Writing A Fifty-Word Corporate Summary And “Elevator Pitch”

To begin the process of making a presentation more effective, my staff and I pose a two-part challenge I call “Less Sizzle — More Steak”-- to each CEO or company officer with whom we work, not only at our first meeting but at every subsequent visit. At the end of the process, the client is able to write a concise, effective and powerful, description of his company using only fifty words or less. He can then use that descriptor any and everywhere. This includes whenever he (for he please read “he or she”) is alone in an elevator (hey, you never know about opportunities!) with a potential investor, analyst, or anyone else who should know about the company.

This is not a frivolous exercise. As you may already know, the Bloomberg terminals, currently one of the leading sources of financial information regarding publicly traded companies, only allow fifty words, or five lines of copy, which can be just slightly longer, to describe a company. If you do not know what company description the masses currently see when they pull down your ticker symbol, you might want to check out your company profile on Bloomberg.com.

This is the screen that many institutional investors and analysts utilize when they want immediate access to information on a company. It includes a summary of what the company does, edited by Bloomberg, including its high and low stock price, the address of the corporate headquarters, and the names of its corporate officers. When we begin working with a new client, one of the first things we do is call Bloomberg, Yahoo and other financial information providers to see how this new client’s company descriptor reads. We are sometimes surprised at how inaccurate it is.

Bloomberg writes it as they see it — but what happens if you did a reverse merger and never told them about it? What IPs are reading about your company may be old news! The good news is that you can write or update your descriptor as you want it to appear, as long as it is factual and non-promotional. There’s a lot at stake here, since most of the other financial sites across the Internet are getting their information from Bloomberg. Make sure your descriptor is carefully written and, in a few well-chosen sentences, makes your company sound irresistible.

I invite you to take this challenge, and write down a fifty-word description for your company. Then, ask yourself if the description you wrote provides a clear mental image of what your company does. If not, keep working on it. Ask staff members to write down their fifty words. Mold and sculpt it until you have the best description. Then use that version.
 

The Expanded Version
The second part of the challenge is to write an expanded version — what Dale Carnegie once referred to as an “Elevator Pitch.” This version should last about the time it takes for an elevator ride and maybe a short stroll across the lobby. Describe what your company does, as well as the benefits of its products or services to your targeted audiences or to people in general. Explain how lucrative your market is, and why your company is a worthwhile investment opportunity.

I invite you to write your three-minute Elevator Pitch, and evaluation it for efficacy.

Practice Makes Perfect
Are you struggling a bit, or do you have a good grasp on your extended pitch, in the written and spoken formats? Have you ever asked someone you respect and trust to seriously critique your verbal pitch or do you feel embarrassed? Even if you do, try it. The more you rehearse the better you will be at delivering your pitch to the right people in the best possible way. This kind of rehearsal is one of the exercises we regularly perform with our clients. I firmly believe that the “Elevator Pitch” and 50-word descriptor (the latter, incidentally, should always appear at the end of your press releases) are two of your most important marketing tools, and for maximum effectiveness must be well written and well delivered.

The extended pitch is extremely important because the maximum amount of time you have to capture the attention of the busy IP is about three minutes, at best. Nonetheless, I can’t tell you how many times we have met CEOs seeking representation whose faces go completely blank when we ask for a three-minute pitch. Far too often, the initial pitch is “off the cuff.” Or, and this is even worse, their pitch has become so rote or so replete with trade or industry jargon that it is boring or incomprehensible. 

ABCs: Always Be Closing
When companies hire our firm to introduce their stories to qualified financial professionals, we know we only have a few minutes to get and keep the attention of that busy analyst or money manager. If we can’t tell them quickly and effectively why buying the company’s stock is compelling, and why its stock has the potential to appreciate, then we’ve lost an opportunity, because we’ve lost their attention. It all goes back to the basics of selling, and selling is what you need to be doing each and every time you have the opportunity. 

All skillful sales pitches have three parts:

1. Tell them what it is you are about to tell them
2. Tell them.
3. Tell them what you told them