In the 30+ years of owning multiple businesses, one of the greatest challenges I have faced is coming up with a great elevator pitch; the quick story that encompasses all the reasons people may want to buy what it is I have to offer. The basic concept seems simple, but the results typically run short of what I really want people to hear. There is nothing more frustrating, demoralizing, or non-productive than someone replying – “I don’t get it”.

Whether your goal is to raise money from investors or acquiring qualified leads from a marketing campaign, content is everything.

In the upcoming posts I will be sharing a series of articles specific for business owners. I hope these will help you develop best-practices for creating your business storyline – then be able to use this to support your marketing efforts.

Storyline

In any business, small or large, start-up or established, I can assure you that owners develop storylines.  However, there is a difference between building a structured storyline and a non-structured storyline. A great structured storyline can evolve when a business owner can best describe their business model and has a well-developed value proposition.

Here are two possible outcomes that would likely happen if a non-structured storyline is vague or is lacking guidance.

1. Investing resources (people, time & money) to develop your products and services for sale - only to have zero interest from buyers.
2. Investing resources (people, time & money) to develop your products and services for sale - and the market remains confused about whether there is any value within your offer, to help them do their jobs better and therefore very few buy (more on this in later blogs).

Structured storylines should include business modeling (See www.Strategizer.com for an introduction to the Business Model Canvas and the Value Proposition Canvas) as well as creating value propositions targeted to customer segments.  Storylines should include customer profiling and segmentation, outlining your products and services, and what those products and services will do to help your targeted audience do their job better.

Once you have completed a forthright and inspiring storyline, the next steps in communicating your value proposition will strengthen your relationships with your employees, investors, family members, and most importantly your prospects and customers.

Storytelling

Simply put, if the Storyline (business modelling & value proposition) is solid, Storytelling (elevator pitch, campaign messaging) can be developed with the proper help. Too many times I resisted the need to hire a professional copywriter. Too many times my story did not work out very well. Too many times I have wasted resources.

Great Storyline + a not-so-great story = few people buy

With multiple start-ups under my belt, the common denominator in any of my successes or failures is the creation or non-creation of a great value proposition.

Writing an extensive marketing plan is time consuming. Not that it is not important to consider elements of a good marketing strategy; but the creation of a plan without prototyping the business model can be fatal. Sadly, most start-ups fail in the first 5 years.

I will be writing more about this in future posts.