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Words By Tara Wagner

The Un-Awkward Elevator Pitch Strategy (Free Templates!)

Tara sitting on the ground laughing with book in hand, emerald couch in the background

Let’s talk about how to create an elevator pitch that doesn’t suck, that doesn’t make you sound like a robot, or a piece of junk mail or a spam email.

Watch here:

The Un-Awkward Elevator Pitch Strategy (Free Templates!) Click To Tweet


If you have ever felt awkward or clunky when you are telling people what it is you do, you’re not alone.

We’re taught that an elevator pitch is what you’re doing to try to convince somebody that they want to work with you in as little as a 30 second trip on anelevator. But not very many people are actually chasing people onto elevators these days.

If we want to feel self-assured and comfortable when we’re telling people what it is we do, if we want to approach marketing in an authentic non-scammy way, we really need to upgrade the way we view and how we create an elevator pitch to fit with our modern lives and our modern businesses.

In order to do that I’m going to walk you through four things:

  • 1) A mindset shift on when to use and how to approach the elevator pitch that will allow you to finally feel confident in what you’re saying and doing.
  • 2) Two elevator pitch templates that you can choose from and examples of how to use each one
  • 3) How to get comfortable and confident using your elevator pitch. So how do we really overcome the nerves and the awkwardness and the robotics once we’ve created a pitch that we like
  • 4) I have a free download for you to help you create your own. You can grab that here if you want to follow along throughout the video or grab it at the end to do the exercises for yourself
The Mindset shift

Let’s start off by shifting your mindset and your approach around the elevator pitch.

The whole point of an elevator pitch is to briefly and comfortably tell people what it is you do
not to sell them on anything; just to communicate to create a connection. If we go in thinking “I gotta make a sale, this is a potential client or customer” we’re gonna make the process awkward
because we’ve just shifted from a regular conversation to a sales conversation.

What I want you to keep in mind is it’s just about communication and connection – that’s it.

This means that the ideal elevator pitch length (how long your elevator pitch should actually be)
is dependent on the conversation.

It should only be as long as is necessary to communicate:

  • what it is you do
  • who you do it for
  • and possibly anything that might differentiate you or that might appeal to your ideal customer

So we’re gonna create a script, but I’m also gonna show you how to not be scripted and the first way that you do this and stop sounding like a robot is to create more than one script. You should create different elevator pitches for different scenarios.

And when I say different scenarios I mean two different things:

  • One for circumstances that you might find yourself in, or people you might find yourself talking to. For instance, maybe you want to create a script for somebody who you believe may actually be your ideal client.
  • Then you want to create a script for somebody who you don’t actually want to work with but you need to answer the question of what do you do maybe you need to have a script for a networking event vs. an online conversation

The more scripts, the more ideas, the more scenarios that you can kind of put yourself into and figure out “how would I actually talk in this situation? What would I actually want to say?” the more natural you’re going to sound when it comes to actually saying it, so this is key number one have more than one elevator pitch

Elevator Pitch Templates

Once you have your scenarios, then what you want to do is use two different templates to create those elevator pitches.

Elevator Pitch Template #1 – The Statement

The first elevator pitch template I’m going to walk you through is your statement template this is where you’re going to be answering a question or just obviously making a statement.

I help _______ to ______, so they can ______ without ______.

And you’re just filling in the blanks – it’s like a mad lib when you were a kid.

So this first space is going to be your people, your ideal client or customer. You want to be able to describe them in just a couple of words.

This next one is the action that you help them to take what it is that they’re trying to do or to create. This is the action.

Then you have the outcome. What are they really after? What’s their ultimate long-term desired outcome?

And then “without ______” , this is where you’re talking about the common obstacles or challenges that they might face.

So this statement right here tells people what you do, who you do it for, and what differentiates you. And this really allows you to speak clearly to the people who are going to need you because you’re going to be using their language. You’re going to use the things that they’re wanting to avoid, and the outcomes that they’re wanting to create.

This means no matter who you’re talking to, because you’re being so specific, they can either self-identify and say, “Yes I’m for you.”, they’re going to start asking you questions and you’re going to create more connection and dialogue, or they’re going to say oh my gosh you really need to talk to so and so, or I really need to hook you up with my sister because she really needs what it is that you’re doing

So that was elevator pitch template #1 – the statement

Elevator Pitch Template #2 – The Question

Template number two is the question template and I personally like this one because we’re using our elevator pitch to connect and communicate.

The more you can get a dialogue going back and forth, the better and the best way to do that is to ask questions. So here’s what this looks like:

“You know how ____________________ can struggle with/to _____________________?” 

OR

“You know how when you ___________________ but you can’t ___________________?”

[Pause and allow them to answer!]

“Well, I help/offer/teach/provide ______________________.”                 

Now what you’re doing here is you’re asking a question of something that they’re going to understand, or maybe they’re going to know somebody who understands.

So again it’s “You know how ______ (this is your people your ideal customer/client) can struggle with (or to) ______ (this is their biggest pain point, their problem, the challenges that they’re really facing.
This is going to be something you want, that’s identifiable. Whatever your industry is, there’s a problem that you solve. There’s a person that you serve.

Ask it in a question form and then PAUSE.

I literally have to remind people this all the time. PAUSE. Let somebody engage with you, let them say something back. Maybe they’re just gonna say “yes”, or “you know I’ve never really heard about that before”

And then you’re just gonna enter into a dialogue but at some point after you’ve paused, after they’ve answered you’re gonna say “Well I help ______ to ______ ” like we did with the statement question.

Oftentimes with the question template, I’m actually using the statement afterward.

Oftentimes the templates will say something like “I help“, but you can change the word “help” to anything that works for you- I provide, I offer, I create, I answer, I teach, I… whatever it is that you do that best describes what you do, that’s the word that you want to put there.

These are just your templates – if you download that unawkward Elevator Pitch Template Download you’re going to see these written out in multiple different ways. You can really get a lot of examples of different ways you can use this same template, so make sure you grab that and let’s move into number three.

Man and woman with coffee at table, as woman smiles out the window
Become Comfortable and Confident

Now that you have some ideas of how to write out your elevator pitch using the different Elevator Pitch Templates let’s now talk about how to get comfortable before you get into these scenarios and start sounding awkward.

#1 – I want your elevator pitch to use what’s true and to not exaggerate the facts.

A lot of times we’re taught to make these elevator pitches these big, juicy, sexy, things but it kind of pulls it away from what’s true. If you’re making promises in your elevator pitch that you know you can’t deliver. you’re not going to feel comfortable doing it.

So just make sure look for proof, facts, and/or results that you’ve actually gotten your client/customers. Look for happy feedback or testimonials you’ve received and use that to help you create or tweak the templates that you’ve already created.

#2 – Once you have your elevator pitch templates written out or filled out it’s really important that you then say them out loud so that you can actually rewrite them in your natural voice.

What we put on paper is often much more structured, much more formal, much more fancy than
how we actually talk in real life.

So if you’re standing in front of your next-door neighbor, you’re not going to want to sound like you’re super professional, you’re going to want to sound like you’re talking to your neighbor. So word those things correctly.

Imagine yourself in the scenarios that you’ve listed and actually talk like you would talk in those scenarios number three is to practice your elevator pitch a hundred different ways a hundred different times and as though you’re talking to a hundred different people. Again, we’re trying to get creative we’re trying to put our brain into all these different scenarios because the more you practice different scenarios the more comfortable you’re going to feel when any scenario comes up.

Maybe you’re going to practice 20 scenarios and the 21st scenario that you didn’t practice
is the one that you’re going to actually find yourself in because you’ve practiced these 20,
this one’s going to be a little bit easier probably way easier to feel natural in.

I want you to practice this in front of the mirror, practice this while you’re driving, practice this while you’re sitting at your desk… until it is so ingrained and so smooth that it just falls out of your mouth without any effort.

Ready to Get started?

To help you to do this grab The Un-Awkward Elevator Pitch Template. Not only do I have both of the templates in there, but I have multiple examples of ways to use the templates to rearrange them and to really make them your own based on different industries, the way you might say things, and what’s going to sound most natural for you.

Now these are just examples – you really get to get in there and play with it and make it your own
but hopefully, this elevator pitch template will help

To learn more click here or grab it by clicking the button below.

What about you, boss lady?

What’s YOUR current (or new) elevator pitch. Please share with us below and let me know if you want my feedback on it!

Scroll down to leave your comments below

xoTara-teal

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Tara Wagner

Tara Wagner

I’m Tara Wagner, creator of the Breakthrough Boss®. I help small biz owners overcome burnout and create part-time schedules with full-time profits. Not with some new marketing strategy, but with a holistic approach to how you operate. Click here to learn more.
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