makeithappen

I spent the morning at a workshop on ‘the peculiarities of marketing software’ run by Melissa Clark-Reynolds at The Business Centre. It was fascinating. There were about 20 of us there and the first thing she asked us to do was introduce our businesses by answering four questions:

What is the problem you solve?

It is amazing how hard it is not to launch straight into your solution, and several people got caught out blatantly doing just that, while several more were borderline. We naturally are ‘me’ centric and it is very hard to realise that the person you are pitching to doesn’t actually care how great you are, they only care about whether or not you can help THEM. Imagine two different companies pitching to an investor:

• One talks solely about the solution they offer (the parallel was drawn between this kind of conversation, and the conversation you have with a date who INSISTS on filling you in on their life story)
• One explains succinctly the problem in the market that they have identified.

Which is the more powerful introduction? Which is the more common?

The lesson here is that no one really CARES what you do, part from you. What they do care about is whether you are solving a valuable problem.

Who else has the problem?

Who are some of your customers? Melissa, once again asked us to identify specific customers - i.e. large companies who, by becoming a customer, offer a sense of security for other potential customers.

Imagine, once again the same two companies pitching to an investor:

• One says “Our customers are all small businesses”
• The other says “We target small businesses and have the Local Council as a key customer. They offer our solution as part of their Small Business Package.”

One company sounds like it hasn’t actually got any customers, nor put any time into researching exactly who they are targeting. The other sound slike it has a clear strategy.

Melissa advised us to focus on one target at a time and really focus on their particular problem.

How did you solve it for them?

Now you can talk about your solution. What have you done that solves the problem you identified above? This should be a short overview of your product and service, using little to no industry jargon! The same two companies:

• “We solve your communications problems using a technology solution”
• “We build software that helps your communications department easily and efficiently deliver the same message to all 1,000 employees”

Company one is way too vague… What exactly is a ‘communications problem’? Melissa said she has offered the same course before and was almost driven insane with the number of people who ’streamline resource allocation’. That description effectively means nothing and is the fallback for anyone offering anything remotely connected to the area. We are all guilty of it without realising it, but an investor will see right through your jargon and think you don’t understand your own product.

What ROI did you deliver?

How do your customers get a return on their investment in your solution? Melissa wanted numbers and only about 4 of us could offer them. When you explain how your solution makes people’s lives easier, using case studies of specific examples of how you saved/made them MONEY. We meet the 2 companies one last time:

• “We will help you increase visitors to your website”
• “We increased customer X’s revenue by $20,000 a year by driving more targeted leads to their website, which turned into sales”

The focus here on specific numbers was key. A dollar figure in a case study is infinitely more powerful than a vague description of how your product will offer a return on your customer’s investment.

Get Practising

It’s a very difficult thing to be able to offer a quick succinct pitch that clearly explains what problem you are solving, how successfully you are solving it and who you are solving it for.

It really pays to get this down, and for most people it wont come naturally. Practise, however makes perfect and it’s really good to do it with other people so you can learn from each other’s mistakes and good points.