What is an elevator pitch? An elevator pitch is a short introduction about your company, your product or service, the features and benefits of your product or service, and why a prospect should want do business with you or your company. The elevator pitch is like an extremely short sales pitch that lasts just forty to sixty seconds.

Is an elevator pitch used just for the times when you run into a potential prospect in an elevator? No. Business professionals and executives are busy people and often a meeting only last a few seconds or minutes. A chance encounter with a good prospect may only provide a salesperson with a few short moments to pique a his or her interest. So the elevator pitch is designed just for that, to pique the interest of a potential customer enough to set up a formal meeting in the future. An elevator ride usually last for under a minute and so does the pitch; that is why it is called an "elevator pitch." Sure, you might run into a prospect in an elevator and actually use your elevator pitch in a elevator but, more often than not, it is used in chance encounters elsewhere (trade shows, cafeterias, bars, train stations, etc.).

Most sales professionals don't have an elevator pitch ready for those chance encounters with prospects but most sales trainers do recommend developing one and practicing it to get it perfected. Although there are a lot of salespeople that may never be faced with the type of situation where an elevator pitch could be used, it could happen and they should be ready and prepared to talk about their company, products, and services.

An elevator pitch is a good thing to have and should be withing the arsenal of all salespeople. It could take just under an hour to write memorize and practice but could stay with the salesperson forever, which makes it a great investment of his time.