ELEVATOR PITCH

For those blessed enough to have lived their lives free from consultants, business gurus and flavour-of-the-month programs, the Elevator Pitch is a succinct yet engaging presentation that produces commitment to action from the listener(s). It is so called because it is time-limited to the duration of an average elevator ride.

My staff of course wanted to know precisely how long this was. Having done my research, I said that it was generally accepted to be between thirty seconds and one minute, which, perhaps not coincidentally, is also the duration of another spiel with the same objective: the commercial. I noted that research claiming the average elevator ride was two to three minutes was suspect, since it was sponsored by companies that sell those annoying silent screens in the corners of elevator cars that display advertising and news headlines.

I also noted that, although most people read about 275 wpm, and speed readers about 800 wpm (proofreaders average only 180 wpm however), the average comfortable speaking and hearing rate is only 160 wpm (though tests indicate that if you use a digital compressor that speeds that up to 210 wpm without altering pitch, there is no loss of comprehension, which raises some interesting commercial possibilities). By contrast, typists range from 30 to 150 wpm, and longhand writers average 30 wpm.

If you do the math, that means your Elevator Pitch should be no longer than 160 words.

My staff of course wanted an example. Could I provide a sample of a successful Elevator Pitch they could model theirs on?

I replied that I just had.

And I just have, again.

(Postscript: Actually, if you convert this model to the written word, that would suggest that the ideal ‘Elevator’ Blog/Essay length would be 275 words. Most of my favourite essays by other bloggers are about 550 words, about two minutes’ worth, which I think is a fairer limit.)