1. the classic elevator pitch. It's a challenge every entrepreneur, marketer, and sales person must meet, and yet most do it poorly. The concept is simple: communicate what you do in the time it takes to ride an elevator from ground level until the door opens and you have to leave
2. Everyone needs a simple and compelling way to explain what they do. It's the key to successfully prospecting networking events, chance meetings and parties for new business.
3. A powerful elevator pitch, however, communicates a compelling value proposition that attracts customers predisposed to buy. It can help you efficiently weed through a large group, stopping only for meaningful conversations with real potential customers.
4. Create a specific pain statement for the customers you want. You really only want to talk to people who are willing to pay for the problem you solve. Otherwise you are wasting your time and effort.
5. The purpose of your pitch is to sell, not to teach. Your job is to excite, not to educate.
6. Pitching is about understanding what your customer (the investor) is most interested in, and developing a dialog that enables you to connect with the head, the heart, and the gut of the investor
7. What the investor is really thinking is, “Is this company the best next investment for me and my fund?” That is a much more complex question, but that is what the entrepreneur has to answer.
8. But don’t take any template as graven in stone. Your story may require a moderate or even a dramatic variation on the list of slides below. You may need to explain the solution before you can explain the market; or if you are in a crowded space you may need to explain why you are different than everyone else early on in the conversation; or you may want to drop some very impressive brand-name customers before you explain your product or your market. The one thing you may not do is expand the number of slides to 20 (or 30 or 50)! Other than that, let the specifics of your situation dictate the flow of your slides.
9. Everyone in the room should know the basic idea and value proposition of the company, including the target market, before the next slide is shown
10. Key objective: Investors should be confident that there is a good credible core group of talent that believe in the company and can execute the next set of milestones. One of those milestones may be filling out the team, and so it is important to convey that the initial team knows how to attract great talent, as well as having great domain skills. If there is a gap in the team, address it explicitly, before investors have to ask about it.
11. Just because you have really cool technology does not mean you will win. You need to convince the investor that lots of folks will buy your product or service, even though they have several alternatives. And don’t forget that the toughest competitor is often the status quo—most prospective customers can muddle on without buying your solution or your competitor’s solution.
12. The single most compelling slide in any pitch is a pipeline of customers and strategic partners that have already expressed some interest in your solution—if they haven’t already joined your beta program
14. Investors are not focused on the precision of your numbers; they’re focused on the coherence and integrity of your thought process.
15.
Elevator Pitch Example
You know how growing companies with revenue over $5,000,000 struggle with getting sales people to say the same thing, let alone the right thing? Often they grow on the sales ability of the entrepreneur, never putting efficient marketing systems in place; then they hit a plateau and can't scale.
Wouldn't it be great if there were a company that could design and implement comprehensive marketing that makes your sales process efficient and lets your salespeople close more deals?
My company uses proven project management and storytelling techniques honed from our background in theater. Additionally we use proprietary processes outlined in my #1 bestselling marketing books and my national column on Inc.
Perhaps I could send you a link to my column or a couple of chapters from my books?
Steps:
Step 1--Connect with Empathy
Step 2--Offer an Objective Solution
Step 3--Provide Differentiation
One Sentence Pitch:
How to perfect one sentence elevator pitch
http://timberry.bplans.com/2012/04/video-example-of-a-great-elevator-pitch.html
How to write Elevator Pitch
To win over the hearts and minds of investors, your pitch has to accomplish three
things:
1. Tell a good, clear, easy-to-repeat story—the story of an exciting new startup.
2. Position your company as a perfect fit with other investments the investors have made and their firm is chartered to make.
3. Beat out the other new investments the firm is currently considering.
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