Earlier in 2013, 920 was proud to be an Official Partner of the “Lightning Lab Accelerator”, NZ’s first digital accelerator programme. The Lightning Lab and its focus on digital had a natural fit for 920 (as a specialist IT recruiter). In the blog series you’ll note themes around culture, sales and juggling priorities – all things important to the recruitment process and finding the right person for an opportunity, permanent or contract.
The following blog is the third in the series (check out last weeks one here) and was penned by Rollo Wenlock founder of Wipster who was one of the participants of the inaugural Lightning Lab. Rollo shares some details of his experience, with a particular focus on ‘the importance of sales and pitching’. This is a subject close to the heart of the team at 920 as it’s key for how we present candidates to organisations and also equally how we deal with both candidates and clients.
To learn more about Wipster, please visit www.wipster.io
What I learned while hatching my first startup over the last few months is: everything a CEO does is sales, and everything is sales.
When you have an idea for a company, you need to tell people about it in a way that ignites their mind and allows them to see what you see, and where it could all go. This goes for everyone; whether you are looking for team members to join the crusade, asking people’s advice or telling some mates what you’re up to. Everything you say is selling it.
When Wipster (then called WIP Videos) went through the Lightning Lab, we spent the first few weeks meeting mentors and speakers and convincing them we had something interesting going on. Why? First, they may have fantastic industry knowledge. Second, they may introduce you to influential people in your sector which could really accelerate your growth, and third, they might be investors looking for the next big thing in your space. If you couldn’t sell your business within the first 15 seconds, these people would disengage and give those three things to someone else.
But that only goes as far as selling your great business idea. You must also sell the thing some people call more important than even the greatest idea in the world (because there are millions of those).
You must sell yourself. This is something I’ve always thought important in almost any situation. When talking to people about your business, the person or people you have the attention of had better like who they’re talking to. The person telling the story (and all sales is storytelling, but we’ll come to that) should fit the expectation of the leader they are trying to be. If not, your very interesting words will fall on deaf ears.
And this brings us to storytelling. The human brain is wired to follow a narrative to learn stuff. Most things said in bars or at networking events are tiny stories. Things fall down when no stories are being told; alongside the data you need anecdotes like ‘the funniest thing happened to me on the way to this event…’ or ‘the first time I had one of these beers was in Peru, a volcano had just erupted and the power was out…’. Engaging the imagination of the person you’re talking with is vital.
If we put all this together we see a picture form. Everything a CEO says is selling something (an idea to the team, the business to an investor, or the product to the customer). All selling is storytelling (it’s how the human brain understands information). Which leaves us with pitching.
What is pitching? Well, great pitching is a strong story about where your business is going to be in the future. It’s also a story about you.
When you get your pitch right, you will know. The audience will be looking at you like a child to a parent reading the most amazing story they’ve ever heard.
Q & A Time
If you had to pick one thing, what would you do differently?
Set up a more rigorous work schedule to allow for more family time, down time and entertainment.
How did you manage to get the balance right between being pulled into execution at expense of strategy/networking?
Always be executing something while strategising something else. They are both vitally important. We’ve always been doing this. You must set goals for both parts (what measured outcome do you track execution to, what is the defined problem you are strategising a plan for?)
What was the best value added by a mentor?
Realising nothing is that serious.
What was the biggest personal challenge for you of the sales process? (pitching your idea)
Remembering an eight-minute pitch off by heart, word for word (as it was synced with a slideshow) yet making it sound off the cuff. Even my rehearsal ten minutes before going on stage wasn’t right. Luckily (though adrenaline!) I nailed the pitch with no errors whatsoever.
How important would you say culture is for a building, and getting the most out of a team? (and Why?)
Without culture, there is no humanity. A group of people of any sort are a highly complicated assortment of needs, wants, expressions, values, hates and loves. If they are not on the same page emotionally and intellectually, they are not going to trust each other and leap into the abyss holding hands.
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