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Pitching Your Business

One of the problems I’ve come across as I continue to create my business plan is formulating a pitch that can be absorbed and understood in a short amount of time.  It’s the classic elevator pitch that we’ve all come to know and love (hate?).  My feeling is that I should be able to express the value proposition of my business in a ten second soundbite.

I know a lot of you might think that’s pretty short, but I tend to disagree.  Think about commercial advertising.  The thirty second television commercial is the industry standard.  Products are the easiest to pitch.  Currently, one of my favorites is ShamWow.  It’s a simple product that’s easy to demonstrate.  Its value proposition is clear, “you’ll spend $20 a month on paper towels, buy ShamWow for $20 and we’ll guarantee the product for 10 years.”  Pitching services based businesses is a different story altogether.  This is especially true when the value proposition is difficult to convey.

And, that’s where I am today.  I’m making progress in this area and am actually pretty close to that ten second pitch.  The trick, I’ve learned, is to keep trying.  Pitch everyone who will listen and see how they react.  Take what you learn and re-factor your pitch to make it tighter and tighter.  We all know that time is money so the better you can deliver on the short, the better.

How have you pitched your product or service and what have you learned?  Let me know!

Posted Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 10:45 am by c

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  • Mikel

    Billy Mays and Vince (?) are both graduates of the very old school of pitchman. Vince gives a “canned spiel” (and does it very well, by the way) that was taught to him by someone else in our business, I don’t know who. It would be hard to teach yourself how to be a pitchman; the really good ones were taught.
    Billy Mays started out working for a guy named Ruby Morris who was a third generation pitchman. You will see pitchman at shows and fairs all over the country. Most of the really good pitchman are dead. They were wonderful entertainers before TV.
    If you listen carefully to Vince, you will notice he talks in
    phrases. A good “pitch” should have the cadence of a poem. My
    husband has been a pitchman for more than 50 years. When I learned how to pitch the Kendo mop (you probably wouldn’t know the product)it went something like this:
    “If you want to scrub a porch, a patio, a breezeway…even on
    concrete people get a year out of a refill. Is it absorbent?
    Spill water, washing dishes, taking a shower, daddy shaving, pick it right up. Instead of pressing in the dirt, this mop pushes
    out the dirt…blah blah blah”
    If you go and see a pitchman at work, you will notice they
    say the same thing over and over again…like a broken record.
    That is what enables someone to work for 10-12 hours and not
    drop dead. Just think of how exhausting it would be to have to
    think of new things to say each and every time you presented your product. Unlike salesman, pitchmen talk AT the people, not to the people.
    The pitch business is a profession. Most people who get in it, stay in it for the rest of their lives. A lot of people
    confuse pitchman with carnival people, but it is much different.
    So. That’s it. I don’t know who you are, but I hope you find this as entertaining to read as I have to write. Mikel

  • c

    Mikel,

    Great comment and you are right — I don’t remember the product. This is really great advice though! I’m not sure how well it works in the angel/vc world, but it is very compelling. Thanks for taking the time to share this with my readers and me.

    - c

  • kris

    I was always asked how I got “in the business”. And my answer always was, “you are either born in it or marry into it”. I am so lucky to have been born into this.

    I am glad it was you(Mom)that commented. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw the EXACT verbage.

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