Pitch openers: utilitarian, emotional and comparative business descriptions

When you open a pitch it’s important to very quickly make the audience understand what you do.

After quite a bit of training and feedback, most recently on Springboard, I’ve segmented my opening into three types of description:

• The functional: a clear description of what your business or product actually is
• The emotional: a clear description of what your business or product achieves for its users or clients
• The comparative: an easy to understand description comparing it to another well known business

The functional

This is a clear, if somewhat dry, explanation of what your business actually is. In our case I say:

“HipSnip is a shopping Q&A platform.”

We do Q&A, it’s optimised for shopping, and it’s a platform – it can be embedded into other websites.

Simples.

The emotional

This is intended to make the audience lean forward and think, “interesting, very interesting…”. I say

“HipSnip helps shoppers quickly decide what to buy, and buy more online”.

This gives people the consumer value – we’re helping people choose what to buy – at the same time as making it clear to investors where the money is going to come from  – we’re helping people choose what to buy.

The comparative

This is a single, short sentence that will instantly tell someone what the business does. A balance needs to be struck here between using a comparative with a business everyone knows, that doesn’t work too well with one only ‘industry types’ know, but is accurate.

In our case I say that “HipSnip is a bit like GetSatisfaction, but for shopping advice”.

This works fine within the tech industry, but I’ve found it’s never worked in a single client pitch or anyone even slightly removed from tech. So I in that case I say “HipSnip is a bit like Yahoo! Answers, but for shopping, and embedded in your website”. This actually works well, and people get it straight away.

Putting it together

I’ve been told by some people I need the functional, some the emotional, and some the comparative. But in my experience having all three well tested is essential, and when put together it makes it easy to understand what a company does.

“HipSnip is a shopping Q&A platform. We help shoppers quickly decide what to buy, and buy more online. It’s a bit like GetSatisfaction, but for shopping advice.”

(Cue for: what the hell do they do face? :))

Posted in: Pitching