Mission statements, vision statements, and goals: Where is it written they have to use fancy words and be a mile long? If they aren’t memorable, how can you expect your employees to implement them and your prospects to understand your objectives?
Most of us struggled to determine which message each company’s CEO pitched. Many of the companies are well known, but we didn’t catch their pitch, which shows that the largest and most successful businesses don’t have an accurate pitch.
Find this hard to believe? Then learn what NOT to do through their examples — this will help ensure ineffective pitching doesn’t happen to your company.
Companies and elevator pitches: Results
Two companies received the best results, indicating they have the highest pitch recognition:
| Elevator Pitch | Company | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| To help practically anyone buy and sell practically anything. |
eBay
|
98%
|
| To be the leading direct computer-systems company, bar none. |
Dell
|
81%
|
Only two more companies received over 50 percent recognition. The rest have pitiful recognition numbers. Four of 17 known companies have recognizable pitches. Sad, unbelievable and pathetic isn’t it?
| Elevator Pitch | Company | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Helping companies print, move and manage their business-critical information more efficiently and cost-effectively. | Lexmark | 71% |
| Soup-to-nuts security for companies and consumers both. | Symantec | 65% |
The bottom of the pile
Let’s review the 17 companies covered in this challenge:
- AMD
- BEA
- CA
- Cisco
- Dell
- eBay
- EMC
- HP
- IBM
- Intel
- Lexmark
- Microsoft
- Novell
- Oracle
- SUn
- Symantec
- Veritas
We already know the four that did better than average. So that leaves 13. Which three companies do you think did the worst? Personally, I would vote for AMD, BEA, and EMC because I know the least about these companies.
Also, the company that uses, “Getting back to customer satisfaction” shouldn’t get a good score, as every company has customers. Nothing about that pitch gives a clue about the company. Ready for the answer?
Cisco, Oracle, Intel
Are you as surprised as I am? Even those who know little about technology are most likely to know these three companies. We conducted this survey with another audience and the same three companies also did the worst.
In fact, all three had 0, zero, zip, nada recognition. How can that be? Take a look at their pitches.
| Elevator Pitch |
Correct Company
|
Percent
|
|---|---|---|
| Continued investments in IT result in measurable productivity gains. |
Cisco |
0% |
| Deliver extremely high performance on inexpensive computers. |
Oracle |
3% |
| To be the “preeminent building-block supplier” to the worldwide Internet economy. |
Intel |
9% |
I never would have considered these three for the bottom of the pile. But when you put their names with the pitch, it’s understandable. Those pitches don’t match the keywords that would come to mind when thinking of these companies.
Does their success mean that pitches are pointless and don’t impact the bottom line? Not necessarily. Imagine how much more business they would have if their pitches were more in line with their business. Could these companies’ large size make it impossible to come up with a single slogan to represent them? This theory is shot when you see Dell and eBay getting the most recognition.
One of the first things a company wants to do is differentiate itself from the competition. The best way to do that is to use its USP (unique selling proposition) to create the company’s pitch. Pitches communicate the company’s value and what it does.
Trading pitches
Two companies received over 50 percent recognition under another company’s pitch. In other words, the other company’s pitch better suited these two companies. AMD’s “To provide the world’s best semiconductor solutions based on customer-centric innovation,” is a better match for Intel.
Novell’s “Connecting anyone to anything digital, simply and reliably and at a low cost,” sounds more like Cisco, doesn’t it? Novell wasn’t recognized at all. Looks like it needs to revisit its pitch and match it to what the company does.
More results …
| Elevator Pitch |
Correct Company
|
Percent
|
Company Readers Chose
|
Percent
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| To provide the world’s best semiconductor solutions based on customer-centric innovation. |
AMD |
17% |
Intel |
56% |
| Connecting anyone to anything digital, simply and reliably and at a low cost. |
Novell |
16% |
Cisco |
53% |
Can you name another company that manufactures chips like Intel? Neither can I. Intel’s success largely comes from having little competition. If another company could compete against Intel and communicate its purpose better, how would it impact Intel’s success?
Elevator pitches that connect with customers
Robin Weidner, principal with Robin Weidner Copywriting & Consulting, has an excellent pitch, “Smart copywriting that connects you with your customers.” She says, “I often write taglines, sales campaigns, and other communications, working with businesses ranging from start-ups to companies running national sales campaigns.
It’s interesting to me how companies build verbiage that makes them feel good about themselves but may do little to connect them with their customers. As far as the exercise [goes, it’s] very interesting. I only knew about seven of these and looked up the others, curious to see if their verbiage would lead me to their companies.”
Simon Young, managing director with SimonYoungWriters, whose pitch is “I listen to the stories businesses have, then tell them in a compelling way,” says, “This exercise confirmed for me what I already believed—big corporations don’t often know what it is they do, because they’re too busy doing it. Time to reflect is a precious, very necessary commodity.”
Gordon Graham, partner with Gordon and Gordon, pitches, “I help technology firms tell their stories using facts, not hype.” He says, “Even though I’ve worked in high-tech for 25 years, I couldn’t always tell which pitch was for which company. It’s amazing how much ‘pahooey’ some companies put out! This has some good examples I can use in my workshops on how to write positioning statements that are crisp, clean and clear.”
Virginia Avery, president of Avery Communications, gives a pitch that explains exactly what her company does, “You are only a day away from more profitable business presentations!” She says, “The ‘pitches,’ by and large, are written for others within the industry and are not customer-focused.”