Bursts of Color - The Elevator Pitch
In a recent pitch meeting, the founder spent 20 minutes describing their product before we even touched on their proposed financing. We ran out of time, and frankly, I lost interest.
This happens all the time. These presenters might have a great "forest" of a business idea, but they get lost in the "trees."
By contrast, those who learn to distill their messages crisply have a big advantage with investors, employees and customers. I've heard Keith Rabois call this a founder's clarity of thought, which he and I both find quite valuable.
A Personal Example
As the name implies, the elevator pitch engages someone with a line that's simple but memorable. The goal is not to cram all the details in, but to capture attention and leave them wanting to know more. Preferably this can be done with a single, well-crafted sentence.
I grappled with this in the early Yelp days. When friends and neighbors would ask what the company did, I would give a five minute ramble with word-soup like "user generated content" and "review writing platform." Needless to say, this led to a lot of blank stares and few follow-up questions.
Other teammates were struggling with the same thing, so we decided to workshop a simple, one-line answer. We came up with: "Yelp is a website that helps you find great local businesses." Of course this did not explain how the service works, but it was short, punchy and *did* tend to elicit follow up questions that lead to dialogue (rather than the dreaded monologue).
The Process
Coming up with a good elevator pitch and/or marketing message should not require a pricey branding consultant. Rather it should just take a little thought and workshopping from the core team. Here's my suggested approach:
Rough Drafts: All key team members jot down their ideas over a day or two.
Test Internally: Gather feedback, either aloud or through a simple online poll.
Test Externally: Once you have one or two you like, start testing it on friends, family and folks you are meeting for the first time.
See What Sticks: Which version generates more questions? Eye rolls? Memory a few days or week later?
Iterate as Needed. As reactions change or your business evolves, refine it.
Applying This To Other FAQ
Once you have a memorable one-line answer to “What does your business do?” the same approach can be applied to the next most common FAQs from friends, employees and investors. For instance:
How big is this market?
What is the company’s top priority this year?
How many people are on the team?
Do you work in an office or remotely?
Who are your competitors?
How much are you raising and why?
etc.
Of course having crisp answers to these FAQs seems like Comms 101. But I think a lot of us skipped that course. ;)
If you are workshopping your elevator pitch(es) and would like another pair of eyes, please send it my way. I’m happy to give quick feedback or compare notes.