Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could position your business in under one minute? If in the time it takes to read this paragraph, you could present to your potential customers what your company does, and why it does it better than anyone else, without any unreasonable doubt? Imagine this is your once in a lifetime opportunity to make or break your business: you could become the next super brand, and make more profit than you could ever dream of, or simply become another great idea that just didn’t cut the mustard. With only 30 seconds to go your minute is almost up; if you’ve yet to convince anyone about what differentiates you from all the other companies in your overcrowded sector, let alone make them believe that they won’t be able to survive without your brand, then keep reading and find out how you can successfully position your business in under one minute.
Head For The Penthouse Suite
There are many different techniques for successfully positioning your business; however, nothing delivers this in a more focused way than the “Elevator Pitch.” This gives you the time it takes to get from the ground floor to the penthouse, to communicate your company’s message to someone who potentially knows nothing about it. The success of the Elevator Pitch depends on your ability to get straight to the point of your business, and its specific differentiation. With this in mind, you must make sure that you perfectly understand your audience, as addressing their explicit needs and using their language is imperative to ensure they fully identify with you. Remember to avoid using technical speak with the man on the street: although it’s easy to become immersed in company lingo, this will isolate and confuse your potential customers. The perfect pitch needs to speak directly to the audience: it should be a quick, succinct summary that encapsulates everything your business stands for, leaving no room for ambiguity.
Tell a Different Story
Should you not be able to find enough cues for differentiation within your business, you can look at what your competitors are saying about themselves, and then use a different angle. No matter what your business offers, you can always rely on this strategy just by using your own personal story. Using your own experiences and being transparent about how and why you have succeeded can be endearing and engaging to customers. TeaPigs cleverly use their personal love of tea to position their brand, telling the audience how they wanted to improve their favourite tipple so much that they developed a passion to build their entire brand.
Three Steps to Heaven
To streamline your elevator pitch even further, you can use digital strategist Mark Pollard’s “For, Only, Because” method. Mark believes that his three-step method should be interesting and differentiated: “people should be able to get it straight away, but most importantly, it should be something you can build your business around for a long time.” You can apply this approach to your company by following the simple steps:
For: Do you know who your customers are?
Only: What is the one thing that makes you different than your competition?
Because: Why should your customers believe in your Only statement?
See the theory in practice below with the two examples for Teapigs, and online contact lens retailer Lenstore:
Teapigs
For people who are passionate about tea and want to drink the best
Only TeaPigs supply top quality whole leaf tea
Because they believe people deserve better than regular tea
Lenstore:
For people who want to buy contact lenses online at low prices
Only Lenstore.co.uk goes further to deliver quality customer services
Because of its online Optical Advice Service and same day delivery options
This process will give you a great platform to build from, allowing you to create your position in the market. Although it’s not necessarily going to be a quick process, it will reap large benefits once completed
Using a combination of the techniques outlined above will give you the ability to position your business in a clear and digestable soundbite, which will define everything you need to know into three simple sentences. Once you’ve mastered your one minute definition, you can take the elevator with confidence, safe in the knowledge that no matter who walks through those doors, you’ll be prepared. Try it yourself, and see if you can position your business in less than one minute.
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