value proposition Archives - Write for Results

Nailing your elevator pitch

For the past few weeks, I’ve been coaching a coach — a lovely lady called Andrea. We’ve been working together on her value proposition and elevator pitch. She’s a highly experienced and talented executive and leadership coach.

This week we’ve made some good progress on her elevator pitch. Within that, I’ve helped her to nail what I call her soundbite. Essentially, that’s a 20- to 30-second articulation of the essence of what she does — the core of her work.

I’d urge anybody who’s running their own business or who’s a business owner to nail their soundbite, whether working with me or someone else (this isn’t a sales plug!). It’s so important to do that.

Anda (Andrea’s nickname) and I have nailed that in one paragraph. I want to share it with you because I think it’s instructive to anybody who leads a team or runs their own business.

Anda’s elevator pitch

Here’s the 30-second elevator pitch that Anda and I’ve developed:

“I’m Coach Anda, and I’m a leadership coach. I work with strong, driven leaders who are already good at what they do, but who want their team to be great. If they want to have a great team, however, first they have to be a great leader. That’s why we start with self-mastery. Whatever storms of change are swirling around them and their team, self-mastered leaders stand quietly in the eye of the storm, responding wisely to new threats and opportunities. I help good leaders become great ones, because great leaders lead great teams.”

That’s 94 words, and runs to almost exactly 30 seconds in length. Now I’d like to unpick it, particularly the beginning where she says she works with ‘strong, driven leaders.’

For any soundbite to stand out and not be bland, you need to evoke some kind of problem, issue, pain point, challenge or conflict. What Anda experiences is that strong, experienced leaders come to her, essentially saying, ‘Help me fix my team. I want my team to be great.’

What she does is throws that back to them with, ‘If you want your team to be great, you have to be a great leader.’ I’ve tried to capture that in the soundbite. So what we’re doing is modeling the message.

Juxtaposition in the opening

Within that opening, there’s a mini-conflict, or juxtaposition.

Let’s look at it again, with the ‘good/great’ juxtaposition in bold:

“I’m Coach Anda, and I’m a leadership coach. I work with strong, driven leaders who are already good at what they do, but who want their team to be great…”

Placing responsibility

Then, she throws the onus back on the leader:

“If they want to lead a great team, however, first they have to be a great leader. That’s why we start with self-mastery…”

In Anda’s work, to put it crudely, she helps the leader to fix themselves first, before they fix their team. This makes perfect sense because the leaders sits at the hub of that system, if you like. She’s throwing the ball back into their court.

More Juxtapositions

Then it’s time to bring out the idea of change:

“Whatever storms of change are swirling around them and their team, self-mastered leaders stand quietly in the eye of the storm…”

That’s another juxtaposition, or contrasting pairs of words or phrases. There’s the idea of being in the middle of a maelstrom, but ‘self-mastered’ means quietness, calmness and composure in the eye of the storm.

After that, I threw in the idea of ‘responding wisely’ because one of the things Anda had said to me was that leaders who haven’t achieved self-mastery tend to make reactive decisions. So I wanted to contrast the idea of reacting (a sort of knee-jerk reflex) with the idea of wise responses:

“…responding wisely to new threats and opportunities…”

The elevator pitch’s punchline

Then the punchline is another juxtaposition. At the end of the 30-second elevator pitch, she says…

“I help good leaders become great ones, because great leaders lead great teams.”

In that one line, we’ve captured the idea that she works with both the leader and their team.

A final word on the elevator pitch

I hope this has been instructive, interesting and helpful to you. The bottom line for us, as communicators and writers, is that if what we’re writing or talking about has no inherent pain, issue, problem or challenge, it’s going to be dull.

The reason for that goes back to the ancient origins of drama: conflict creates drama. Without conflict, you don’t have drama. You don’t have interesting theatre, if you like. This came from the ancient Greek dramatists and its wisdom holds true today.

That’s it for now. I’m Scott Keyser, The Writing Guy, helping technical professionals to find their voice, write Human, and get the results they want from the words they write. Be sure to visit my website and my blog for exciting news, tips and wisdom on writing.

Scott Keyser In Write for Results

Nail your value proposition

Just got off the ‘phone from a client called Andrew, who runs a small (but ambitious) life-sciences consultancy. He’s helping strategic functions in large pharma companies add more value to their businesses. It was an ‘it’s-been-a-while-how-are-you-just-calling-to-check-in’ call. In the summer, I had worked with Andrew and his team on their ‘value proposition’ (VP), or their offer of value to their market.

A better value proposition, for more traction

Andrew’s business had some heavyweight experience and a track record in the sector. However, their ‘overview’ slide deck to attract potential clients hadn’t been getting traction. They knew they needed a more compelling value proposition to scale the business.

In a half-day workshop I challenged every word of the slide deck. We stripped their offer back to the basics:

Who’s your ideal client and why?
What’s their major headache/challenge/problem?
What would the benefits be to them of removing that headache?
What qualifies you to be able to help them?
What’s unique/special about you/your approach?

As a result of their new-found clarity on what they offer the market, Andrew refined their ‘parent’ value proposition to produce a family of ‘child’ value propositions. There was one for each specific business function in their clients’ organisations. Each one reflected the varying needs of each function. This also unlocked a whole new revenue stream that could be his path to hypergrowth.

Andrew’s value proposition

Andrew and his team are now super-clear about the value they offer to whom, how and why. Clarity brings higher levels of certainty, market engagement and, ultimately, business.

Confidence is another by-product of clarity. A joy in the VP workshop was seeing them uncover the confidence to approach new markets. They were also now prepared to give their clients confidence in their analysis-led decisions — as a core value and potential differentiator from the competition. They’re now building on this in their branding and marketing.

And it all happened in one day’s work, with a client who had the courage to commit to nailing their value proposition.

Your value proposition

I turn 60 next year. As I survey my 38 years’ experience, I see B2B comms as the single biggest challenge facing UK SMEs. Small businesses are the engine room of the economy, and should express their offers of value to their markets in clear, concise and compelling ways. Think of it as sequencing a business’ DNA.

Contact me if you’d like to know more. And please, be sure to Like and Follow the Write for Results Facebook page for more business writing wisdom and updates on upcoming events.

value proposition