How to Structure a 60-Second Pitch in English
A second-by-second breakdown of a 60-second English sales pitch, with word counts per section so you know how much you can say before you're out of time.
, 2 min read, Sales English
Key takeaways
- 60 seconds of natural spoken English is roughly 130-150 words, which is much shorter than most first drafts; expect to cut, not add.
- Spend disproportionately more of your 60 seconds on the problem than on your product; buyers need to recognize the problem as theirs before the solution means anything.
- End with a question, not a statement. A pitch that ends with "...and that's what we do" leaves the listener with nothing to respond to.
60 seconds is not a lot of time, and most first-draft pitches run to two or three minutes once written out and timed. Here's exactly how to fit a real pitch into 60 seconds, broken down by section.
The time budget
| Section | Time | Words (approx) |
|---|---|---|
| Hook / who you help | 8-10 sec | 20-25 |
| The problem | 15-18 sec | 35-40 |
| Your solution | 15-18 sec | 35-40 |
| Proof or outcome | 10-12 sec | 20-25 |
| The ask / next step | 8-10 sec | 15-20 |
That totals roughly 60 seconds and 130-150 words. Time yourself reading it out loud; most people are surprised how fast 60 seconds actually goes.
Section 1: Hook (8-10 seconds)
Open with who you help, not who you are. "Sales teams at mid-size companies lose hours every week updating their CRM by hand." This is a sentence about the listener's world, not your company, which is exactly why it earns attention in the first ten seconds.
Section 2: The problem (15-18 seconds)
Make it specific and, ideally, quantified. "Reps spend an average of five hours a week on manual data entry instead of selling, and most of that data ends up wrong anyway because it's entered from memory at the end of the day." Specificity here does more work than any adjective; "wastes a lot of time" is forgettable, "five hours a week" is not.
Section 3: Your solution (15-18 seconds)
Now, and only now, introduce what you do. "We built a tool that logs calls and emails automatically, so reps never have to type it in, and managers get accurate pipeline data without chasing anyone." Keep this section as short as the problem section, not longer; a common mistake is doubling the solution section because it feels good to talk about your own product.
Section 4: Proof or outcome (10-12 seconds)
One concrete number or example. "Teams using it get back roughly four of those five hours, and pipeline accuracy goes up because the data's not typed from memory." If you don't have hard numbers yet, use a specific example instead of a vague claim: "One customer told us it's the first CRM their reps actually update without being asked."
Section 5: The ask (8-10 seconds)
End with a specific question, not a statement. "Is this something worth 15 minutes to look at closer?" or "Does this sound like something your team deals with?" A pitch that ends on a declarative sentence gives the listener nothing to do; a pitch that ends on a question invites a response, which is the entire point of pitching in the first place.
Practicing the full 60 seconds
Read it out loud with a timer, not silently. Silent reading is almost always faster than spoken delivery, so a pitch that looks fine on paper often runs 15-20 seconds over once you actually speak it at a natural pace. Cut ruthlessly from the solution section first if you're over time; that's usually where the extra words are hiding, since it's the part you're most tempted to elaborate on.
Frequently asked questions
- How many words fit in 60 seconds of spoken English?
- About 130 to 150 words at a natural, unhurried pace. If your written pitch is longer than that, you will either rush it or run over time, both of which undercut the pitch more than cutting content would.
- Should I use a timer when practicing?
- Yes, every time. Most people are surprised how much shorter 60 seconds actually is once they time themselves, and the discipline of cutting to fit the time is what makes the pitch tight.
- What's the biggest structural mistake in a 60-second pitch?
- Spending 40 of the 60 seconds on company background and only 10 on the actual problem and outcome. Flip that ratio: the listener needs almost no company history to decide whether to keep listening.