pitch-builder.md
title: Pitch builder description: Turning intake answers into a two-sentence candidate pitch in the hiring manager's words, and the test it has to pass.
Pitch builder
The pitch is the answer to the only question a good candidate cares about at first contact: why would I leave a job I like for this one? If the hiring manager cannot answer it, no job ad or message will.
The test
Read the pitch aloud to someone who is good at this job and happy where they are. Would they take a call? If the honest answer is "maybe, if the pay is right", the pitch is describing the job, not the reason to move.
Where the pitch comes from
Pull these from the intake, in the hiring manager's own words:
| Ingredient | From intake question |
|---|---|
| The moment | What is driving this hire now? |
| The work | What will the twelve-month outcomes be? |
| The edge | Why would someone good join now? |
| The person they will work for | How does the manager manage? |
| What candidates get wrong | What do most candidates misunderstand about this role? |
The shape
Two sentences. The first says what is happening and what this person gets to own. The second says why that is rare.
- Weak: "We are a fast-growing company hiring an account executive to join our sales team."
- Strong: "We have twenty customers who found us and nobody whose job is to find the next fifty, so you will build the outbound motion from the first sequence. You will sell next to the founder every week, which most sellers never get until they are a VP."
Rules
- Use the hiring manager's words. Polish the grammar, keep the voice.
- Specific beats impressive. A real number or a real customer beats a growth adjective.
- Name the hard part. The candidates worth hiring are drawn by it, and the ones who are not will screen themselves out.
- Separate who you search for from how you pitch. The search profile can stay commercially hungry while the candidate-facing story leads with growth, service or craft, if that is what the role really offers.
- Never promise what the intake did not confirm: pay, title, promotion speed or remote work.