More on elevator pitches
June 7th, 2006Will Swayne has a good question/comment regarding my earlier post (April 21) on elevator pitches:
“Hi David - A lot of people I talk to are keen to come up with a great “elevator speech”. I like the idea too but it’s very hard to come up with one that works without sounding too rehearsed, salesy or corny. Can you share any examples of successful elevator speeches? “
I agree, it is very hard to come up with a good elevator pitch. The reason it is hard is because it is the final outcome of a fair bit of hard work. The elevator pitch is in essence a well-worded distillation of what your business/brand is about. One of the reasons why many elevator pitches sound rehearsed, corny or salesy is because they have been developed with the purpose of getting someone’s attention, not to engage with them.
It’s a bit like walking around with a flowerpot on your head: you will get people’s attention, but I doubt they want to give you their business.
A good elevator pitch is nothing more than a distilled version of your normal sales presentation; and that’s the catch. Unless your sales presentation clearly defines what specific problems you solve for your customers and how you differentiate from competitors it will have little impact.
The substance of a pitch is what sells first. The form is about understanding the emotional pressure points of your audience; what are their fears and motivations.
So if your elevator pitch is not as sharp as it should be don’t just work on the appearance, work on the substance and go back to work on what actually differentiates your company. Once that is clear, tell the story based on those emotional triggers you believe your audience responds to.
What are your experiences with this?
June 16th, 2006 at 5:51 pm
Hi David - I’m famous
Thanks for your post. Can I ask you a question - what’s *your* elevator pitch?
I’ve experimented with a few different pitches myself and the one that I feel most comfortable with is actually kinda mundane - “I help businesses generate more business using the internet”. Whaddayathink?
June 18th, 2006 at 7:17 pm
Thanks Will. My pitch used to be this: “Most small and medium businesses don’t have the in-house marketing resources they need to grow. We offer the senior marketing expertise and resources to develop and implement those project that don’t get done.”
We are actually in the process of looking at our direction and positioning so I can tell you now that this pitch will probably change soon, as our positioning changes.
If your market are SME’s with very little understanding of the Internet and the options available, your pitch is good as it offers a simple message in an online world that is very confusing to them. If your target market is more sophisticated you might want to consider if this statement differentiates you enough from other solution providers. I hope this helps and let’s keep talking.