The Elevator Pitch Version 2.0

Too many companies I've worked with are unable to articulate just exactly who it it they are and what they do. But now Internet technology is forcing companies to form a new kind of shorthand for their company strategy.

The newest version of the "elevator pitch" is a "Twitpitch," so named in an article in Business Week Small Biz because it "forces you to tell your company's story in 140 characters (about 20 words), the maximum length of a message on Twitter, a microblogging platform that is gaining popularity. Social media pioneer Stowe Boyd experimented with the idea and coined the term on his blog last month when, overwhelmed by e-mails, he decided to take appointments at the Web 2.0 Expo only via Twitter."

THE REAL WORLD RETAILING TAKEAWAY
A "Twitpitch" (or elevator speech) needs to be engaging, succinct and dynamic.

In the beauty retailing business, we had a leader who kept saying that, "What we do is we sell women hope in a bottle."  Ah, not exactly.

A better pitch was, "We are the beauty destination of choice, providing women with an edited assortment of the best beauty products and services available in one convenient location."

A twitpitch can be valuable on several fronts:

• It can help or force you to differentiate your concept from the other concepts out there selling similar goods.
• It can get you an entrée to vendors you want to meet with at trade shows.
• It can lead you to new investors.
• It gets all of your employees on the same page.
• It can make you the life of the dinner party.