Snakes on a Plane - How to pitch an Innovation

Over the last month I have been working with a tech start up team looking at how best to bring a new product to market.  This has meant getting deeply involved with the team who have sweated blood and tears to build a product that has masses of potential.  Listening to them and getting right under the covers of the product has been a lot of fun and very energising.   However, what has been really interesting has been the debate and discussion we have had about how best to bring the product to market.  

Now as a student of the “art of pitching” I am a huge fan of the idea that the winning concepts are those that can be simply communicated in a way that creates a compelling mental picture in the minds of the audience – think of the eponymous pitch for the movie “Snakes on a Plane” – in 4 words you have a pretty good idea about what the potential film is all about.   It’s a genius pitch – shame about the movie.   So surely the task I should be helping the team work through is the creation of a simple, creative and pithy statement that sums up the product.  Well yes, but...

What has become clear as we have debated our go-to-market plan is, that for the product to be effectively launched, we need to be able to communicate its merits to several key audiences (not just one) – each of whom have very different motivations for engaging with the product.   We need to be able to engage our potential end users, we need to be able to engage our current and future investors and we need to be able to engage the CMOs and CIOs of medium sized corporates.  In effect we need to be able to explain our product simply in three or four different “languages” – languages that resonate with each of the audiences.  The need to be sensitive and adaptive to the diverse motivations of the different audiences is something most innovators only discover through the bitter experience of making an impassioned pitch that is met with bland indifference.  Too often innovators fail to get their product to market because they cannot think beyond the exciting tech they have created.   The reality is that most of the people you want to buy, invest in, or support your product really don’t care about the technology – they care about what it will do for them.

I have seen many pitches that have failed – not because of a poor product, but because of an inability to talk about the product in a way that lights up the audience it is being pitched to.   If you are pitching to potential investors they want to hear about how they will get a return on their investment (the money, the plan, the competition, the team) not how the technology integrates seamlessly with legacy systems.  If you are pitching to end users they want to know how using this product will enhance their lives (making it easier, cheaper, sexier etc) not how the user experience is configured.   If you are pitching to corporate clients they want to know what the product will do for them (their careers, their profits, their sense of control etc) not how much development time went into the coding.

So, in conclusion, when pitching, could all budding innovators and entrepreneurs please take the time to think about the audience they are pitching to and amend their pitch appropriately.  This simple tip cannot guarantee you avoid disappointment but it will massively improve your chances of at least getting your key messages across.