Example pitch

IDENTIFICATION & ROLE
Hi, my name is Marc Fest. I am the founder of Elevator Speech Training.

MISSION
I teach a communications crash course that takes just 60 minutes and helps my clients communicate successfully in critical situations, for example, when they talk to potential donors.

URGENCY
Here’s the issue: We are so lucky to have a great number of terrific people trying to create positive change in a world that desperately needs it. But even high-level change-makers usually don’t take the time to optimize their pitch about what they do. I see all the time how much better they get after just 60 minutes of coaching. I’m concerned about the tremendous amount of ability that’s dormant here. What’s ultimately at stake here is unleashing the full ability of the people fighting on the frontlines of the world’s most urgent challenges.

SOLUTION
Our solution is an 8-step “Elevator Speech Framework.” It enables anybody to make breakthrough improvements in talking about what they do in just one or two training sessions. Its “secret sauce” is a set of fill-in-the-blank prompts that prevent the most common mistakes. For example, to fix the typical lack of urgency in a pitch, it calls for emphasizing the importance of your work right in the beginning, culminating in a sentence that begins with the words “What’s ultimately at stake here is…” It’s a paint-by-numbers approach that may at first seem formulaic and deceptively simple. But its impact on how you communicate will be powerful and lasting.

VALIDATION
We have many well-known clients, for example, the Ford Foundation and Carnegie Corporation who have us train staff and grantees. We also work with organizations like Harvard and Tufts University. More than 70 CEOs and Executive Directors have endorsed the training.

TRUST BOOST
This work is personal to me because I had a speech impediment until I was six years old. A therapist helped me overcome the issue. So, I know at a personal level what a speaking breakthrough feels like. But it’s not about me. It’s about maximizing the impact of our change-makers in a world that needs them more than ever.

CALL TO ACTION
So here is what you can do: Maximize the impact of our session. Use the Elevator Speech Worksheet to create an initial draft of your pitch. To do so, please go to www.est.io/prep no more than 24 hours before your session. If you have questions about the training, contact me directly at marc@est.io. For our session, we’ll connect by video call and think out loud together. You will be amazed by what you’ll achieve. Thank you. And I’m looking forward to meeting you.