Stop Fearing the Elevator Pitch!
“How do I pitch my entire company in a few minutes or less? That seems impossible?!?”
This is something we have heard many founders say time and time again. The dreaded elevator pitch is scary and extremely difficult. Explaining your entire company, in just a few minutes (or even seconds), can seem like an impossible task. Founders, especially first time ones, may get extremely anxious over the thought of doing these types of pitches.
But why are they so important?
A good elevator pitch is critical because it shows you can…
Deduce a large amount of complex information into a concise format that your audience can understand
Know the value of your company and are able to communicate it
Have thought through your strategy and how to convey it to others
Now having a good elevator pitch doesn’t mean you have hit the lottery and created a winning company but it is key to unlocking one of the most important tasks of an early startup… bringing money in the door.
Fundraising and sales have a lot in common.
They both revolve around convincing someone who has money, that giving it to you is the right decision to make. For investors, this means convincing them that the ROI they will receive comes from the growth and eventual exit of your company. For customers you are selling them on the idea of receiving ROI through the form of your products value proposition. At the end of the day, in either scenario you have to pitch them on your company and why they should care.
This is where having a really dialed in elevator pitch becomes critical to success. The ability to pitch your audience, (whether that is one person or one hundred), convey to them the importance of your company, and explain to them why they should care, is the difference between many good companies failing early on or succeeding.
Our simple framework for crafting your pitch.
We believe that creating a great pitch doesn’t have to be complex, in fact, there are just a few key elements that you should consider when developing yours:
Audience (who has the problem)
Problem (why is it worth solving)
Scale (how big of a problem is it)
Solution (how do you solve it)
Qualifications (why are you the right person to solve it)
The most important part of this framework is to remember that you don’t have to cram every bit of information in, just the points that matter.
So often founders try to get all the details into their pitch which often leads to not getting any one point across clear enough for their audience to understand. More is less, as long as you make sure that your key points are highlighted.
It also is worth noting that for specific audiences you might add some items to your pitch, such as how you make money when talking to investors. This is a great thing to do as long as you ensure you aren’t slowly creeping more and more information into your pitch to the point where the key points above get lost.
Focus on the problem!
Did you noticed that the first three steps of our framework all are oriented around the problem you are trying to solve? Too often, founders jump right to the solution or the product when pitching their company. The issue here is that it doesn’t matter what your product does or how good your tech is if you aren’t solving a problem big enough that someone is going to throw cash your way to help them solve.
Your pitch should highlight the problem first and foremost. It should convince investors that this problem exists and is so painful that there is a huge market to solve it. It should give prospects that feeling of “oh yeah I do have this problem and it really is painful”.
A good elevator pitch is built on the foundations of product strategy
At first, crafting an elevator pitch might seem like a difficult task. However, if you have a robust and well defined product strategy already in place, then crafting a pitch on top of it actually is quite simple. A good product strategy is like an elevator pitch on steroids. It has all of the same key points with some additional details that are not necessarily needed within the pitch. You can find examples of the components of a robust product strategy in our white paper found here.
If a founder has taken the time and effort to develop their product strategy, then crafting the pitch on top of that is a relatively straight forward process. This is why we always advise the founders we work with to spend the energy on developing their strategic thinking before trying to go out and sell it. A good strategy is easy to pitch. It has all the components required, is well thought out, and is robust yet easy to communicate. It also provides the founder something to fall back on when questions arise during your pitch. No more stammering trying to B.S. your way through answers because you have already done the leg work during the creation of your product strategy and can fall back to it when responding.
It also is important to remember that as your strategy changes over time, so will your pitch.
A good strategy changes. It grows as you develop and discover new insights on the path to product market fit. As your strategy changes, you also must adjust your pitch. Your audience, problems solved, and solutions are going to constantly change over time so it is important that you frequently revisit your pitch and tweak it to stay relevant. We encourage founders to block out time each month to revisit their pitch, assess what needs to change, and tweak it to ensure your messaging is always up to date.
Another best practice is to take five minutes after every single pitch and jot down notes on what went poorly, what resonated with your audience, and what questions they had. This data is extremely valuable when it comes to tweaking both your product strategy and elevator pitch over time. It is what helps you learn and iterate until you craft a pitch that is consistently resonating with your target audience.
Master the elevator pitch.
Mastering the art of the elevator pitch is not about overwhelming your audience with details but about presenting a clear, compelling snapshot of your company's value. Remember, the core of an effective pitch lies in your ability to focus on the problem, articulate a fitting solution, and highlight your unique qualifications succinctly. By adhering to a straightforward framework and routinely refining your pitch based on feedback and strategic insights, you position your startup not just to attract attention but to capture the imagination and commitment of those crucial investors and customers. Embrace the process of crafting and developing your elevator pitch—it's an essential stride towards the growth and success of your business.
If you need a little help along the way, feel free to reach out and schedule a free needs consultation where we can discuss your strategic needs and help you your path to developing robust product strategy and the perfect pitch to go along with it.
