Public Relations Best
Practices
The Elevator
Pitch: Moving Beyond the “Mom Test” to Communicating
Customer Value
by Michelle Bauer
Published: February / March 2008
The elevator pitch – a brief statement about your
company – is one of the communication building blocks
for any business. As fundamental as it may be, however,
it’s one thing many entrepreneurs struggle with long
after they’ve launched their firms.
Venture capitalists often
advise entrepreneurs seeking capital to make sure their
pitches pass the “Mom test,” which means that if your
mother asked you what you did for a living, you’d be
able to tell her using layman’s terms she would easily
understand. The idea is to create a brief, compelling
description that will allow your listener to recall and
repeat it regardless of his or her familiarity with your
industry.
Empowering people to recall
and repeat your company’s elevator pitch helps them more
confidently and accurately discuss your business with
others. Imagine having everyone you talk to understand
the value of your business so well that they tell two of
their friends about it. Your referrals would increase,
you’d get better-qualified leads, and overall awareness
of your company would grow. And those two friends would
tell two more friends, and so on, to paraphrase the
classic shampoo commercial. Pretty soon you’d have a
small army of evangelists out there talking up your
business. For free, by the way!
If your elevator pitch could
use a makeover, consider giving these tips a try:
1. Simplify, Simplify, Simplify. Getting this bit right
starts with writing down, in the most concrete and basic
language possible, what you do, who you serve, and how
what you do helps them. Keep the language jargon free
and as concrete as possible. Forget all the “we are the
worldwide leader in X” stuff. Focus your attention on
the value your customers get from your business.
Generate a long list at first, but then whittle it down
to the one or two things that address your customers’
most important needs.
Consider YouTube’s statement about their company as an
example:
Founded in February 2005, YouTube is the leader in
online video, and the premier destination to watch and
share original videos worldwide through a Web
experience. YouTube allows people to easily upload and
share video clips on
www.YouTube.com and across the Internet through
websites, mobile devices, blogs, and email.
The first sentence tells you when they launched and who
they are in fairly straightforward terms. But the second
sentence is the real winner. It explains what the
company does for its customers and how they benefit by
using YouTube’s product,
www.YouTube.com, in language anyone can remember and
repeat.
Don’t try to cram too much into an opening statement
about your company. Let folks absorb what you do and how
it can benefit them. YouTube’s elegant little second
sentence works as well for venture capitalists as it
does for YouTube employees, reporters, and analysts in
communicating the basic identity and value of the
organization. At that point, your customization and
elaboration for specific target audiences can begin.
2. Are you talking to me? Understanding the specific
needs of the person you are speaking to is essential to
the success of your pitch. We’ve all had the experience
of hearing someone at a networking event or sales
presentation who robotically recites something about his
company without any clue of what would resonate most
with his listeners. Such pitches yield predictable
results – no sale; quick, polite excuses to escape the
conversation; or one listener turning to another after
the pitcher leaves, saying, “What does his company do?”
None of these are desirable outcomes.
As you go through the process of remaking your pitch,
identify your top audience targets and their greatest
needs. Practice tailoring your pitch for each audience.
When you get all the tailored versions of your pitch
perfect, memorize them and share the variations with
your team to ensure consistent messaging to each
audience. Preparing yourself and your people to speak to
the needs of each of these audiences will increase your
success in gaining their support and helping them
communicate your business’s value to others.
Need help understanding what resonates most with each
audience target? Ask them! You’d be surprised at how
willing people are to share exactly what they find most
valuable and distinctive about your company, product, or
service. No need to do a big focus group. Schedule 15
minute calls with people whose opinions you want most.
Send them a few questions in advance so they’ll be
prepared to share their views when you speak.
3. Incorporate your elevator pitch and tailored key
messages into all company communications. It does little
good to have a great elevator pitch and key messages and
then have different ones appear on your web site,
brochures, and press release boilerplate. Consistency is
important. Make sure that everyone in your organization
understands – to the point where it is automatic – the
value your company provides to all of its target
customers and constituents.
Communicating customer value powerfully and effectively
will help you build a powerful brand identity, optimize
your sales and marketing programs, and clearly
differentiate your product or service from the
competition. And you’ll finally give Mom the answer
she’s been looking for when people ask her, “What does
your son (or daughter) do?”
Michelle Bauer is CEO &
President of Common Language, a strategic communications
firm headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida. Visit
www.common-language.com for more information.
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