Fill in your details
The script updates automatically as you type, click Play in ScriptScroller when you're ready
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Script text
What you'll need to fill in
This script has 11 details to fill in before you read it. Have these to hand — the customizer above updates the script as you type:
- who you help
- achieve what outcome
- common obstacle or trade-off
- your professional area
- your niche or focus
- X years
- type of problem or project
- Company or Role
- your distinguishing quality, skill, or a…
- current situation
- what would be most useful — an intro, a…
It also contains 1 stage direction in grey. Those are instructions to you, not lines to say out loud — they mark where to pause, listen, or wait for a response.
That timing assumes about 130 words a minute, which is a normal conversational pace. If you are presenting to a room you will likely go slower; if you are nervous you will go faster. Read it aloud once and time yourself before it matters.
When to use this script
Use this before a conversation where you know you will undersell yourself. Salary negotiations, resignations, and interview introductions all have the same problem: they are high-stakes, infrequent, and emotionally loaded, which is exactly the combination that makes people improvise badly and hedge their own case.
Writing it down does two things. It forces you to make the specific claim you are avoiding, and it gives you something to fall back on when the conversation gets uncomfortable and your instinct is to soften the ask.
Making it sound like you
- Put a real number in. A negotiation script without a specific figure is a script that ends without one.
- Replace hedging language with plain statements. "I was hoping maybe" undoes the case the rest of the sentence makes.
- Ground every claim in something verifiable — a shipped project, a metric, a scope change with a date.
- Write what you will say after they respond, including the silence. That is the part people improvise worst.
Reading it out loud
These conversations are usually live and often remote, so keep notes where you can glance without obviously reading — a narrow column near the webcam, or a printed page beside you. Rehearse the ask out loud until you can say it without softening it, because the softening happens in the delivery, not the draft.
More on the setup side: Teleprompter for Webcam, Teleprompter for Laptop, Moving Text for Scripts.
Questions about this script
How long does this elevator pitch script take to read?
The script runs to about 159 words, which is roughly 1 min 13 sec at a normal speaking pace of around 130 words a minute. Your own pace will vary, so time one read-through before you rely on the number.
What do I need to prepare before using this script?
There are 11 details to fill in: who you help, achieve what outcome, common obstacle or trade-off, your professional area, your niche or focus, X years, and a few more. Enter them in the customizer and the script updates as you type, then opens straight in the teleprompter.
Is it strange to use notes in a salary conversation?
Not at all. Bringing notes signals preparation, which is exactly the impression you want in a negotiation. The alternative — improvising your own case under pressure — is how people talk themselves down.
What if the conversation goes off script?
It will, and that is fine. The value of the script is that you have already decided the number, the justification, and the fallback. Once those are settled you can improvise the rest without conceding the substance.
