7 seconds…..
Don’t count every second in the day, make every second in the day count….
The statement that more information results in better decisions has been swept away by experimental evidence collected by psychologists long time ago. Don’t we have confidence in our own intuition and compass course any more when it comes up to ? Entrepreneurs and top-performers don’t stick exclusively to calculations, best practices and benchmarking any more. Really inspiring visions never include calculations. Approaching benchmarking by comparing your own performance with the industry’s best, and drafting based on the results an improvement’s plan puts you automatically in the follower ‘position and hence not higher than the second best.
Entrepreneurs look rather more at ”next practices” using social media and internet as a bottomless source of ideas for possible new combinations. But then the following question arises : do the start-ups use the same approach?
If you still prefer the benchmark approach and improvement strategy there is another issue to pay attention at: did you know that the innovations in a certain industry mostly come from the other industry? Benchmarking- when looking solely at the top performers in your own industry- is short sightedness. You might find yourself being in top 10 of your own industry but the new competitors often come from nowhere. If you have bad luck you get with the top-10-nomination a wonderful award but create at the same time a blind spot as a side effect: you have been just focusing on the opposite direction when something relevant for your company has happened. Next time better.
What you really need, are not the best but the “next practices”. An example needed? I am convinced that you only need 7 seconds to pitch the core idea of you company. So much time a searching internet surfer spends as a rule studying a website. If you manage to captive the attention within the first 7 seconds you’ve earned a bonus, the following 30 seconds attention. 7 seconds. Your new message to the market has to show a clear internal logic: what do you do for me, why do I need you, why do you do it better than the others?
Experienced private investors manage to filter in 7 second answers on the following 3 questions :
1) Does the entrepreneur understand his own idea?
2) Is he capable of doing that ?
3) Is this business scalable?
And don’t underestimate that your audience might have learned through Internet a lot about your competitors.
Clearness and transparency. I am always very jealous of the journalist who is capable of describing a theater piece in just one but very effective sentence. Have you ever checked at the beginning of a movie how much information you can catch within 60 seconds? Exactly, that’s what I am talking about.
Entrepreneurship starts with communication. And communication gets started within the first 7 seconds. Think carefully of what you say and try out repeatedly to improve the skills.
Success !
And in the end my own key question : did I manage to captive your attention within 7 seconds ?