elevator pitch

English

WOTD – 21 November 2017

Etymology

From the idea that such a pitch is concise enough to be given during a trip between floors in an elevator.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɛləveɪtə ˈpɪtʃ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɛləveɪtɚ ˈpɪtʃ/, /-ɾɚ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: el‧e‧vat‧or pitch

Noun

elevator pitch (plural elevator pitches)

1. A brief and simple sales pitch; a short summary of a business plan, process, or product, and its selling point and value proposition.

   Hypernym: sales pitch

   • 1998, Electronic Business, volume 24, Highlands Ranch, Colo.: Cahners Business Information, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 8, column 1:

     Once you've found the right person, the art is in making an elevator pitch—spill the beans fast.

   • 1998, Don Pfarrer, Guerrilla Persuasion: Mastering the Art of Effective and Winning Business Presentations, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, →ISBN, page 110:

     An elevator pitch raises more questions than it answers but they are likely to be questions about how the business works, not what it is.

   • 2010, Frances Kay, “The Elevator Pitch”, in Successful Networking: How to Build New Networks for Career and Company Progression, London, Philadelphia, Pa.: Kogan Page, →ISBN, page 137:

     This chapter is about the elevator (or lift) pitch: what it is, how you develop one and how to use it effectively. It is a single sentence that describes your work and which you can deliver in 30 seconds or less – the time it takes an elevator to travel from one floor to another. […] If you want to create a compelling elevator pitch, it needs to be short and accurate. […] The elevator pitch is about getting your message across in the shortest possible time.

   • 2017, Sara Kelly, “Brand You”, in Personal Branding for Entrepreneurial Journalists and Creative Professionals, New York, N.Y., Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 66:

     Elevator pitches are called what they are for a reason. They force you to focus your personal pitch to the mere 30 seconds or so a typical elevator ride takes. The term is old, but the concept remains relevant.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see elevator,‎ pitch.
   • 1987, Dave Prochnow, Flight Simulator and Flight Simulator II: 82 Challenging New Adventures, Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: TAB Books, →ISBN, page 39:

     Control the glide descent angle through small amounts of elevator pitch movements.

Synonyms

• elevator speech
• elevator statement

Translations

brief and simple sales pitch

• Finnish: hissipuhe (fi)
• Swedish: hisspitch c

See also

• high concept

Further reading

• elevator pitch on Wikipedia.Wikipedia