Business Pitch: Definition, Types & Importance – Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

Elevator & Live Plan Pitches

While it’s perfectly acceptable, and even encouraged, to have more than one business pitch ready to deliver, the most important pitch to bring to your first meeting with a potential customer is the elevator pitch. The idea of an elevator pitch is that it’s short, just like an elevator ride. If executed well, this short pitch will spark the curiosity of the client and encourage them to ask more questions. Because of its brevity, an elevator pitch works great when seeking investors.

Another type of pitch is the live plan pitch, which relies more on visual aids than on speaking. The general idea of this pitch is to hand all of the customer’s representatives a neatly formatted single page containing relevant information such as a market summary, financial information, or related legislation. This type of pitch is particularly effective when meeting with individuals and organizations who value empirical data, such as accounting firms, financial planners, and banks. With a bit of customization, this type of pitch can be delivered to a variety of investors or customers.

One-Word & Interrogative Pitches

Here are some mini slogans. For how many can you quickly identify the brand?

1. Just do it!
2. Think different.
3. Got milk?
4. I’m lovin’ it.
5. Imagination at work.

Slogans like these are great tools for pitching to customers because they are catchy and easy to remember. Although they often have more than one word, they are referred to as the one-word sales pitch because they are short, focused, and memorable pitches.

Another type of business pitch is interrogative. These types of pitches, usually made to customers, are characterized by a few questions during the first part of the pitch. This hook works by getting the customers to anticipate the solution before you even describe it. The questions can be abstract or concrete. Here are a few examples:

1. What are the three most significant challenges your business is facing right now?
2. Why do you think the industry is going to require xxx in the future?
3. How is that process taking place right now, and how does it need to change?

Mystery & Rhyming Pitches

Sometimes, as in the mystery pitch, phrasing entices a customer or investor to both remember the pitch and to dig deeper to find the answer. Several recent mass media commercials have used this type of pitch by showing a scene that terminates abruptly, and then displaying a mysterious phrase such as ‘What happened next?’ on the screen before identifying the product. This draws the viewers in by putting them on the edge of their seats. The mystery pitch tends to be more effective in written or visual communications than spoken communications.

Believe it or not, another type of pitch, the rhyming sales pitch, can be very effective since rhyming helps people remember the product and its most important component. Studies also suggest that, for whatever reason, customers often perceive a rhyming statement to be true when compared to other assertions. Here are a few examples that use the power of a rhyme to pitch a product:

• Drive sober or get pulled over (Anti-DUI campaign)
• Nothing sucks like an Electrolux (Vacuum advertisement)
• Click it or ticket (Seat-belt awareness campaign)

Perfecting a Pitch

In many instances, a pitch to investors is a life-or-death moment for the company. If the pitch is successful, the business obtains the capital it needs to enter the market as a legitimate competitor. On the flip side, however, losing the investment could mean an entrepreneur lacking start-up capital to help launch their business. If the product being sold is very expensive, it could also mean a tremendous profit loss.

Because of the high criticality of pitching, team members should consistently use role-play to practice with each other, and address any difficult situations that may arise.

Lesson Summary

In this lesson, we explored the importance of a pitch, which is a presentation of a business idea to potential investors, along with several types of pitches you can use. When pitching for the first time, the primary choice is the elevator pitch, where small pieces of information are given to stoke the curiosity of the potential investor or client. The live plan pitch uses a great-looking single page of charts or full-color graphics to answer the most important questions about the need for the product. A one-word pitch is a single word or extremely short slogan that embodies the company’s mission and identity, while an interrogative pitch begins with questions to get customers to anticipate the solution. Short rhyming pitches are effective for making people remember a product and its important component, while a mystery pitch aims to pose a question that leaves the reader quite interested in what comes next. Given the high importance of the pitch, role-play practice is essential for everyone on the pitch team.