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Does your organisation promote itself consistently and effectively?
It surprises me how many organisations – looking to sell their many and varied wares to potential customers – fail to have a joined-up approach to their marketing.
It seems critical to me that all members of the team talk about the organisation and their products and services in a consistent way, emphasising what makes them different and worthy of doing business with. But, in my experience, very few spend much time on this.
The way to construct this consistent message is to create an elevator pitch, so-called because it’s based around the scenario that a potential customer gets in a lift with you and asks you words to the effect of ‘what to you do?’
The assumption is that you have until they get out of the elevator (or lift) to hook them in to wanting a further conversation with a brief but snappy overview of your organisation. I guess it could also be called a networking pitch because the more likely usage is at networking events or when cold calling.
Anyway, we recommend the following structure to creating an elevator pitch:
WHO – Describe who you are and who you work with (preferably in same business/sector as listener)
WHAT – State your value as key results or impact
WHY – Unique benefits that your organisation brings. Show what you do that is different or better than others
GOAL – Describe your immediate goal. Include a time frame. Make it clear what you are asking of them.
The structure that we endorse is, in turn, based on excellent free guidance from Harvard Business School at this website.
www.alumni.hbs.edu/careers/pitch/
Take a look – it has much to offer.
Of course that pitch has to be both structured and flexible so that it always contains the key messages but can tailored to suit.
But however you create a consistent message there is great value in going through the process. It’s undoubtedly painful. Your brain will hurt. But it forces you to think deep about your USPs and to place benefits above products in your promotion. All in all, well worth doing for lots of reasons….
John Carter
Heard of a model called G.R.O.W?
I’ve recently being delivering workshops, mainly in the South West, designed to help those working in employer engagement within Further Education to build stronger relationships with businesses.
When we focus on the initial face to face meeting I share a few models and tools that can be used to diagnose issues and pinpoint solutions. But somewhat to my surprise, it’s the same model that is always best received – and it’s typical usage isn’t even in employer engagement.
It’s called GROW and it is a simple yet powerful framework that is often used in structuring a 1-1 coaching session, but can also be used with Employers.
Using GROW the discussion works chronologically through four areas:
Goal – Define in some detail the aspirations of the organisation. What do they want to achieve in short and long term? Be precise in the desired outcomes.
Reality – Document the current situation – comparing the aspirations with the current reality. This naturally leads to a gap analysis which highlights development needs.
Options – Consider obstacles and options and construct a detailed action plan.
What next? – Ensure agreement and commitment to next steps
GROW’s success lies in its simplicity – it can provide structure but with flexibility. And you can use it without having to refer to notes.
Anyway, for whatever reason it’s proving incredibly popular. Which is why I am sharing it…
07717 281006 or jcimpact@btinternet.com for further details