I recently posted a blog entry on the subject of 'elevator pitches' for charities and wanted to understand how far advanced, or not, we are as a sector.
In a nutshell, the elevator pitch is simply a short statement that describes to a stranger what your organisation does, how you do it, why you are good at it and who else agrees with you. It has to be short enough to be shared during an elevator journey and pithy enough to leave your audience completely clear about what your organisation is all about.
In audience-led organisations, this tool is often used as part of a coordinated and integrated communications portfolio which ensures consistency of messging across all activity.
Does this sound like you? Does your organisation have such a tool and if so, how and when is it used? For example, does it help your corporate team to better relate to potential supporters?
I'm really interested in understanding where we are as a sector on this topic and your thoughts are very much appreciated. I will post any findings in a future article for everyone's viewing.
Elevator Statements
Hi, Kevin
I had the dubious pleasure of three years before the mast with one of those charities whose work is "too complex to be expressed in a brief statement".
Actually developing an elevator statement was excellent discipline.
However, I've never considered the purpose of an ES to be "to leave your audience completely clear about what your organisation is all about." They originated in the US Life Insurance business (where elevator journeys are often longer!!!), and the purpose was to get a meeting with your target.
You need the hook that gets people to ask the next question!
Cheers
Gerry
Gerry Beldon FInstF
Director, 26-01 CIC
www.26-01.com
Commented on Kevin's blog
Bah, read blogs first, didn't realise this had come up on forums as well.
Elevator pitch additional then: absolutely shouldn't sound scripted. And it will need to be adapted for different audiences.
Where are we as a sector? In my experience "pretty poor". Most peoples' response to the "Tell us what success looks like" is bunny-in-headlights.
Suppose you meet me at an event and I ask about what your organisation does. You know I work for a funder that *may* be interested. So you give me the elevator pitch and ask for a business card. Will I say to my trustees "Hey, I met these guys and they're great" or will I say "I met these guys and am a bit concerned that they're not very clear about what they're doing"
Short version: you need one. Do it.
Sandre
-------
Elevator pitches - valuable!
I think it can be easy to misunderstand the use of elevator pitches. They are not meant as a replacement of vision statements, core values, mission statements, etc etc.
They are there for the occasions when someone asks you what you do, who you work for, what your organisation does.
In these circumstance you do not have time for a corporate brochure, or a PowerPoint, or whatever...all you have time for is a short concise statement that in a couple of sentences sums up the key elements of what you do, why it is important, and sum up with a key phrase that the recipient will take away with them and REMEMBER!!
Everyone working for a charity, at whatever level, should have such a statement on the tip of their tongue for ANY interaction.
I remember the accountant who, when asked what he did said 'I am an accountant' - end of conversation.
Following my advice he changed it (according to the time of the fiscal year) to something like..
'I save businesses money'
'I help businesses make more profits'
'I help businesses cut their tax bill'
...which normally brought the response 'Oh, how do you do that?' conversation therefore started with a potential new client, or referrer, instead!!
A much better outcome.
Be specific, be catchy, no jargon please, and engage with the other party.
You'll be surprised just where it'll take you.
Happy New Year!!
Keith Grinsted
07841 312711
premiercontact@tiscali.co.uk
Premier Contact Ltd ...making your voice heard!
Follow me on Twitter - keithgrinsted
www.premiercontact.co.uk
Pre-scripted engagement?
I think your 'engage with the other party' gets to the heart of why I think elevator pitches deserve caution. If you have a memorised pitch that you repeat whenever a suitable opening arises, then I don't think you're engaging. I can't think of a single time when I've been asked about a charity and I didn't know at least one thing about the asker that should have induced me to part from a script and try to actually engage with the person's interests in how I presented the charity.
And on a purely practical note, very few people can make a memorised elevator pitch sound fresh and engaging, rather than a scripted and uncomfortable sales pitch. And the people that can are probably better off improvising...
Elevator pitches - more often not than not
I'm on the 'usually not a useful tool' side. The elevator restriction is fine if you're trying to distill core values, but I can think of many organisations whose work is sufficiently complex and nuanced that 'completely clear' is unattainable without more time than your average elevator would allow.
And even more importantly, I can see the value of it to an organisation whose audience is well-defined and fairly homogeneous, but those are rare. Often, the heavy lifting of fundraising is bridging between the charity's idea of what it does, and the donor's different but compatible aspirations. You seem to be throwing away all sorts of useful thinking around the concept of stakeholders to reduce the charity to a monolithic 30-second snapshot.
But then I'm also pretty sceptical about the value of most overviews of 'the sector', so I suspect we diverge fairly thoroughly around these issues!
James
Over-simplifying the issue
Happy New Year and thanks for all comments thus far - most inciteful.
I was a little concerned to read James' comments regarding me "throwing away all sorts of useful thinking around the concept of stakeholders...". This means I wasn't sufficiently clear at the outset, my apologies.
Any descriptor of intentions or raison d'etre is simply a communications tool - a window into what a charity does, for whom and usually, why it does it. Elevator pitches are simply one such tool aimed at predominantly an external audience. Like any tool, we use it when appropriate and I'm certainly not advocating using a spanner to hammer a nail into the wall!
Whilst I agree that to over-simplify a chrity's activities may actaully harm their reputation, let's not forget that external audiences often don't have an hour to listen to us explain the nuances and subtleties of what we do. We have to attract their attention and appear relevant quickly and succinctly.
In the UK at least, we exist in a media-saturated world competing for a share of voice with countless other organisations and messages. It could therefore be argued that to be pithy and concise is even more important than ever. That said, we still need to be sufficiently flexible to pick up on the particular hooks of specific audiences (Keith's comment above) to make our communications relevant. A "monilith" certainly would fail in this regard!
What do we think about the example of the RSPCA? Could their answer to the 'what do you do?' question be something along the lines of: "we proactively support animal welfare as well as caring for animals which have been neglected or mistreated". The RSPCA obviously does a lot more but could it be argued that all the other activities are the means to this end?
Thoughts and views welcome.
Founder, Bottom Line Ideas
www.bottomlineideas.com
Speaker, Cancer Research UK