What is your elevator pitch?
The word is out, we have launched, officially, in US. If you have not seen the press release yet, Google “FreeWheel MRM”.
I was in NYC this week to get together with the FreeWheel NYC team and meet our customers. I took some time to meet friends too. The first question I run into at every table was: so, what is your “elevator pitch”? Elevator pitch, I first heard about this phrase from Doug and Jon. They were practicing it since day one. I didn’t care that much. I never thought I needed one.
The first time I was asked about it, it took me a while to get my thoughts together, if it were a real sale, my customer would have left already. Luckily the person across the table is a good friend and a mentor of mine, so he waited, patiently. I then spoke, I was sure I confused him. He listened, and commented: the keyword is “monetization”, everybody loves the word monetization right now. What? For a good 5 minutes, I only get a SINGLE word across? I failed my first elevator pitch miserably.
The second time I was asked the same question, I dodged the bullet. I told them since we are good friends, I would give them my “sales presentation pitch” instead. So I got them listen for a good 15 minutes. They were really interested, I answered a lot of detailed questions. However, I didn’t see the spark or the “WOW” in their eyes. I failed again.
I realized that I actually needed my elevator pitch. I asked Doug after we came out of a client meeting Friday morning. He said: I have a 30-seconds version and a 5-minutes version for elevator pitch — WHAT? There are even different versions? Sounds complicated…Doug is a nice person, he offered to help me out next week. We had to run to different meetings, so he said: try starting with “the billion dollar…” then he left.
Couple of hours later, I was on the airplane to Beijing. The gentleman next to me was on a trip to Beijing for a bio-pharmaceutical consulting project. After exchanging business card, he asked me: Tell me, what does your product do? – Ah, elevator pitch again! My mind went blank for a split second, then I decided to try.
I started with: Have you heard of the billion dollar law suit between Viacom and Google?
— Yes...
I went on: Viacom suits Google because people watch Viacom video on YouTube and Viacom is not getting anything. We believe companies like Viacom and CBS would like to distribute their videos everywhere as long as they can generate revenue from it. The way to maximize Viacom’s revenue is to reach as many audience as possible, not asking audiences coming to you.
— Yes, make sense!
I was encouraged: We also believe content should be free as long as it is ad supported. FreeWheel’s MRM enables content owner such as Viacom to maximize their revenue via ad sales from themselves or partner networks while distributing videos across widely syndicated distribution partners…
— Wow, that is big!
Then I closed with Writers’ strike: With FreeWheel’s MRM, we believe writers’ strike won’t happen because all writers will get their fair share from this value chain…The key of MRM system is to determine who is allowed to sell ads, who is paid for how much when someone hits play on a video content.
— Jackpot...His daughter is a writer for CBS!!
I saw the first “spark” I wanted.
I was in NYC this week to get together with the FreeWheel NYC team and meet our customers. I took some time to meet friends too. The first question I run into at every table was: so, what is your “elevator pitch”? Elevator pitch, I first heard about this phrase from Doug and Jon. They were practicing it since day one. I didn’t care that much. I never thought I needed one.
The first time I was asked about it, it took me a while to get my thoughts together, if it were a real sale, my customer would have left already. Luckily the person across the table is a good friend and a mentor of mine, so he waited, patiently. I then spoke, I was sure I confused him. He listened, and commented: the keyword is “monetization”, everybody loves the word monetization right now. What? For a good 5 minutes, I only get a SINGLE word across? I failed my first elevator pitch miserably.
The second time I was asked the same question, I dodged the bullet. I told them since we are good friends, I would give them my “sales presentation pitch” instead. So I got them listen for a good 15 minutes. They were really interested, I answered a lot of detailed questions. However, I didn’t see the spark or the “WOW” in their eyes. I failed again.
I realized that I actually needed my elevator pitch. I asked Doug after we came out of a client meeting Friday morning. He said: I have a 30-seconds version and a 5-minutes version for elevator pitch — WHAT? There are even different versions? Sounds complicated…Doug is a nice person, he offered to help me out next week. We had to run to different meetings, so he said: try starting with “the billion dollar…” then he left.
Couple of hours later, I was on the airplane to Beijing. The gentleman next to me was on a trip to Beijing for a bio-pharmaceutical consulting project. After exchanging business card, he asked me: Tell me, what does your product do? – Ah, elevator pitch again! My mind went blank for a split second, then I decided to try.
I started with: Have you heard of the billion dollar law suit between Viacom and Google?
— Yes...
I went on: Viacom suits Google because people watch Viacom video on YouTube and Viacom is not getting anything. We believe companies like Viacom and CBS would like to distribute their videos everywhere as long as they can generate revenue from it. The way to maximize Viacom’s revenue is to reach as many audience as possible, not asking audiences coming to you.
— Yes, make sense!
I was encouraged: We also believe content should be free as long as it is ad supported. FreeWheel’s MRM enables content owner such as Viacom to maximize their revenue via ad sales from themselves or partner networks while distributing videos across widely syndicated distribution partners…
— Wow, that is big!
Then I closed with Writers’ strike: With FreeWheel’s MRM, we believe writers’ strike won’t happen because all writers will get their fair share from this value chain…The key of MRM system is to determine who is allowed to sell ads, who is paid for how much when someone hits play on a video content.
— Jackpot...His daughter is a writer for CBS!!
I saw the first “spark” I wanted.
Wonderful! Now I know how to answer those question.
Reply to this
What a elevator pitch!
I still remember what you told me on the lunch table: Viacom sued Google, revenue chain... Brief and effective.
Reply to this