This is not an Orange

Four Questions that Create a Compelling Elevator Pitch

This morning an alien landed near your office. It walked past the security desk and drifted to you. In your lunch, you had packed an orange. The alien is transfixed by it. To your astonishment, this alien can speak English, and it asks you, “What is that thing?”

Now, here, you have a few choices. You can tell the alien it is an orange. That would tell it “what” the orange is. And that description is the most precise to describe what is understood by observing the outside of the orange.

But, since we are not aliens, we know there is so much more to the orange than what is visible from its exterior. It has a richness. It has an ancient generational history with our species. It is part of a family of citrus fruits. And the inside of the orange are bright flavors, textures and colors. A freshly picked orange can offer a bouquet of tastes before you even peel it or eat it.

So if we want to be honest with the alien (and not just precise), we would say something like, “This fruit delivers a bright sustenance to my afternoons, and it’s rich in vitamins and natural energy. We call it an orange. Do you want to try it?”

While that could use some wordsmithing, maybe that would help the alien to understand better the thing — in its context. From its inside and from its outside.

Branding ought to offer the deepest, most visceral connection to the thing it is describing.

So often, when we are asked to describe ourselves, our ideas or our organizations, we fall into the trap of being precise. We answer “what” very directly. What are you? I am an architect. What is your company? We design homes (insert features and benefits statements or marketing buzzwords).

At some point in the mechanization of marketing, we stopped communicating in a human-to-human manner. We have instead co-opted MBA platforms to describe something. And those platforms have favored precision over honesty. They sound like, “We do x for y.” They are true, but they are not the whole truth.

Branding ought to offer the deepest, most visceral connection to the thing it is describing. It ought to carry the weight of making that connection felt and understood in a way that is profound. And the place where that weight is the heaviest is in the establishment of a new relationship. It is what marketers and sales folks refer to as the elevator pitch.

The people who you meet for the first time are aliens to you and your brand. They are in need of a way in which they can establish trust with you. The best way in which to exhibit that trust is through a kind of honesty that redounds to why you exist, how you behave and what impact you want to have on the world. Those elements allow other humans to connect in a way that is more profound and leads to possibility.

So how can you uncover that profundity and make it understood in a short period of time? How can you create that connection in an elevator pitch?

You can begin the process with four essential questions. These questions can start to shake loose for you a brand position unique to you.

1. Your Why. What is it that drives you? The answer may not be unique to you. A great many people may share your passion. But work to articulate it accurately.
2. Your How. What is it that makes your passion unique? This is your behavior in the world or how you live out that passion.
3. Your What. What impact do you hope to have on the world? This is how you want your audience to perceive your intention.
4. Your When. How will the world be changed because you achieved your impact? This is a vision for the world after you are gone.

At first, you can just start with a series of bullet points or ideas within these four questions. It is likely you will have a few thoughts or notions that may not seem connected. It is better to err on the side of idea generation for some time before editing. So don’t worry about being too clever or right. Just be honest and thoughtful in your appraisal.

After you dump out the ideas, you can return to the four areas and formulate a set of phrases. These should be as free from marketing and industry jargon as possible. These four phrases then become the basis of your elevator pitch. In taking the architect example from above:

“I create spaces where people fulfill their biggest aspirations <Phrase One>. I do this by applying deep knowledge of user-centered design principles to the built environment <Phrase Two>. So that people can have transformative experiences at work <Phrase Three>. With the hope that, one day, the built environment will be seen as foundational to organizational transformation <Phrase Four>.”

Packed inside of those sentences is the essence of a compelling elevator pitch. The beliefs about the world are exhibited at a level that offers a platform for connection. It is designed to create and establish a basis for trust.

Here is the thing no one tells you about work like this: It is never done.

The story you reveal with this kind of approach to the role of brand in establishing trust is an evergreen job.

While that may seem a daunting prospect, it is a great thing. Here’s why: You can always do this work, and it will always matter. Economies, Presidential elections, robots taking over human jobs and calamities can and will occur. And this work will always matter. The story you reveal with this kind of approach to the role of brand in establishing trust is an evergreen job.

The mechanical and precise branding work has a time and a place. There are times optimized for describing the outside of the thing: It’s an orange. But, more often, your ability to create trust opens more possible futures for you and your brand. They are the kinds of opportunities that are hidden until this work is performed.

If you want the chance to workshop the creation of an elevator pitch, you can join Bigwidesky and a number of other notable thinkers at Brand Lab on May 31, 2019. Tickets are for sale here.