Below is the “Tip of the Week” transcript from the Podcast Episode 31: The Pitch (David Brown):
10 Must-Haves:
From the 10, must-have elements of the deck, items two through four (ie. problem, the solution and the market) are used together to create the elevator pitch. A great bonus of going through this exercise and recording these things explicitly, is that these elevator pitches, sometimes referred to as “Concepts,” become the foundation for marketing in developing the messaging and positioning for a product. So, it’s a worthwhile exercise for a number of reasons and it’s output flows well as the inputs for other stages of commercialization.
And, often idea-stage founders won’t know the key benefit very early on. I think it’s great for founders to create three or four elevator pitches or concepts as a hypothesis that can then be tested with customers. Pivoting, adapting, refining and improving are all part of the process.
- THE TARGET CUSTOMER… WHO is feeling the pain?
- THE PROBLEM… WHAT is the most visceral pain?
- THE SOLUTION… HOW will it be solved?
- THE KEY BENEFIT… what’s the outcome of this solution?
- Long-form version. This includes all four elements
- Short-form version. This includes just number one and number four… the target customer and the outcome
Long Form
- We address PROBLEM / THE WHAT for THE TARGET CUSTOMER/ THE WHO via THE SOLUTION / THE HOW resulting in THE KEY BENEFIT.
- We (ie. Packback) reduce excessive textbook costs for college students by offering a digital textbook rental platform, resulting in over $1,000 of savings per student per year.
- We save college students over $1,000 per year by reducing excessive textbook cost through our innovative textbook rental platform.
Short Form
- We save college students thousands of dollars per year.
Know your Audience
- Those that have no exposure to the problem (ie. your friends, mentors, investors, some channel players, etc.).
- Recall that David mentioned this in his story about the dating app, of which, he is not the target market and thus can’t judge the value as a customer.
- Those very close to the problem (ie. customers, other channel players) and
“Yeah, but….” The Key Objections
In sales, startups or ideas, you’ll always get the “yeah, but.” In the Packback example, I’ll come up w/ a few examples of what these could be…