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Define a Company’s Cause to Build a Powerful Pitch
About the Author: Suzanne O’Brien works with organizations seeking stronger customer relationships to increase satisfaction, loyalty, and retention. Visit evergreenc.com.
Corporations face significant challenges in communicating their message: verbose complexity, lack of differentiation, and mixed messages. But distilling an entire company’s offerings into a succinct message is challenging.
Enter Ben Reed, Partner and Co-Founder at PitchMaps. At IABC/Atlanta’s monthly luncheon on March 28, Ben presented Find Your Message: How To Drive Growth With Better Sales & Marketing Messaging. Or in short, “how to get the words right” for your business – words that resonate with existing and prospective customers on a gut and emotional level.
So often, complicated problems are most easily solved by applying a simple but sound framework. A PitchMaps solution derives from an excellent example: the “Company/Cause Framework” in which you “know your ‘Cause’” to “create your pitch.”
First, identify the company’s Cause: the rally cry, purpose, stake in the ground that describes why the company exists. Drill down in discussions with the full range of relevant stakeholders: employees, customers, prospective (and even lost) customers, and vendor partners. Look at competitors’ offerings and conversely, industry whitespace.
Determine the key challenge that the company is addressing in an inspirational way.
Then build a creative yet direct company tagline or themeline that reflects the Cause. Think “Just Do It” from Nike: authentic, inspirational, and enduring but also informational.
Finally, build the company pitch around the Cause. It starts with a simple, jargon-free definition of what the company does. Then comes an eye-opener: a startling, memorable piece of information about what’s going on in the customer’s world. Follow with the solution pillars: the company’s key differentiators, framed from a customer, solution-focused perspective. Give a reason to believe: proof that company can deliver on its promise. Close by suggesting a next step to continue the conversation.
PitchMaps has found the process of carefully determining a company’s Cause and incorporating it into its messaging creates a powerful, effective pitch. To learn more, visit pitchmaps.com.
Thank you to IABC/Atlanta member TrueLanguage business translation services for sponsoring the luncheon.