The Business of You: Pitching in the Digital Elevator

by Kenneth J. Weiss
June 23, 2006

In the past, every entrepreneur was required to master the elevator pitch. Business wisdom said that some day the serendipitous doors of an elevator would open; you would step in, strike up a conversation with Him, the man with the money, and begin your ascension to fortune with the greatest 30 seconds of selling in your life. Your brief monologue needed to outline the idea, the market, the point-of-difference, and the undeniable "why-you" factor. Having an elevator pitch in your pocket today is still a good idea, but the traditional elevator pitch is predicated on a face-to-face or at least a phone-to-phone interaction. Are you ready to pitch in the digital elevator?

At any time, you may find yourself in an online conversation with a potential channel partner, industry-influencer, the trade media or an investor. Here's the go-to list of elements you'll need for today's pitch.

THE BLOG
Inevitably He will want to know about you. Sure you can provide the polished, marketing-ized bio complete with a headshot- (for the headshot, please choose between the suited "I look like a lawyer" pose, gritty news-ish seasoned veteran scowl, or the black turtle neck/progressive thinking/moody/complex posture.) A better choice might be to point Him toward your blog. A good blog will show your knowledge, personality, true nature and to what degree the Internet community perceives your level of expertise.

THE PPT
A good PowerPoint presentation not only helps sell Him, but it helps Him convince Them. Don't use the canned templates. Don't load it with animation. Make it short. Make it compelling. Limit the amount of text, but footnote all salient data points. If it relies on you explaining it, start over.

THE PDF
The PDF format is the perfect vehicle for maintaining high fidelity with the original execution of a text document. Watermark each page with a strong background image. Place the copyright and disclaimer on every page. You may feel that having an NDA with every recipient is essential, but this is probably not realistic. In fact, insisting on an NDA may hamper your short-term efforts at building relationships.

THE JPG
You know, a picture, a thousand words, maybe a million bucks. Never, ever, ever offer to send someone a picture of whatever you are discussing, and then clog their email with a bloated, multi-meg image. You need to have a ready library of images that are appropriately cropped, color corrected and sized.

THE MPG
The internet is no longer the scapegoat for poor video. Get a good professionally produced video and have it optimized for the web. Substance and style are prerequisites. Keep it terse and on-point.

Your digital elevator is coming. Which way is the arrow pointing?