Your Pitch: An Often Neglected Piece of Your Marketing Strategy

Let’s face it, small business owners wear a lot of hats.  It can be hard to prioritize and sometimes we just plain don’t want to do the things we’re not good at. 

At Hub 925, a coworking space in Dr. Phillips, small business owners and entrepreneurs gathered to attend the “Perfecting Your Pitch” seminar presented by Nancy Young of Virtual Work FX. Young was able to use her coworking membership at Hub 925 to provide a valuable informational session to other Hub members as well as non-member attendees while promoting her company’s Virtual Work Solutions.

A pitch is a 10 to 60 second verbal commercial that describes who you are, what you do, who you help and how you help them.  Whew….articulating that in 60 seconds is no easy task! Young walked the attendees through how to incorporate their personality, passion and hopefully a little humor into a consistent and compelling brand message. Those in attendance were able to polish and practice their pitch as well as get feedback from other attendees.

Most attendees had not considered the idea that their pitch needs to emphasize the problem their business solves and how they do that better than the competition.  Also, creating a hook, such as a rhyme, humorous tidbit, or rhetorical question grabs the listener right away and makes you memorable.

Sheri Dixon, Founder of Keep Her Safe, and Hub 925 member, used the information learned to fine tune her tag line into a more compelling way to get across her message. Another Hub 925 member, Brian Collins, Founder of WD With Me, garnered some valuable feedback about incorporating the idea that his specialty lies in getting business people to look at and solve problems in ways they had not thought of before. By incorporating this idea at the front end of his pitch, he was able to make a more compelling first impression.  William Perry, founder of EVVUS noted that even though he is a professional marketer, he was still able to incorporate some of the tactics from the seminar to fine tune his approach. 

Overall, the consensus was that “The Pitch” is a very neglected area for most small business owners and entrepreneurs. Participants walked away with a well thought out, purposeful first draft of their elevator pitch along with a new respect for what those 60 seconds can mean for their business.