You will be able to pitch an idea or product in under 60 seconds with a clear ask.
You have been thinking about an idea for months. A better way to run the team's weekly reporting, maybe, or a side project you want a senior colleague's help with. Then you find yourself in the lift with the one person who could say yes. You have about forty seconds before the doors open on their floor. What do you say?
Most people say nothing, or say too much. They either let the moment pass, or start explaining the idea from the beginning and are still on the background when the lift stops. A short pitch, prepared in advance, turns that moment into a next step.
A pitch of under a minute has four parts, in this order.
The problem. One or two sentences describing something the listener recognises and cares about. Not the general state of the industry, but the specific problem in their world.
Your idea. One sentence on what you propose to do about it. Keep it simple enough to understand the first time.
Why it will work. One piece of evidence: a pilot result, a comparison, a customer's reaction, a number. Lesson 3.3, Say numbers people can understand, covers how to say it so it sticks.
What you are asking for. A specific, small next step.
This is the problem, solution and benefit structure from lesson 2.1, Structures that work for most talks, shrunk to under sixty seconds and ending with an ask.
Here is Wei Ling's pitch to the regional director, delivered in the corridor after a meeting. "New warehouse hires in Johor are taking about seven weeks to pick on their own, same as Tuas used to. At Tuas, we moved the classroom part online and they're now independent about two weeks sooner, at no extra cost. I think Johor could see the same. Could I have fifteen minutes with you next week to walk through the numbers?"
The Johor figure is her own, from the site's records. The whole pitch takes about twenty-five seconds.
The most common mistake in a pitch is to start with the idea. "I've been working on a new onboarding approach." The listener has no reason to care about your idea yet. They care about their own problems.
So lead with the problem the listener cares about. For a regional director, that might be how long it takes new staff to become productive, or how much training costs. For a finance head, it is cost. For a clinic manager, it is empty appointment slots. Lesson 1.2, Who is listening and what do they need, applies here in compressed form: think about what this one person worries about.
The same idea needs different openings for different listeners. Arjun's pitch to the regional director starts with missed appointments across the group's clinics. His pitch to the finance team starts with the cost of unused consultation slots. Same idea, different problem first.
A pitch without an ask is just an interesting conversation. A pitch with a big ask, such as "approve my project" or "fund my startup", usually gets a polite no, because nobody commits to something large after forty seconds.
The best ask is small and specific. Fifteen minutes next week. A trial at one site. An introduction to the person who handles a budget. A chance to send a one-page summary. Small asks are easy to say yes to, and each one leads to the next conversation, where you can make the full case.
Make it specific enough to act on. "Could we talk sometime?" is easy to agree to and easy to forget. "Could I have fifteen minutes next Tuesday or Wednesday?" gets a calendar invitation.
A pitch only works if you can deliver it naturally in whatever setting the chance comes up: a lift, a corridor, the end of a meeting, a coffee queue, or a chat message to someone senior. In a chat window, the same four parts work in four short lines.
That means practising it aloud, many times, until it comes out in your own words without sounding recited. Learn the four parts and a few key phrases, especially the opening problem and the ask, as lesson 6.3, Rehearse out loud, not in your head, suggested for any talk. Then say it in slightly different words each time.
Time yourself. Under sixty seconds is the limit, and shorter is often better. Wei Ling's is twenty-five seconds. If yours runs over, cut the background and keep only one piece of evidence.
Pick an idea from work, or a side project you care about, and draft the four parts before you speak a word of it. The activity then asks you to time yourself saying it.
Write a 60-second pitch for an idea at work or a side project, ending with a specific ask, and time yourself saying it.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).