Whatever the Outcome, Serve up a Good Pitch to Maximize Your Small Business Marketing Momentum

Serve up a Good Pitch! Photo credit: Lauryn McDowell via Flickr under Creative Commons license

Not everyone connects with a good pitch. In baseball, that’s the point, right? On the other hand, in business, that’s a lesson learned by a North Carolina entrepreneur who appeared on the ABC hit television show, Shark Tank. Despite a unanimous “Great pitch, but I’m Out” on the investment opportunity, the Sharks’ refusal to bite did not derail the passion of Julie Busha, owner of Slawsa, a condiment product (ironically, in another episode, the Sharks bit on a good pitch and the business, Lipstick Remix, failed). Nor did their decision derail the marketing momentum of the product, which is currently available in more than 6,000 retail locations throughout the United States and Canada. In a post-show article, Julie shared a few small business takeaways from her out-of-the tank experience that are well worth repeating here:

Surround Yourself with the Best. …You can make your life easier if you surround yourself with the best. We live in a day of technology where outsourcing can be more effective than hiring within, especially if you’re small. But believe me, you’d rather be the quarterback who understands the game and can call the plays versus having three guys who sit on the bench.

Quality surpasses quantity every time, and making wise decisions to align yourself with the best will help your business run efficiently.

Never Let Someone’s Inability to See Your Value Determine Your Worth. …Success is not defined as making a deal on Shark Tank. Believe it or not, the voice of America reigns louder than that of any Shark, and those are the voices that matter most.

Read the article at Huffington Post.com

Back to the pitch. There’s brewing debate on the merits of company/elevator pitches. On a recent episode of LGK’s The Marketing Mojo Show, Sue Baroncini-Moe, business/marketing strategist and author of Business in Blue Jeans: How to Have a Successful Business on Your Own Terms in Your Own Style, states that elevator pitches become “weird practice speak” and generally she does not believe in them. Instead, Baroncini-Moe prefers and recommends having a conversation to position what you do and the value of what you do in a context that is relevant to the person with whom you are speaking. Flip the script, practice speak or not, entrepreneurs and small business owners should embrace the process of describing their business, the vision, solutions and target market(s) as a marketing opportunity and to maintain focus. Whether you call it an elevator or company pitch, value or purpose statement, our advice to you is to not launch or leave the office without a succinct summary that conveys your business value and benefit. That’s the basis of a good pitch.

Do you have an elevator pitch; do you think it is necessary? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section of this post. In the meantime, here’s the Shark Tank episode featuring Julie Busha of Slawsa (about 11 minutes, 30 seconds into the video).