Applying neuroscience for a standout elevator pitch.
What does neuroscience have to do with your elevator pitch? It has as much to do with it as with the impulse purchase you make at the superstore checkout counter. And also as much to do with it as the bike or piece of jewelery your heart is set on. While not a totally random decision, it is nearly as emotionally charged and seemingly irrational.
Let’s dive into what makes the decision for us — the brain. Not the heart. The heart is 1000s times electromagnetically stronger than the brain and has powers extraordinaire but the decision making is ruled by the most complex human organ. Part of the 100 bn nerves and 500 trillion connections light up to figure out how you want to flavour your coffee today — hazelnut or vanilla.
Whatever you say to anyone — a “Hello, how you doing” to a “Hey, I have the best solution for your sales team to increase their conversion by 75% within 3 months or a money back guarantee” are analyzed first by the lizard brain (starts just above the nape of the neck). It is part of our reptilian heritage and makes the flight or fight call. It perceives whether what you just said is threatening or boring or exciting. If it is threatening, your audience will run. If you were boring, chances are you will be ignored or shut off mentally. If you are adept in social circumstances and can feel your audience shunning you, you can adapt and salvage but that requires milliseconds of handling and course correcting. Best case for you — if what you said is exciting, you progress to the next stage and greet the mouse brain. It deals with emotions and social context. If your “hello, how you doing” or sales pitch hit the mouse in the heart and it felt good, you move higher up the chain — the neocortex.
This is the newest and most advanced portion of the brain and responds to logic. If what you are saying adds up sans any logical loopholes, you have yourself an audience. But this is where you still have low trust with this person. To move up the trust ladder and get to the limbic then finally to the prefrontal cortex (right behind the forehead) where the person decides to actually trust you, you have to hit them with emotion and logic and sell something bigger than the current solution/their current life. Whereas the neocortex’s involvement is adequate for a purchase, the limbic and prefrontal need to give the green signal for important decisions such as the one to partner with you, co-create with you and really put their skin in the game for you.
The essence of the brain’s choice (in today’s era where survival is not an issue for us) has to do with the fact that we are all seeking to be more than what we are and this can manifest as retail therapy, continuous learning, higher profits, validation on social media, additional income sources and other such avenues; if you tap into this basic human need, you gain.
A venture capitalist wants to bet on you because you sell them a promise and vision that not only makes them bigger bucks but also makes them a part of something bigger. Bigger bucks are a result of smooth execution of an idea. To peg them on the idea first, you have to sell it. To sell it, the first 5–10 seconds matter more than you think. Let’s examine three elevator pitches and their effect on investors:
- “We are building a logistics solution that is best in class, AI powered and bound to save enterprises money.”
- “We have a powerful engine that will replace the Supply Chain Officer at enterprises.”
- “We have built an AI powered solution that is proven to slash enterprise logistics costs by 35%.”
Option (1) is weaker with words such as building, best in class and bound. The lizard brain rejects it. Everyone who is anyone has a best in class idea.
Option (2) although it might be true and your solution does indeed provide a more intelligent alternative to the Supply Chain officer, the reptilian brain will be threatened. What if this solution or a solution like it comes after my job too? Even though it has nothing to do with an investor’s job.
Option (3) is short, supremely effective and arouses interest in your audience immediately — You get to meet the mouse brain!
Assuming you are trustworthy and have a business plan that checks all the boxes, apply this brain hack to win your investor’s interest, if not heart, in the first 10 seconds.
We want to hear your elevator pitch if you are building for the next billion. Write to us at info@ankurcapital.com
