By Matt Weston, Tuesday 13 January 2004
(1) The Dyson is simply a bag-less vacuum cleaner that, because it doesn't have a bag, has far more suction than any other vac.
(2) Apple's iPod is simply a new kind of walkman that can store and play over 10,000 songs.
(3) Ikea's furniture is all flat-packed for self-assembly, so that it can keep its costs very low, and pass the savings on to you.
The three messages above work because they offer a single, simple benefit - and they're all just a sentence long. And messages as simple as these spread - the first time I heard about Dyson wasn't from an advert, it was from a friend.
It's all very well having a great product or service, but if you can't find a simple way to communicate your idea to the audience you want to buy it, you haven't got a chance of making money.
The mistake many new small business owners make is over-complicating the message. In fact, from my experience, I'd estimate that as few as 1 in 4 of us get it right. As a customer I need to understand straightaway exactly what you can do for me, otherwise you'll lose my interest.
Attention spans are short: when you walk into a supermarket up to 10,000 different products are vying for your attention, whilst the attention span of people browsing the web has been calculated at 9 seconds (around that of a goldfish).
And the key to appealing to this ever-scare resource - customer attention - is to stick to just one clear point. Instead of trying to say everything about your product in one single breath, focus on the single most important benefit, solution or value that your business embodies.
How Tesco became Britain's most profitable retailer
Tesco has stuck like glue to one key formula over the last 12 years: Tesco equals Value.
It started with the blue-and-white striped Tesco value range; and now every TV ad featuring Prunella Scales and Jane Horrocks drives the message home - shop with Tesco and you'll be left with money in your pocket.
Since it started using the value message, Tesco has overtaken market leader Sainsbury's (so dominant in the 80s and early 90s); it now holds over 25% of the grocery market and is Britain's largest and most profitable retailer.
I like the idea of the Elevator Pitch: you're stuck in a lift with Bill Gates (or some other deep-pocketed business leader); you've got just 30 seconds to convince him about your business before the doors open; what do you say?
Clearly you need to keep it simple. You're severely constrained by time, so why dilute your message down further by trying to make more than one point? How do you expect to get your message across if you're pulling Bill in 5 different directions?
No, you need a single hook - a reason for him to take interest and perhaps give you 15 minutes of his time at a later date.
Let's face it – the chances of you or I bumping into Bill Gates in a lift are more than a million to one. I bet he doesn't even take lifts any more for fear of bumping into someone like you or me with a carefully honed elevator pitch ready to roll out.
But the point is still important: the simpler and easier your pitch is to take onboard, the more likely you are to get your point across. You may have different pitches - one for your customers, one for investors, one for new employees - but the principle is the same: stick to just one key point, and drive it home.
So how do you choose your key point? Firstly, as always, start with the audience you're communicating with, whether it be a prospective customer, employee or investor. Put yourself in your listener or reader's shoes.
Now write your Elevator Pitch
It's pen and paper time: thinking from your customer's point-of-view scribble down (in no more than one sentence) the answers to these questions:
(1) What is the single most interesting benefit your business, product or service offers?
(2) What is the most unique or unusual benefit your business, product or service offers?
(3) What is the most innovative benefit your business, product or service offers?
You can be pretty much 100% sure that your focus needs to be on one of the three answers you've written down. Try them out on colleagues, friends, family – and then prospective customers. Which works best?
The Elevator Pitch is a really useful tool – one that I use almost every day. For every new business brick I write I try to focus on a single, actionable point: advice that can be summed up in a sentence, and driven home in an email.
However good what you are trying to sell is; if you can't get it across in the first 30 seconds or the first sentence, you're not going to get it across at all.
(1) The Dyson is simply a bag-less vacuum cleaner that, because it doesn't have a bag, has far more suction than any other vac.
(2) Apple's iPod is simply a new kind of walkman that can store and play over 10,000 songs.
(3) Ikea's furniture is all flat-packed for self-assembly, so that it can keep its costs very low, and pass the savings on to you.
The three messages above work because they offer a single, simple benefit - and they're all just a sentence long. And messages as simple as these spread - the first time I heard about Dyson wasn't from an advert, it was from a friend.
It's all very well having a great product or service, but if you can't find a simple way to communicate your idea to the audience you want to buy it, you haven't got a chance of making money.
The mistake many new small business owners make is over-complicating the message. In fact, from my experience, I'd estimate that as few as 1 in 4 of us get it right. As a customer I need to understand straightaway exactly what you can do for me, otherwise you'll lose my interest.
Attention spans are short: when you walk into a supermarket up to 10,000 different products are vying for your attention, whilst the attention span of people browsing the web has been calculated at 9 seconds (around that of a goldfish).
And the key to appealing to this ever-scare resource - customer attention - is to stick to just one clear point. Instead of trying to say everything about your product in one single breath, focus on the single most important benefit, solution or value that your business embodies.
How Tesco became Britain's most profitable retailer
Tesco has stuck like glue to one key formula over the last 12 years: Tesco equals Value.
It started with the blue-and-white striped Tesco value range; and now every TV ad featuring Prunella Scales and Jane Horrocks drives the message home - shop with Tesco and you'll be left with money in your pocket.
Since it started using the value message, Tesco has overtaken market leader Sainsbury's (so dominant in the 80s and early 90s); it now holds over 25% of the grocery market and is Britain's largest and most profitable retailer.
I like the idea of the Elevator Pitch: you're stuck in a lift with Bill Gates (or some other deep-pocketed business leader); you've got just 30 seconds to convince him about your business before the doors open; what do you say?
Clearly you need to keep it simple. You're severely constrained by time, so why dilute your message down further by trying to make more than one point? How do you expect to get your message across if you're pulling Bill in 5 different directions?
No, you need a single hook - a reason for him to take interest and perhaps give you 15 minutes of his time at a later date.
Let's face it – the chances of you or I bumping into Bill Gates in a lift are more than a million to one. I bet he doesn't even take lifts any more for fear of bumping into someone like you or me with a carefully honed elevator pitch ready to roll out.
But the point is still important: the simpler and easier your pitch is to take onboard, the more likely you are to get your point across. You may have different pitches - one for your customers, one for investors, one for new employees - but the principle is the same: stick to just one key point, and drive it home.
So how do you choose your key point? Firstly, as always, start with the audience you're communicating with, whether it be a prospective customer, employee or investor. Put yourself in your listener or reader's shoes.
Now write your Elevator Pitch
It's pen and paper time: thinking from your customer's point-of-view scribble down (in no more than one sentence) the answers to these questions:
(1) What is the single most interesting benefit your business, product or service offers?
(2) What is the most unique or unusual benefit your business, product or service offers?
(3) What is the most innovative benefit your business, product or service offers?
You can be pretty much 100% sure that your focus needs to be on one of the three answers you've written down. Try them out on colleagues, friends, family – and then prospective customers. Which works best?
The Elevator Pitch is a really useful tool – one that I use almost every day. For every new business brick I write I try to focus on a single, actionable point: advice that can be summed up in a sentence, and driven home in an email.
However good what you are trying to sell is; if you can't get it across in the first 30 seconds or the first sentence, you're not going to get it across at all.
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