Elevator pitch examples for lawyers
An elevator pitch fails when it describes the business instead of giving the listener a reason to ask a second question. These end somewhere the other person can pick up.
Ten of them follow, written for lawyers rather than filled in from a template. Your customer is someone with a problem they have been avoiding naming, and what they are weighing up before they get in touch is a bill that arrives with no warning and no way to have predicted it.
The one-liner
We are lawyers in [your town] — we handle contracts and review and business formation for someone with a problem they have been avoiding naming.
Use this when you have one sentence and no idea who you are talking to.
Problem first
The thing people worry about with lawyers is a bill that arrives with no warning and no way to have predicted it. That is the part we deal with. We are lawyers, and the fee arrangement is set out before any work begins.
Use this where the problem is instantly recognisable and the service is not.
Names who it is for
We work for someone with a problem they have been avoiding naming. Mostly contracts and review and business formation. If that is not you, you probably know someone.
Use this at an event where most people are not your customer, to find the ones who are.
Credential first
We are admitted to practise in this state. Admitted and in good standing, insured, with fee arrangements set out before any work begins. We mostly do contracts and review and business formation.
Use this in a room where qualification is the thing that buys attention.
The contrast
Most lawyers [what the default does]. We are the one that explains it in language you can repeat at home. That is more or less the whole difference.
Use this when your market has a clear default and you are not it.
With a number in it
We are lawyers — [number] years, [number] matters, and we quote flat fees wherever the work allows.
Use this when you have a real number. Do not invent one.
The origin
We started because a bill that arrives with no warning and no way to have predicted it was normal in this trade and it did not need to be. So that is the business: lawyers where the fee arrangement is set out before any work begins.
Use this when the reason you started is short and true.
Ten seconds
Lawyer. Contracts and review, mostly. [your town].
Use this when someone asks what you do and is already half-turned away.
Ends with the ask
We are lawyers doing contracts and review and business formation. If you ever hear someone say [the thing your customers say], that is us.
Use this when the point of the conversation is a referral, not a sale.
The warm version
[their question] — we are lawyers. The part people usually ask about is explaining it in language the client can repeat to their spouse.
Use this where the pitch would land badly and a conversation would not.
Writing for lawyers: what actually matters
What should a lawyer’s website say that a generic one does not?
Three things, in this order. That you are admitted to practise in this state. That you understand the thing people are actually worried about, which for lawyers is a bill that arrives with no warning and no way to have predicted it. And what happens next: a paid or free initial consultation, stated clearly which. Everything else on the page is decoration by comparison.
What does someone with a problem they have been avoiding naming check first?
The credential, then the proof. For lawyers it sounds like this. We quote flat fees wherever the work allows. You speak to the lawyer, not an assistant. We estimate before the work starts. Put at least one of those above the fold rather than on a separate page nobody opens.
What is the most common mistake on a lawyer’s website?
Writing about the business instead of the customer. "We have been established since 1998" answers a question nobody asked. "We start with a paid or free initial consultation, stated clearly which" answers the one they are actually holding. If you only fix one thing, fix that.
How long should the copy be?
Shorter than you think, except where trust is being built. An About page of 120 well-chosen words beats 500 vague ones. The exception is anything explaining a bill that arrives with no warning and no way to have predicted it — there, specifics earn their length.
Everything else for lawyers
Elevator pitch for other trades
- Plumber
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- Massage Therapist
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