The New Elevator Pitch: Share Your “Why,” Not Your “What”
April 28, 2017
2. In your pitch, verbalize what your audience craves. “Every great entrepreneur can verbalize things for their audience better than they can for themselves,” Delosa says. “Because they’ve obsessed about it. You need to understand your consumer better than they understand themselves.” Your company’s “why” should speak to something deep within your audience that they want, but haven’t been able to verbalize themselves. Steve Jobs says, “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” In taking the time to understand your audience, you can offer them the “solution” to their innermost yearnings. You can present them an idea that immediately satisfies something deep and unmet.
For example, Delosa’s company, The Entourage, offers consumers who are dissatisfied with traditional education an alternative education, in which anyone with the right commitment to the right environment can start and lead a meaningful vision. His company has struck a chord with hundreds of thousands who now feel a revival for learning and that their faith in education has been restored.
3. Be concise and focus on the #1 biggest “why.” An effective elevator pitch is quick, concise, and to the point. When others listen to you, you only have a brief window of time to capture their attention and strike their interest before they decide whether or not they can see themselves in your company vision. Appeal to the #1 yearning, or unmet pain point of your target audience in your pitch, and position your company as the solution. Your goal is to instantly create resonance within others’ experience and make them feel like they have found a sense of belonging in your company.
For example, Nike’s vision of everyday greatness has gone viral because it is inclusive to everyone. Nike has met others in an unmet yearning to feel great no matter who they are and where they come from—anyone can put on a pair of sneakers and go for a run and embody greatness. It is attainable to all. “Great companies speak to a higher ideal,” Delosa says. “They enable people to feel like they’re a part of something because your value set aligns with their value set and it forms a common conversation. When you’re genuine and authentic to the ideal, people want to be a part of it.”
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