John Fisher is passionate about the need to have a compelling business elevator pitch. Without it, you lose opportunities with potential investors, customers, employees, and partners. And you waste time with others who are not a great fit.
What follows is a transcript of John Fisher’s appearance on The Savvy Entrepreneur Radio Show. You can also listen to the podcast of the show here.
Doris Nagel 0:42
Welcome to The Savvy Entrepreneur, everybody!
We’re broadcasting here from the Greater Chicago Milwaukee area. If you’re an entrepreneur or small businessperson — or you want to be one — this show is for you.
I’m Doris Nagel, your host for the next hour. I’m a serial entrepreneur. And I’ve counseled lots of startups and small businesses over the past 30 years.
The show has two goals: to share helpful information resources, and to inspire, hopefully making your journey as an entrepreneur a little bit faster, easier, and maybe a little bit more fun. To help with that. I have guests every week on the show who are willing to share their stories and their advice.
This week’s guest is john Fisher. John has over 35 years of experience in business, and information technology, including roles as senior executives and corporations, and as a management consulting all know all along applying technology solutions to critical business problems. He’s the president and founder of a company called Rethinking It. It’s a firm that helps clients take the mystery out of technology decisions. And that’s certainly something that’s needed.
He’s also a certified SCORE mentor. We’ve talked about SCORE on the show previously. But for those of you who don’t know what a score is, I’m sure John will tell us a little bit more about what that is. He’s also a frequent speaker at industry events on topics such as negotiations, leadership, and strategy. And he teaches graduate level courses at DePaul University in IP strategy, social media negotiation, leadership, and project management.
John has received numerous awards for his work. And he’s also on the board of directors of several nonprofit organizations. He says he and his wife have a small farm in McHenry County, which is in Northern Illinois, with two horses, three goats and a hound dog named Guiness.
So, with that introduction, John, thanks so much for being on the show today. Welcome to The Savvy Entrepreneur.
John Fisher 3:18
Thank you, Doris. Glad to be here. And thanks for thanks for inviting me to the show.
Doris Nagel 3:23
Our topic today — I should have mentioned in the intro — is creating a winning elevator pitch.
John, what exactly is an elevator pitch? And why are we talking about this on a show for entrepreneurs? Because I always thought an elevator pitch was something you told a recruiter about when you’re hunting for jobs. So why does a business need an elevator pitch?
John Fisher 3:51
An elevator pitch is good for a lot of different things. Job hunting is one of them. But it’s also a good idea for businesses — small and large — to have a very simple way to explain what it is that you do and the value that you bring to the table.
The elevator pitch is really a short – and I emphasize short — description. The classic definition is that it’s a talk that you can give in an elevator as it’s going up 10 flights. So, you’ve got about 30 seconds, maybe a minute to let someone know what it is that you do, and why they should care.
It’s a good way to introduce yourself. It’s a good way to introduce your business. And it’s a good way to clarify things. Because a lot of times people have a lot of different things that they that they want to talk about in their businesses. And so, this is a way of winnowing out the things that are most critical.
Doris Nagel 4:56
I know this is a topic you speak about quite a bit. How did you become so passionate about it?
John Fisher 5:08
That’s kind of interesting. As you mentioned, I teach at DePaul University. And one of the courses that I regularly teach is called a capstone course. That’s a course that master’s candidate students take toward the end of their academic career.
And what I noticed was — and I noticed this throughout my career in technology — that people are not necessarily good at summarizing. They’re particularly good at details. They’re good at talking about how things happen and the components, but they’re not necessarily good at an overview.
So, I developed this framework for a lot of my technology students, to get them to understand that they have just a few seconds to get people’s attention, and then have less than a minute to engage them in a conversation. To help them understand that if they talk for five minutes, they’ll lose their audience. That’s how it came about. And like I said, I’ve done this for a while, not only with my students, but also my staff. When I was a CIO, and a manager in various capacities in technology, I constantly had to remind people to slow down and talk in terms of value, as opposed to details on what they did.
Doris Nagel 6:38
So, what happens if people don’t have an effective elevator pitch? What are the consequences?
John Fisher 6:44
One is that people may not understand what you bring to the table. Because if you if you talk too much, they zone out. They’re not going to be listening to what you say. Also, a lot of times people try to put the most important things at the end. They start with sort of a context setting. And that loses people, so they never hear the important things at the end.
So, the consequences are that you might meet a potential client, or a potential employer or a potential partner. And you lose the ability to, to introduce yourself in a way that they will remember who you are.
Doris Nagel 7:24
Business is so competitive. If you’re not putting your best foot forward, you’re not making yourself memorable, making people understand what to do quickly, so they can decide whether you’re someone who they can help or can help them. And If you miss out, it’ll be somebody else’s opportunity, right?
John Fisher 7:44
That’s absolutely right. You’ll simply miss that opportunity. You know, a friend of mine got a job at a block party years ago. People in technology have a problem that no one really knows what it is that we do. But she was talking about what she does, and then someone said, oh, there’s a guy sitting over there on this lawn chair who I think is looking for somebody like that. So, she went over and introduced herself and eventually got a job as a strategy consultant for his company. She wasn’t even looking for a job, she was just at a block party.
And the same thing can happen in terms of clients. You may not be looking for a client. But you may have a conversation with someone at a at a gathering, and they say oh, wow, that’s, that’s interesting — I was thinking that I need that kind of service or that kind of product. Let’s talk more.
That’s really the goal of the elevator speech — to get somebody to say, “Oh, that’s interesting. Let’s talk more.” You get them engaged.
Doris Nagel 8:46
Let’s talk about the elevator pitch in the context of investors. Because one thing that startups are always very fixated on is finding money. How does an elevator pitch help you with investors?
John Fisher 9:02
Investors by nature are looking for hidden opportunities. They’re looking to invest in something that they believe could be successful. And if you can’t explain what you do very quickly and very succinctly, then they’re not going to be interested, and they’ll assume your customers are not going to be interested, either. So, having that crisp talk — one or two sentences — helps them clarify, oh, this is what this business does, this is the business problem that you’re solving with your company. If you’re able to communicate that well, that’s a valuable commodity.
Doris Nagel 9:45
Does it matter whether you’re bootstrapped, or whether you’re seeking outside investors?
John Fisher 9:52
No, it’s the same. It’s the same for investors as it is for customers.
I’m on the board of a couple of startups. And the CEO of one of the startups, which eventually shut down, had been introduced to an investor. The investor called him up, and the CEO was driving in his car. And the investor said, “Tell me, tell me about your company.” And the CEO didn’t have a good answer for that. He said, “I’m driving and I’m not ready to talk about this yet.”
And the investors? Yeah, the investor said, “Well then, you’re probably not ready for our investment either,” and ended the call. So, you always have to be ready when that opportunity strikes to get people interested in what you’re doing.
Doris Nagel 10:45
I’ve heard other stories like that, too, where people are trying to get ahold of an investor. They think they’re going to leave a voicemail message or they’re going to set up a time to talk later. But lo and behold, they get them on the phone out of the blue, and then they’re not ready for a conversation of any kind.
I even was talking to one investor a bit ago who said that his team used to test companies on purpose, just to see if they were ready on the spur of the moment. From his standpoint, that showed whether the business team or the senior exec had enough mental flexibility and adaptability to go with things on the fly.
John Fisher 11:33
Absolutely. In many ways, being an entrepreneur is being a salesman all the time. You’re always looking for opportunities for your business.
And you’re absolutely right about often being prepared. I have picked up the phone instead of letting it go to voicemail and have talked to some salespeople who clearly weren’t ready to sell. My conclusion: you’re not a particularly good salesperson, are you?
It’s the same thing with an entrepreneur. You need to have your quick pitch on the tip of your tongue. That’s one reason why the elevator speech is so important — it gives you something immediately to fall back on. If you create it and you practice it and you’ve got it down, then that’s how you always open your conversation. You don’t have to think about it, it becomes instinctual. And you just say, “Hey, here’s what I do.”
Doris Nagel 12:27
What does a good elevator pitch look like, and what it should accomplish?
John Fisher 12:38
If you can’t get their attention, then they’re not going to buy whatever you’re selling, whether it’s you or your company. A good elevator speech gets people’s attention. It’s something that may be maybe catchy or interesting. Maybe something that is unusual. Getting your listener’s attention is, I think, the primary thing. Because if they’re not paying attention, then then you’ve lost.
The way I look at it, there are four parts to an elevator speech. First, who are you? Avoid labels like, I’m a consultant, or I’m an attorney, because that brings connotations with it when people have dealt with consultants or attorneys in the past. In many cases, it’s just, “HI, I’m John,” as opposed to I’m John Fisher. They don’t necessarily need to know your last name right away. It’s better if the initial conversation is more comfortable.
Second, what do you do? Most of the time that should include an action verb, like I help or I, I engage, or I deliver, or I build, something like that. So, you can say “I build widgets.”
But then you need people to know who it’s for. One of the things that you’ll want to do is engage people that are appropriate for your business. As an example, if you work with small businesses, you want to say I help small businesses grow revenue. So, if you’re a large business, I’m not going to be able to help you because selling and delivering services to that sector is a more complicated process, or you don’t work well with large companies, or whatever you want to say to explain why those aren’t your customers.
You want to be sure that you qualify, so that if whoever you’re talking to is a large company, then you can say, oh, okay, that’s not for me, and go on to the next person.
The last element of the elevator speech is: what’s in it for me, from the perspective of the person you’re talking to. What value do you bring to the table? So, you can say, I help small business increase revenue, or I help manufacturing companies reduce waste. Those are boring, but clear in terms of conveying a clear message of the value you bring and who do you do it for.
So, I see it as a four-step process.
Doris Nagel 15:36
Do you think people should have different elevator pitches for different audiences? When I first started doing consulting, I had a hard time with a good elevator pitch because there were several things that that I could do. I’m sure that’s true of other kinds of businesses that maybe have more than one offering. What advice would you give to people in that circumstance?
John Fisher 16:10
Absolutely you should have multiple elevator speeches, depending on the audience, depending on what you’re what you’re trying to do. You might have a different elevator pitch for an investor than for a customer or for a partner. Or if you have multiple things that you do.
It’s funny that you said that, because I had the same issue when I started my company. I was thinking, “Hey, I’m an ex Chief Information Officer and I have all kinds of ways to help companies strategically with their technology transformation.” And while people were interested in that, they weren’t interested in hiring me for that. But when I talked about negotiating software contracts, then people responded: “Wow, okay, that’s, that’s something that I need.” So, I had to change my elevator pitch to that.
What I say now is that I take the mystery out of technology decisions. I can help people evaluate if they have the right software, if they have the right people in their technology department, or whether they’re using their technology effectively. I try to broaden that into technology decisions. And sometimes a broader perspective like that will generate a question: “What do you mean by technology decisions?” And now you’re engaged in a conversation. And that’s what you want to have.
Doris Nagel 17:47
How should you prep for the next set of questions? If your elevator pitch is well crafted, it almost naturally leads into certain kinds of questions, is that something you should factor in when you’re putting your elevator speech together?
Because you can have a great elevator speech, and then people say, “Oh, that’s interesting. Tell me more about it.” But then, you know, then you ramble off and you lose your audience, then it seems like all that work you put into your elevator pitch goes down the drain.
John Fisher 18:28
That’s correct. What I always encourage people to think about is that you have let’s say 30 seconds to get them engaged in you with your elevator pitch. And then you might have three minutes to get them more engaged, and for you to qualify them and for them to qualify you.
If there’s a match, then you might have 30 minutes to tell them more about what it is that you do and how you can help them. I encourage people to be prepared for those multiple layers of conversation.
So, have an elevator pitch, have a one-page document that summarizes what you do — here’s the types of clients that I serve, here’s the types of services I offer, and do that briefly and succinctly.
Because, as I said, before, you’re engaging in a conversation with these people. Another thing that’s important in that second step is to have a series of questions as well, rather than just statements about yourself. In a sales pitch, the more you get the client to talk, the better able you are to sell them something.
As you hear their conversation, you can find out what their challenges are. Asking questions is generally the next step. If people persist in asking what you do? How do you do that? Then, to keep the conversation from going to deep, a good response might be, “Well, there’s a lot of ways to do that. But I’d like to find out what your challenges are. What is keeping you up at night?” So that you can learn if your business can provide an answer for that. So, have statements, but also have key questions for the person you’re talking to.
Doris Nagel 20:20
That advice really resonates, because one of the other mistakes that I made — and I’m sure I’m not alone — was that I didn’t spend enough time qualifying potential clients. As an entrepreneur, time is actually your most scarce resource, even though it may feel like money.
And I wasted enormous amounts of time because I thought, “I can do so many things for clients. I just need to keep talking to them long enough to find something and then just to say yes, and then figure out how to do it.” Except that, if you don’t really think this through, you’ll waste a lot of time having multiple conversations with a potential client who’s not a good fit. They’re just trying to gather information and aren’t ready to buy, or just don’t have the money or time now.
So, your framework really resonates with me. I think if I had thought through some of these ideas more carefully, I could probably have eliminated a lot of conversations that ultimately went nowhere. Do you agree?
John Fisher 26:52
Absolutely. In sales, the second-best answer is no. The best answer is yes. The second-best answer is no. And the horrible answer is maybe. Because then you know that you’re going to spend a whole lot of time trying to decide if what you do fits with what they need.
Getting to yes is the primary goal, but getting to no is the next best thing, because then you can say, okay, not a good fit. Thanks a lot, glad to meet you. If you ever need what I do, give me a call. And on to the next. You do have that.
I had exactly the same problem, Doris. I knew I could do a lot of different things, and that if I talked about all of them, at least one would stick. But when you’re trying to sell something to people, they want something concrete, they want something that they can understand. They want to be clear about what’s in it for them, and the value is that you bring to them. Later, you can sell them other things. But first, you need to engage them with something that, based on your experience, will be successful. Like you said, many salespeople think, “Well, I’ll just tell them anything in order to get the sale.” But that doesn’t work. If you can’t deliver it, that’s bad. So, you need to select your clients, as well as having them select you.
Doris Nagel 22:58
John, you’ve taken us through the basic elements of a good elevator pitch. But how do I get started with this?
John Fisher 23:30
I hesitate to start with a negative start, but what I always say is when you’re introducing yourself, keep in mind that no one wants to listen to what you’re doing, and what no one wants to buy your product.
If you start with that assumption in mind, you’ll formulate something that will help people understand the value of what you do. It’s sort of like when my kids were starting to drive, I would tell them to assume that everyone on the road was trying to kill them. And that if they kept that in mind, they would watch out and drive defensively.
Doris Nagel 24:09
That’s a little painful to hear, and it’s also a problem for entrepreneurs who are just getting started. Often, entrepreneurs are so excited about their idea, and so passionate about it that it may blind them a bit.
John Fisher 24:35
Absolutely. While enthusiasm is a wonderful thing, rambling enthusiasm can turn people off just as easily as focused enthusiasm can get them engaged. Like I said, I hate to start off with a negative approach, but it helps people realize they’ve got an uphill battle trying to sell something to people. Because people generally don’t want to buy what you’ve got, you know?
Doris Nagel 25:06
So, you’ve got an elevator pitch. How can you tell whether your elevator pitch once you’ve been using with customers or potential investors or partners is working or not?
John Fisher 25:22
Think of it as a constant feedback loop. You need to listen as you engage with people. Ask them, “Is this something you’re needing? Is this something you’re interested in?” and see how they respond. Eventually, you’ve got to ask for the sale, right? Do you want to buy this?
So, if people are asking you questions, it’s working. If people are paying attention to what you’re saying, as opposed to zoning out, then it’s working. Likewise, if they’re not asking you questions, it’s not working. So, the process of finding out if it’s working or not can be fairly simple. But keep in mind as you’re trying out different pitches that just because it doesn’t work with one person doesn’t mean that that pitch won’t be very effective with someone else. After all, people approach things differently. Some people like details, some people like big picture.
But one of the other things to keep in mind is that most of the time, people make decisions based on emotions, not necessarily on facts and figures. So, you’ve got to get them emotionally engaged. And that’s really one of the purposes of the elevator speech.
Doris Nagel 26:54
One of the other things that I’ve observed — and I’m sure I’ve done it too – when I listen to other people introduce themselves, they have a difficult time with their value proposition. Even people who might have a great opening intro, when you say, “Oh, that’s interesting. How would that help me or one of my colleagues?” And then things often get lost — the response often devolves into features and benefits, or technical jargon or something. How should people clarify their value proposition?
John Fisher 27:42
Well, that’s the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, right? How do you create a better mousetrap, as they say. Read up on marketing experts, like Kotler, and answer the question, “What is the job that I’m doing for my clients?” At bottom, people need other people to do jobs. Somebody to mow their lawn, somebody to fix their car, somebody to fix their tech technology.
So, think of it from that perspective. You’re asking them if you can do a job for them. And what is that job? And is that work that they want done?
Don’t approach this with the mindset that you are providing a wonderful service that people should want. If you go in with the “If you build it, they will come” idea, they will only come if they’re interested in what you’re building. Forget the idea that you have this wonderful product or service and assume that if you tell people it does this and that, somebody will be interested.
I don’t know how many technology folks along my career have pitched some sort of business idea to me. And I’ll ask, “What does this really do?” And they’ll tell me something like, “Well, it’s a utility that helps programmers program better.” And I’ll say, “Yeah, well nobody cares about that.” And they’ll respond, “What do you mean? It helps with everything!” They’re trying to sell something to people that helps You do YOUR job, not their job, right? They don’t want to know how to program better – they assume YOU know how to program, and if you’re telling them to buy something that helps YOU program better, they’re either going to be insulted, or they’re going to say, I don’t I don’t need that.
So, you’ve got to get away from the assumption that it’s a wonderful product, but that it does wonderful things for people. And just what are those things?
Doris Nagel 29:42
I think your tech world is particularly appropriate because that’s where you may want to have more than one elevator pitch, depending on who you’re talking to. If you’re talking to me, you need to keep it really basic because unlike you, I’ve never been a Chief Information Officer, and not all that tech-savvy. For me, I want to understand what you do at a really basic level. Tell me just like you would tell your mom or your next-door neighbor. Because that’s my level of understanding.
But if you happen to be talking to somebody who’s really tech savvy, then that’s obviously way too basic, and you need to be able to get quickly to the next level. It’s funny how even experienced entrepreneurs forget this. I had a guest not long ago, and I asked him to tell me about his company. And his description was we’ve developed all these alphabet soup software names. I took that to mean, if you’re in the tech industry, you probably think, “Wow, that’s amazing — I didn’t know that was you!”
But for me, I had to go back to them and say, I didn’t have a clue what these things were. These are industry terms. And if I don’t understand, then lots of my listeners probably won’t either. Please come up with a better description of what your company does!” I thought it was funny, and a little sad. Even successful businesspeople forget who their audience is sometimes.
John Fisher 31:38
They absolutely do forget. Another example is at one of the seminars I did on elevator speeches, I had someone who was into prosthetic devices and biometric programming, and all that stuff. And the person was talking in detail about all the programming.
My response to him was, “In reality, you create devices that help people walk, right?” And he admitted that was correct. He finally realized that most people don’t care about the details. They care that you help people walk, and that’s a value proposition anybody can understand. It’s not just tech jargon.
Doris Nagel 32:24
Speaking of seminars, this might be a good place to put in a plug for the workshop that you often do with SCORE. John can you talk a bit about SCORE, and why that might be a great place for people to start if they’re maybe struggling or just want a helping hand?
John Fisher 32:46
SCORE is an outgrowth of the Small Business Administration — it’s not part of the Small Business Administration, but it’s a partner. SCORE has about 10,000 volunteers across the country, with about 300 different chapters, I think. SCORE’s purpose is to help people either start or grow their small business. It’s generally for businesses that are under 10 million in revenue.
As you were saying earlier, somebody might have a tech solution. Maybe it’s something they sold very easily at first, but now nobody wants to buy it anymore. So, if you have that kind of challenge with your business, SCORE is a wonderful resource. Just go to their website: score.org.
You’ll find business plan templates, financial templates, marketing templates — all sorts of helpful things. Plus, there are these 10,000 mentors across the country. Some of them have been in your situation, have been small business owners. Some have been executives in large companies and can help you strategize about how to sell to large companies.
SCORE is a great resource, and it’s absolutely free. With COVID, we’re currently doing all advising over video. I now have mentees in California and Alabama and Florida and Arizona, whereas before I just had people from the Chicago area. So, one of the positive impacts of COVID is that we’ve increased our scope.
Doris Nagel 34:44
I know SCORE also does regular webinars – there is a phenomenal library of on demand webinars on their website, but they also do regular live webinars and as in person workshops. I know you do a regular workshop on elevator pitches.
John Fisher 35:08
Yeah, I do the elevator speech seminar, I’ve done that in several places. Right now, we’re doing them as webinars, which is both good and bad. Nobody needs to travel, and because we don’t have to deal with logistics, we can offer a bigger have a variety of workshops.
We’ve also separated our programs into how to start your business and how to grow your business. So, if you’re thinking about starting a business, then we have a series of webinars that are on that on how to incorporate how to, you know, think about taxes, how to start marketing, how to how to evaluate whether your idea is a good idea or not, or how to evaluate even whether entrepreneurship is right for you. It’s hard to set up and own your own business, as you know.
The second group of webinars is focused growing your business, so there are programs on marketing, digital marketing, customer segmentation, operational efficiency.
Doris Nagel 36:36
score.org is a great resource, if people haven’t found out about it yet – there are tons and tons of great resources, online resources and, there’s most likely a local chapter wherever you might be listening. And they can put you in touch with great advisors and people like John, who have a wealth of experience.
You know, I had on the show another SCORE mentor a couple weeks ago, Chris Banakis, talking about a pitch deck. It occurs to me that the elevator pitch or elevator speech is like a mini version of the pitch deck. Is that a fair characterization?
John Fisher 37:26
Absolutely. The difference with a pitch deck is that normally, you’ve already done the elevator speech to the investors, and you’ve gotten them interested. And now they’re giving you an hour of their time to talk about your business. So, the pitch deck is kind of the next step. But it’s the same thing, you’ve got to get their attention, you got to focus on value, you’ve got to focus on what’s in it for them. And you’ve got to focus on the key question: what business problem are you trying to solve with your business? Because it’s got to solve some problem, or it won’t exist.
Doris Nagel 38:08
It strikes me what the two of you have talked about is almost like a funnel, leading a potential customer or potential investor or potential partner through the buying process, where you’re starting off at a broad level, and then digging more into the kinds of questions that you want to know about them, and anticipating questions that they might ask, evolving into a full-fledged pitch deck. So, the elevator pitch or speech is the beginning stage of the funnel. Is that a fair characterization?
John Fisher 39:04
It’s certainly the starting point, or a good first step. It’s like an iceberg, right? You see the tip of an iceberg, but there’s 90% of the iceberg is underwater. The pitch deck is part of that 10%. And the elevator speech is kind of the tip of that 10% because if you don’t draw them in, they’re not going to give you an hour. And if they give you an hour and you have a good pitch deck, then they’ll give you maybe a couple hours to dig more deeply into what you do and consider investing.
So yes, it’s a funnel. Just like the sales funnel. You know, you’ve spread a wide net, looking for a lot of prospects, either clients or investors, you qualify them, you narrow them down, you get them interested, you engage them in a conversation in you, you win a few and some you lose, and that’s what businesses do.
Doris Nagel 40:01
What are some of the most common mistakes you’ve seen that businesspeople make with their elevator pitches or speeches?
John Fisher 40:10
I think the biggest mistake is that people get into the “how” too soon. They’re so excited about their product or service that they want to explain how it works and how it does what it does. And I think that should be in response to a question, as opposed to part of your initial statement. People tend to get too early into the details.
The second mistake is that they don’t have the follow up. So, when someone says, “Oh, that’s interesting, tell me more,” they are not prepared. So, have that one-pager and that pitch deck ready, have questions ready to ask, anticipate questions from people you meet. And remember that you can’t always make the entire sale at that time. You have to get someone interested, and then you say, “Okay, let’s set up a time to talk. I really want to understand what you do, what your challenges are. And I want to help with what your challenges have been. Let’s set some time aside to chat in more detail.” I think that’s better anyway because that lets people know you’re interested in their problems. And then you’re also better prepared.
Doris Nagel 41:39
Are there any good resources out there where you can find examples of effective elevator pitches or speeches or ones that are perhaps not so effective?
John Fisher 41:56
Like everything else, if you want to know more about something, you search on YouTube, right? There are several people on YouTube that have elevator pitch conversations. LinkedIn Learning is also a good resource.
But I think they all boil down to pretty much the same thing: Who are you? What do you do? And why should I care?
And when you’re networking, notice what others say and whether it’s effective. For example, if you’ve done any sort of networking, there are always headhunters and people with staffing firms. One effective elevator pitch someone used was: “I make sure companies hire the right people.” And that can be a massive benefit for companies, because hiring the wrong people can destroy your company. And so that’s a good elevator pitch. It’s a fast way of saying, here’s what I do, and here’s why you should care.”
Talking about increasing profits is good, or even getting more specific like increasing profits for midsize manufacturing companies, or I help companies that have operations in India or Vietnam or the Philippines. That kind or specificity gets people thinking, “I have that sort of situation, and okay, this person might be able to help me.”
In summary, the elevator pitch really is designed to engage people and start a conversation, to begin to have a legitimate business discussion with people.
Doris Nagel 43:51
We haven’t really touched yet on your own company, Rethinking IT. What does it do and why? Here’s a chance for you to show off your own elevator speech! Sorry, just teasing!
John Fisher 44:09
I’m on the spot now! I always say that somebody has to rethink IT, and it might as well be me. That’s one way I bring some humor into it, because I don’t know of many companies that are happy with their IT function, for whatever reason. I’m not sure if it’s because the IT function is not doing the right things, or whether it’s not communicating what they’re doing.
Many companies have challenges with technology, especially these days, with all the COVID-related technology transformations that people have had to go through. So, my company helps people take the mystery out of technology decisions. That’s my elevator speech. There’s a lot of mysteries around technology, and a lot of gobbledygook. What I try to do is help people put their technology function on a business footing, so that it actually solves whatever business problem they have. It’s as simple as that – I do a variety of things but always try to have a business perspective. How was that?
Doris Nagel 45:30
It was great! There may be a few businesses out there still untouched by technology, but I don’t think very many, and I don’t think it will stay that way for long. There are so many options, and so many companies that do a really bad job of explaining what it is they do and why it’s important, and why what they do is different. I can tell you firsthand that trying to sort through all that is a big challenge, for tiny businesses and big businesses, too. So, I’m glad you’re out there, helping make that easier for companies.
John, if people are interested in learning more about Rethinking IT, or SCORE, or maybe just want to shoot the breeze with you about their elevator pitch, what’s the best way for them to reach you?
John Fisher 46:43
My website is rethinking it.com. My contact information is there, including my email. For SCORE, the place to start is score.org. If you’re in the northern Chicago suburbs, the chapter is Northchicago.score.org.
If people are interested in learning more about elevator speeches, just send me a note by email, and I’m glad to get together with people and talk about it. And if they happen to have a technology problem or a technology decision that they need to make, I’m happy to help with that as well.
Doris Nagel 47:30
John, thanks so much for being on the show this week. It was great having you.
John Fisher 47:39
Thank you, Doris. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it.
Doris Nagel 47:42
Folks, thanks so much for listening. And thank you especially again to our guest today, John Fisher, the founder and CEO of Rethinking IT, a SCORE mentor, and frequent speaker on developing a winning elevator pitch.
You can find more helpful information and resources on my website as well at globalocityservices.com, where there’s a library blogs, tools, podcasts, and other resources. My door’s always open for comments, suggestions, or to just shoot the breeze. Email me at dnagel@lakesradio.org. I promise you’ll always get an answer back for me.
Be sure to join us next Saturday at 11am Central noon Eastern when I’ll have another great guest and topic.
But until then, I’m Doris Nagel, wishing you happy entrepreneuring!
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