2. Your Elevator Pitch
It’s a communication tool
Get your point across in the
time span of an elevator ride.
(2 minutes max)
An elevator pitch is an
overview of an idea, product,
service, project, person, or
other solution and is designed
to just get a conversation
started.
3. Elevator Pitch Basics
A good elevator pitch is made up of two key
elements:
The pain statement
The value proposition
Every great elevator pitch must be:
Succinct
Greed-inducing
Low in tech talk
Irrefutable
4. Elevator Pitch Structure
Your elevator pitch should have 3 parts:
1. Gain attention & hook !
Introduce your team and background
Introduce your idea
Start with something catchy, a story
1. Your value proposition: NABC
2. Actions to get to the next step:
What do you need to get started:
People
Skills
Technology
5. The Core = The Value Proposition
A statement of an important client
problem [Need] that proposes the unique
way [Approach] you will use client
resources
(€€€) to deliver superior client features
per unit cost [ Benefits] compared to
others in their market(s) [Competition] .
You don’t define value - Customers do !
6. It’s a simple as NABC
Example of NABC:
“John, I understand you’re hungry as I am [Need].
Let's go have some lunch at the company café
[Approach], instead of McDonald’s [Competition]
because, for the cost of McDonald's it has great
food, its quiet and we can continue our
conversation [ Benefits per costs]. “
7. Four Fundamental questions :
N Customer/Market Need
A Your unique Approach
B Client/Customer Benefits
C Alternative approaches Competition
“NABC” captures the essential, defining
ingredients of a Value Proposition
10. Creating what customers want:
N ABC
“ Work on what’s important, not just what’s interesting-
there’s an infinite supply of both”
11. NABC example – Video on Demand
Need:
Movie rental is a 500 Mio Euro business. The part people dislike is to
return tapes and late fees.
Approach:
We will provide VOD via the cable system with access to all the titles of
IMDB. The system uses existing channels and hardware. Customers
need no new investments and pay the same price for a movie as in the
rental shop.
Benefits:
End-user: no need to return movies; no more late fees. Same functions
as with a DVD player: fast forward, trailers, ..etc.
Customer: Higher revenue per movie with higher margin; 20% market
share expected.
Competition:
competition : we have patented the distribution and VCR like features
for VOD
alternatives : on-line rentals have higher handling costs (0.75 Euro per
movie). Sending the tape back is as inconvenient as returning it.
11
12. Quantitative not Qualitative
Need
Not: The market is growing fast
Rather: Our market segment is £2M per year and growing at 20% per year
Approach
Not: We have a clever design
Rather: We have created a one-step process that replaces the current two-step
process with the same quality
Benefits
Not: The ROI is excellent
Rather: Our one-step process reduces our cost by 50% and results in an expected ROI
of 50% per year with a profit of £3M in Year 3
Competition
Not: We are better than our competitors
Rather: Our competitor is Evergreen Corporation, which uses the current two-step
process. We own the IP for our new process
13.
14. Iterate Often & Collect Feedback
Focus on Important Client Needs
Write down the Value Proposition (NABC)
and Elevator Pitch
Iterate often – every week
In a group (Watering Holes)
Get out of the office
Use pictures, simulations and visuals
Protect any IP generated
15. Who stops at the watering hole ?
People with different backgrounds take on
various roles.
Negative criticism is banned at water-hole
meetings.
There are three typical roles at a water hole:
1. Those who concentrate on everything that
makes an idea seem good
2. Those who concentrate on everything that can
improve an idea
3. Those who take on the user perspective
Editor's Notes
Succinct: Characterized by clear, precise expression in few words; concise and terse: Irrefutable: Impossible to refute or disprove; incontrovertible
The NABC Efficiently Answers Four Fundamental Questions An NABC comprises the four fundamentals that define a project's value proposition: N eed: What are our client's needs? A need should relate to an important and specific client or market opportunity, with market size and end customers clearly stated. The market should be large enough to merit the necessary investment and development time. Need level: Vitamin (nice to have), Aspirin (worth paying for), Antibiotics (critical). Approach : What is our compelling solution and unique advantage to the specific client need? Draw it, simulate it or make a mockup to help convey your vision. As the approach develops through iterations, it becomes a full proposal or business plan, which can include market positioning, cost, staffing, partnering, deliverables, a timetable and intellectual property (IP) protection. Look for paradigm-shifting approaches that address a specific need. B enefits: What are the client benefits of our approach? Each approach to a client's need results in unique client benefits, such as low cost, high performance or quick response. (better, faster, cheaper). Success requires that the benefits be quantitative and substantially better - not just different. Why must we win? C ompetition/alternatives: Why are our benefits significantly better than the competition? Everyone has alternatives. We must be able to tell our client or partner why our solution represents the best value. To do this, we must clearly understand our competition and our client's alternatives. For a commercial customer, access to important IP is often a persuasive reason to work with us. But, whether to a commercial or government client, we must be able to clearly state why our approach is substantially better than that of the competition. Our answer should be short and memorable.
Approach = not about technical implementations but about your uniqueness
Approach = not about technical implementations but about your uniqueness
All about understanding the market ecosystem instead of approach only
A water hole is one of the techniques in the NABC method which can be used to iterate during the development of the NABC. Stopping at a water-hole can actually make it possible to continue. The water-hole helps develop an idea further and can be used during and at the end of the development process. Formulating and articulating an idea and sharing it with others makes the good and bad points become apparent. We all know the feeling when an idea may seem clear in our thoughts, but becomes muddled up the minute we try putting it into words. Although at an early stage one tends to keep an idea to oneself, it is far better to share it with others. In so doing, it becomes possible to work further on it. It is, of course, important that the feedback be always constructive. In short, a water-hole is a way of structuring feedback during iterations.
A water hole can be organised in many different ways and can be used as many times as necessary. The idea with the water hole is to share your idea/proposition with others, thus encouraging the development process to continue. Spending time concentrating on an idea hinders possibilities for the development it would otherwise have when seen from different perspectives. Establish a water hole where persons from different walks of life are introduced to the proposition. One could, for example, invite: - Professionals - Colleagues - Outsiders - Users - Others
