The Elevator Speech

An elevator speech a message intended to spur decision makers to action. An elevator speech must be short, specific, and memorable. It is important to have your elevator speech rehearsed and ready because you never know when you'll have an opportunity to use it!

Who is the audience for my elevator speech?

For school librarians, decision-makers can be school principals, parent organizations, district administrators, elected officials, community partners and more. It's good to have a few elevator speeches ready--or a few versions of the same speech--so that you can quickly shift to address the audience in front of you. The graphic below illustrates how to develop your elevator speech, and the PDF document attached provides a specific example.

Crafting the elevator speech

Elevator Speech Graphic_See PDF below.

Elevator Speech Sample for ESSA (PDF)

Additional ESSA Elevator Speech Examples (PDF)