Elevators in Pelli Clarke & Partners’ recently completed Salesforce Tower in Chicago. Image credit: Jason O'Rear

Recently, we explained how to create an elevator pitch for your architecture portfolio when searching for your next role as a job seeker. As we noted, the ability to capture a body of work as rich, complex, and varied as an architecture portfolio in a timely, clear, and succinct manner requires planning and preparation.

The same holds true when introducing your architecture firm. In addition to hosting their own portfolio of work, firms possess their own ethos, characters, specialties, and value propositions to clients, collaborators, and beyond. For architects representing their firm, there is, therefore, merit in developing an elevator pitch that is brief, persuasive, and capable of sparking outside interest in what a firm stands for and what it can do for others.

With that in mind, we have assembled below a series of tips to help you design and deliver a brief elevator pitch to introduce your architecture firm.

Do you have further advice for succinctly pitching your firm to new acquaintances? Let us know in the comments.

Understand your audience

Before crafting the content of your pitch, it is worth reflecting on who you imagine pitching your firm to. You may be pitching to potential clients, in which case your goal will be to highlight how your firm addresses specific design problems or provides a unique service. In another context, you may be pitching to potential collaborators, be it other architecture firms or design team actors, in which case you should be emphasizing your firm’s work style, competency, and approach to collaboration.

Clients and collaborators may be the most common subjects of your elevator pitch, but it can also be deployed in other contexts. When interviewing a prospective employee who you sense is juggling multiple offers, you may use an elevator pitch to convey your firm’s values and principles. If your firm is developing an innovative product or idea for the industry, meanwhile, you might find yourself pitching to investors or financiers, in which case your elevator pitch should emphasize your firm’s market potential, growth strategy, or innovative approaches. Finally, you may find yourself pitching in person or digitally to a media outlet such as Archinect, in which case your goal is to communicate why your firm should be showcased to a wider audience. In short, understanding your audience will help tailor your message to resonate with their interests and needs.

Your hook will form the lens through which the listener will build a picture of your firm.

Start with a strong hook

Similar to our advice for crafting an elevator pitch when job hunting, a pitch of your firm should begin with a ‘hook’ to draw the listener’s attention. No more than one or two lines, your hook should consist of a compelling statement, question, or statistic that both relates to your audience’s interests and conveys why your firm is worth listening to. If you are a sustainability-orientated practice specializing in mass timber, for example, your hook may be: “Research shows that concrete is responsible for almost 10% of global CO2 emissions; we are dedicated to moving the industry towards more sustainable materials.”

While your pitch should keep the listener’s interests in mind, it is important that your hook is not just appealing but also honest. Your hook will form the lens through which the listener will build a picture of your firm. Misrepresenting or exaggerating your firm at the beginning will only lead to confusion at best, or disappointment and distrust at worst.

Clearly define what your firm does

After your hook, succinctly explain what your firm does. Avoid jargon that might confuse listeners who are not familiar with architectural terminology. Instead, focus on communicating your firm’s core services and expertise in a way that is clear and relatable.

While your hook can communicate your firm’s mission in a more abstract, idealistic way, the explanation that follows can delve more into details and specifics. Depending on the audience, you may mention the size or location of your firm, typologies or sectors you specialize in, or more about how your principles manifest in practice. A follow-on from our above hook may be: “We are a boutique architecture firm based in Seattle, where we specialize in homes, schools, and galleries, always built with locally sourced timber.”

This is also an opportune moment to briefly mention a project that exemplifies your approach. A well-chosen example will demonstrate your firm’s ambition and ethos as well as its competence and capability to deliver on that ambition. Our exemplar Seattle firm may say: “Just recently, we completed a campus building with an exposed timber structure that cut emissions in half while creating a warm, inviting interior.”

Use images if you have them immediately to hand, but avoid overloading the listener with too much information on the project or on too many projects from your portfolio. This defeats the purpose of an elevator pitch.

If you are a firm owner struggling to identify what makes your practice unique, remember that the answer might be you.

Highlight what makes you unique

Having explained what your firm does, you can now underscore what makes your firm unique. What differentiates you from other architecture firms? What can you offer that other firms cannot? The answer may lie in your innovative design approach, a track record of securing environmental labels, specialist in-house knowledge, awards and records, or a specific niche market. Our sustainability-orientated Seattle firm may say: “We designed the first LEED Platinum school in the city and have an entire in-house team of certified passive house designers.”

If you are a firm owner struggling to identify what makes your practice unique, remember that the answer might be you. Starting a practice is a significant step in an architect’s life and career, and the unique story of how and why you launched your firm may resonate with the listener just as much as your firm’s credentials and portfolio.

Showcase your value proposition

Your value proposition is arguably the most crucial part of your pitch. Up until now, you have set out your firm’s ethos alongside details and examples of how you have delivered on that ethos. Your value proposition underscores why this ethos will be of benefit to the listener. Our sustainability-focused firm in Seattle may explain how their approach has reduced construction costs or energy bills for the client, while a firm specializing in office design may underscore how their unique approach has allowed clients to rent out floorspace at a higher value than the wider market.

As we noted in our first tip, your value proposition should adapt to the audience you are pitching to. While a prospective client may want to hear about how your approach can bring them financial benefits, a prospective collaborator may be more interested in understanding how your approach can lead to a smoother working relationship on their next project. A prospective employee may want to hear about how the firm’s approach can help them grow skills or meet licensure requirements, while a media outlet might be more interested in what lesson your approach or projects can teach to the wider industry about an important topic, and what assets you have on-hand to help communicate it.

End with a call to action

Conclude your pitch with a clear call to action that encourages your audience to take the next step. Depending on the situation, you could invite them to visit your website, schedule a meeting, or connect on a social network. You can also provide specific instructions or recommendations, such as inviting a client to browse a particular project on your website or inviting a collaborator to read your firm’s manifesto. Regardless of the specifics, make sure the action is easy and relevant.

Your call to action will likely involve some form of contact information exchange. Therefore, part of a successful elevator pitch is having physical or digital business cards on hand and investing time and effort in producing a card that represents your unique character. Finally, when handing your business card to your new acquaintance, do not forget to ask them for theirs, too.

Given that an elevator pitch lasts no more than a minute or two, you may have the capacity to map out several pitches depending on the audience, location, event type, and other variables. 

Practice, refine, and personalize

An elevator pitch should feel natural, not scripted. Practice your pitch until it feels comfortable, and adjust it based on feedback. When practicing, do not limit your attention to the content, and make sure to pay attention to your tone, body language, and pace of delivery, too.

As we noted in our advice on creating an elevator pitch when searching for your next role in an architecture firm, you do not need to create a ‘one-size-fits-all’ pitch for all circumstances. Given that an elevator pitch lasts no more than a minute or two, you may have the capacity to map out several pitches depending on the audience, location, event type, and other variables. Your firm may also have several unique aspects, such as expertise in both passive house design and flexible workplaces, which may each merit their own pitches.

Finally, you may find value in translating the template of an ‘architecture firm’ elevator pitch to pitching individual projects in your portfolio, a competition proposal you are set to present, or a specific specialty in your practice. Stay tuned to upcoming editions of Archinect Tips for more examples.