partners offer.

Pitching
Match the 5 Ps of pitching to their explanations (15) and examples (ae). Which of the situations from
the discussion exercise do these mainly apply to?
Pain
1 Who are your employees?
a We are an innovative online consultancy, providing
expert advice to businesses around the world.
Premise
2 Why should the client buy from you
b We recruit only the best advisors those who have
and not from your competitors?
proven expertise in their field.
c Weve found customer satisfaction to be the best
People
3 What is the problem that you plan
to solve?
way of making money which is what its all
about, after all.
4 Why does your company exist?
Proof
d Our service can save you time and money.
e Weve built our company largely through
Purpose
5 What exactly do you do?
recommendations from satisfied clients.

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Speaking
Elevator pitch
Writing
Choose one of the situations from the discussion
(or invent your own). Write a first draft of your
elevator pitch, using the 5 Ps. When you have
finished, discuss your pitch with a partner. Try to
improve your partners pitch.

Polishing your elevator pitch

Match the 9 Cs of elevator pitches to their
explanations.
Your pitch must be
1. Concise
a Focus on the specific interests
and concerns of the person
youre talking to.
2. Clear
b Explain why you are the
right person to understand
the problem and to provide a
solution.
3. Compelling
c Use simple language that
can be understood by nonspecialists.
4. Credible
d Be specific and give tangible
examples.
5. Conceptual
e Make sure your elevator
pitches always give the same
basic message.
6. Concrete
f Use as few words as possible
to convey your message
properly.
7. Consistent
g Remember, the aim of your
pitch is to start a conversation
with the audience, not to
reach a deal.
8. Customized
h Explain what problem your
solution solves.
9. Conversational i Focus on the underlying
message, without going into
unnecessary detail.

Practice
This elevator pitch breaks several of the C-rules
above. Which C-rules does it break? Try to
improve it.
Hello. Im Jos Arroyo Garca. Im Head of Staff
Development at JRD international.

Really? Pleased to meet you. My names Helena

Blomqvist. I have my own company. We do lots
of things for other companies. I dont know,
translations, consulting, that sort of thing. We also do
staff training. Leadership skills, time management,
creative thinking, the usual things like that. The
session on leadership skills is quite nice I wrote
it myself and Ive run it a few times. The first time
wasnt so good, but then I learnt a lot and improved
it, so last time I got some quite good feedback for it.
Maybe I could do some training at your company
what do you think?

Writing
With a partner, analyse the pitches you wrote in
the writing exercise. How can you improve them?
Think about using the C-rules.

Role play 2
Work with a new partner. Take turns to give your
improved elevator pitches.

Follow-up
Keep practising and improving your elevator
pitch until its perfect. Dont forget to use it when
you need it! Good luck.
For more information see:
Floored by an elevator pitch, Financial Times, March
2009. includes guidance on the 5 Ps.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8ee3f504-0ab8-11de-95ed0000779fd2ac.html
Elevator Pitch 101, by business consultant Chris
Leary, includes guidance on the 9 Cs.
http://www.elevatorpitchessentials.com/essays/
ElevatorPitch.html
How to craft a killer elevator pitch that will land you
big business, an article on putting together a winning
pitch
http://www.dumblittleman.com/2007/08/how-to-craftkiller-elevator-pitch-that.html
Elevator pitch - 5 tips for creating a concise and strong
sales message, Microsoft Small Business Center
http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/resources/
marketing/advertising-branding/5-tips-for-creating-anelevator-pitch.aspx#5tipsforcreatinganelevatorpitch

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Speaking
Elevator pitch
techniques they used.

Level

Pitching (5 minutes)

B1 C2 (Intermediate Proficiency) As this is a

mainly productive activity, learners of all levels
should be able to attempt it. Some of the vocabulary
in the matching exercises may be difficult for lower
levels.
This lesson will be especially useful to salespeople
and entrepreneurs, but will also be helpful for
job-hunters (who are selling themselves) and other
professionals.
The lesson should last around 6075 minutes.

Students work in pairs to complete the exercise.

Answers
Pain 3d Premise 5a People 1b Proof 2e Purpose 4c
These examples mainly apply to situations a and c.

Lead-in (5 minutes)
Discuss the questions with the class.
Answers
A pitch is an attempt to sell something, typically by
way of a pre-rehearsed speech. An elevator pitch
(or elevator speech) is a very short pitch, no more
than two minutes long, which is used when the seller
unexpectedly meets a potentially important new
contact. The name comes from the classic example
of when an entrepreneur gets into a lift (= elevator in
American English) and finds himself/herself alone
with a potential investor (e.g. a venture capitalist).
The entrepreneur has the duration of the elevator
ride to convince the investor to invest. For a range of
situations, see the discussion exercise.

Discussion (5 minutes)
Encourage students to discuss both their
experiences and their futures. Afterwards, elicit
some examples from the class. It is important
for the rest of the lesson that every student has a
situation (from the list or their own ideas) where
they might use an elevator pitch.

Role play 1 (10 minutes)

As students have had no input at this stage, their
pitches are likely to be not very good. However,
it is important that they have the experience of
trying to make such a pitch in order that they
can identify ways to improve. After students
have swapped roles, they give each other
feedback. Elicit from the class what good and bad

Writing (1015 minutes)

Students work alone to write their pitches and
then discuss them with a partner. Monitor and
give advice as they work.

Polishing your elevator pitch (5 minutes)

Students work in pairs to complete the exercise.
Answers
1f 2c 3h 4b 5i 6d 7e 8a 9g

Practice (10 minutes)

Students work in pairs to improve the pitch.
Answers
The pitch breaks the following rules: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8
and 9.
Suggested improved version
Pleased to meet you. Im Helena Blomqvist, Head
of Training at HB Consultants. We offer tailor-made
training events to companies like yours to help you
get the best out of your employees. We can help your
people be more creative or more innovative or simply
better at getting results for you. Our clients love the
difference we can make to the effectiveness of their
business. Our trainers are all experts in their fields
with hands-on experience of business strategy. Would
you like me to come and do a free needs analysis
consultation to see how your company could make
more money?

Writing (10 minutes)

Students work in pairs to use the techniques to
improve their pitches. Monitor and give advice.

Role play 2 (510 minutes)

Students take turns to give their speeches to a new
partner. Afterwards, give and elicit feedback. As a
follow-up, invite students to present their pitches,
without a script, to the class.

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