Improve Your Start-Up’s Odds of Success by Listening to Your Mother

January 7, 2010

As children, our mothers were often quick to tell us to not do something because it is unsafe or unwise. As children, we didn’t listen and had to experience the unfortunate results for ourselves. It was only in the aftermath that we realized Mom was right. Why? In our child’s mind this time was different; we were smarter and better than those before us, or so we thought. A start-up is a child of the business world, it needs to be guided and nurtured to reach its full potential. So why not listen to the advice of others and avoid the unfortunate pitfalls others have experienced.

The Elevator Pitch

Visualize yourself as the pitchman Billy Mays in a television commercial because that is the essence of an elevator pitch. With the digital video recorders everywhere, you don’t even need to visualize, you can record and play back. How do you compare to Billy Mays? When pitching to investors, your start-up company is the product and the elevator pitch is your 90 second commercial. It’s not the time for a customer presentation.

Everybody tells you that you have an effective 30 seconds to introduce yourself. They’re wrong – you don’t have anything like 30 seconds to make your first impression. You just have a few seconds to introduce yourself and recite your personal branding statement. THEN, if the other person is interested, you can go into the 30 second pitch. Brevity begets precision. It is the essence of who you are distilled to a few words. It is simple, succinct and it’s enough of a teaser to get a response like … “tell me how you do that”. That’s your invitation to elaborate with your 30 second elevator speech. – UNKNOWN, Branding Expert

For anyone to listen to you , you must have something to say that’s of value to them and will excite you at the same time … People do want to hear what you have to say, they just don’t have all day to figure it out. – MARSHA FREIDMAN, PR Expert and Author of Celebritize Yourself

Listeners cut short the sales person who is not concise and they tune out the presenter who shovels out details. – ANNE MILLER, Author of Metaphorically Selling

Selling to Customers and Market Adoption

Familiarity breeds business, spread your word however you can. People choose what seems most familiar. Evidence suggests it’s better to be known badly than not to be known at all. – HARRY BECKWITH, Author Selling the Invisible

People don’t value or buy what they don’t comprehend. We live in the Information Age. We are awash in information that, instead of feeling better able to discern differences and make decisions, we are drowning in choices.–ANNE MILLER

More people everyday have experienced extraordinary service. Many have seen Disney World, they know how clean, friendly, and creative service can be. They have seen world-class service, and now every service has to accept it. A service that does not jump to meet these rising expectations will have a small revolution and customer exodus on its hands. — ANONYMOUS

In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different. – COCO CHANEL

Brands can’t afford to be ordinary. In this day and age you’re either remarkable or invisible. – SETH GODIN, Author of Purple Cow.

It is not simply that dogs are too old to learn new tricks. What the oldsters know is that most new tricks are probably not worth learning. – BILL BONNER and ADDISON WIGGIN

People are less likely to change themselves and others based on data and analysis than on compelling experiences. – JOHN KOTTER