5 Steps to a business story

Tesla CEO Elon Musk told you about the 5 steps of good one entrepreneurship story2015-07-19 10:51· Techgogogo read: 729 When doing pitch, do not start too much of yourself as the protagonist, chatter about selling yourself, your team, your products, and the market you are in. Instead, you should move out of the "stumbling block" that currently makes your customers uncomfortable at the beginning.

Three weeks ago, the CMO from a San Francisco-based start-up company invested by a number of premium VCs sent me an email with her latest sales promotion.

"It's not attractive enough," she said, "and the amount of information is there." The slides are also very good. But I don't think it has a compelling story to say. I hope you can help to guide the maze. "

One of my favorite things to do is to help these entrepreneurs better carve out such pitch speeches – including fundraising, sales, recruiting, and so on pitch. When I received the e-mail, I happened to have something else busy, and couldn't immediately start to help her treatise her manuscript, so I replied to the author of the speech, Zack, a link.

Clinker five days later, the CMO sent me a message: "Andy, what are you doing with Zack from our team?" His manuscript is much better, compared with the original, is an underground in the sky. ”

What exactly did I send Zack?

What I sent to Zack was a demo video of Elon Musk releasing the Tesla Powerwall battery shortly after the release (this link is attached later in this article). The message also contains some of my personal views that I am ready to share with you.

In general, Musk's presentation skills are not first-class, and you will see him as a bit less natural and a bit irritable in the process. But in the end, all the audience applauded for his battery.

Why does it have such an effect? That's because Musk in his speech did the five steps that each of us should do when we pitch, and the sequence of these five steps cannot be confused.

The first step: pointing out the common enemy, common hatred

Do pitch when you do not start to be too much of yourself as the protagonist, chatter about selling yourself, your team, your products, and the market you are in. Instead, you should move out of the "stumbling block" that currently makes your customers uncomfortable at the beginning. Can show you an emotional resonance, the world makes your customers feel bad, let everyone know that this is a stumbling block what the person/thing, and understand why this is the way. (Heaven Zhuhai Branch Rudder Note: The following sentence is not the original example, but I feel more representative) So when Musk shows the fossil fuel burning chart above, Michael Jackson's Song of Earth is likely to be echoed in your mind.

Step two: "Why should I be shot?"

These listeners--especially investors--are skeptics. They think at this point, "people have been living in this situation for years--do you really need to make a change now?" "Musk to point out that the world is at a critical juncture in the environmental pollution caused by rising carbon dioxide emissions, and that if we do not act quickly, the situation will only become worse." When Musk said "we should do something about it," the audience on the stage shouted out their sympathy and support.

Step three: Show the "Paradise" before providing solutions

Before describing the final battery solution, Musk first removed a version of the world in his dream: a "handy fusion reactor from the sky", the energy of civilization, named the Sun. "Before you say your solution, let's describe what the enemies of the common enemy are, which makes the audience feel a little bit out of place, but they can't say where-?" It's like we're going to tease our listeners before we tell a joke, and then we break the laughter. Once the listeners are slowly aware of the direction you're going to take, they're likely to get in the car and buckle up and hang out with you right away.

Step Fourth: Identify obstacles to implementation-and then tell people how you will solve them

So now that you've shared your vision, what you need to do is:

List the obstacles to achieving this vision

Show how your company/product/service will break each of these difficult points (it's best to point out some big tricky ones – if everyone is too easy to solve, why do people pay to buy your products?) )

Musk points out three difficulties in solar energy applications:

Solar panels have a vastly different amount of electricity collected during the day and night (so batteries are needed).

Many people think that the space required to place these batteries will be too large (but according to Musk, replacing the existing fossil fuels in the United States, the batteries needed to be housed are only the little red dots in the map of the Texas State).

The batteries currently available on the market are very poor in the following seven points: high price, poor reliability, difficult to combine with, short life, low performance, poor extensibility, ugly appearance.

By this time, Musk began to play Powerwall the product of the video, the audience is in fact the video described in the product watering. The video shows why Powerwall's battery has behaved so well in those seven points just now. But it should be noted that these beautiful pictures and dramatic music play at this time can inspire people to covet, because Musk in this before the Powerwall is to do as a human savior and not just a battery of bedding.

Fifth step: Provide evidence that you are not on paper.

Again: listeners are skeptics. So you have to come up with evidence to prove to us that the vision you have just described is practical. Musk is by telling everyone a secret to achieve this: the current Demo site is actually Powerwall to power. (To confirm this, he showed us the power of two meters in the facility, where the electricity meter from the grid did not consume any electricity, proving that it is not using the electricity provided by the power grid)

For early startups and products, such demonstrations can be a powerful proof, although it's harder to persuade from early customers, but it's better than nothing. The product is the best testimony that convinces your customers why they need such a product.

Finally, click here to see Musk's release presentation video to Tesla Powerwall.

When we know the key elements needed to make a compelling story, it is no longer difficult to write a good pitch.

5 Steps to a business story