Six ways to pitch:

Small-business owners and startups spend a good bit of time pitching ideas and business models. Is there a tip or technique you suggest for mastering the elevator pitch?

Not one, but six. A one-size-fits-all pitch no longer works. In the book I suggest the Pixar 6-sentence storyline pitch, the 140-character Twitter pitch, the email subject line pitch, the rhyming pitch, the question pitch, and the one-word pitch. For the rhyming pitch, think Johnnie Cochran’s use of this sentence in the O.J. Simpson trial: If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit. For the question pitch, recall Ronald Reagan’s effective use of the question during the 1980 election: Are you better off now than you were four years ago? As for the one-word pitch, what company comes to mind when you hear the word "search"?

Look to the future, not the past:

some research shows that for pitching professional services, potential is more persuasive than past performance. So next time you're selling yourself, don't fixate on what you achieved yesterday. Emphasize the promise of what you could accomplish tomorrow.