The first question I ask new clients is “What do you do?”  It is a common question that any business owner or employee is apt to be asked in a variety of situations.  I want to know if a concise and clear response can be delivered with minimal hesitation because when it can be, it reflects a company that has a clear understanding of its basic message.

How many business owners do you think can describe what their companies do when asked that simple and straight-forward question?  Would it surprise you to learn that less than 10% can convey the essence of what they do in less than 30 seconds?  The fact is that the vast majority of owners, and by extension their employees, tend to recite generic descriptions of their lines and then spend many minutes explaining what they perceive to be the nuances of their companies.

The Elevator Pitch

Most of us concerned with the communications aspect of marketing and sales are familiar with the “elevator pitch” which describes a statement made in less than a minute and less than 150 words.  The idea is to be able to communicate enough information to pique the interest of a potential investor or customer as a set-up for a more comprehensive follow-up pitch.

The “elevator pitch” concept has been preached by marketing executives and professionals as a tenet of basic marketing for decades.  It addresses a common sense approach to explaining what companies do that bridges the gap between branding and the complexities associated with mission statements.  However, there is a more elemental approach to describing what companies do that fewer than 10% of them understand - let alone practice.

A Foundation of Marketing

In my consultancy we refer to this elemental communication as Basic Market Messaging.  Our goal is to help clients describe what they do, who they do it for, and what their competitive advantage is in less than 25 words.  A message crafted with those parameters is a more effective sales tool than an “elevator pitch” because it provides the key information in a small, memorable package and establishes the basis for additional communication techniques that are employed by successful sales professionals.

More importantly, a simple and concise message can be understood and repeated by every employee of a company.  It thus creates a foundation from which all other aspects of marketing and sales can follow.  This is why we refer to this short-form description as Basic Market Messaging – it informs other shorter forms of communication such as branding, slogans, and tag lines as well as longer-form statements like “elevator pitches”, mission statements and white papers.

In future issues of this blog I will explore exercises for generating Basic Market Messaging and how these messages help create sales scripts and strategies, advertising campaigns, collaterals, web sites and other marketing materials and tools.

Helping businesses develop effective market messaging is one of my personal areas of expertise.  Feel free to contact me if you are interested in creating powerful but concise descriptions of what you do, who you do it for, and what is your value to the customer.

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