Where Your Latest Pitch Can Build On Teenager App Prize-Winners

So in the UK there’s a new competition for teenage app developers. If you can get by the presence of its wholly inappropriate figurehead, it seems a worthwhile endeavour. Not least because of the £15,000 prize for further idea development.

A trio of apps just won this funding. On national telly, each in turn were asked to snappily “sell” their idea.

First we hear from Risha, aiming mainly at students, then pretty much anyone unable to cook;

Digimeal is an app that allows the user to input three ingredients and it’ll generate a recipe for you

Next up Sanjay and his manifesto driven forum;

whatleads.to is a website for people to work together and have a really focused discussion around a big aim

Thirdly Sebastian, with a confidence from his already amassed seven million subscribers;

Upshot Entertainment is a film production and online TV broadcasting company. Our purpose is to add value to the world and leave a mark on the hearts and minds.

I loved hearing these.

And for youngsters embarking on a lifetime of careers ahead of them they’ve surely started well.

How you first frame your latest shiny offering is a critical skill that eludes too many a seller.

One of my chief tasks when trying to lead a salesteam on this turf is to build from the marketing message into a proper sales one.

You must craft from elements such as the classic “wiifm”, Sinek’s Golden Circle ‘why’ and the principles of dumbwaiter and eight-word missions.

I wondered how I’d tackle each pitch myself.

The three ingredients current treatment is smack-bang in the middle of the typical output. Majoring solely on ‘what’ the app does.

I chuckled at thinking on how a marketer might play the 3-2-1 trick;

3 ingredients, 2 seconds, 1 tasty simple meal

Anyway, whilst you admire it’s simplicity, tiny tweaks can heighten the senses.

Only three ingredients? Desperate for a quick meal? Tap ’em into Digimeal and your spare food or leftovers feed you from a fresh easy recipe.

Could still benefit from refinement. The point is getting to the core of what specific and genuine problems you are resolving.

The other pair also push the ‘what’. I don’t think you can call ‘add value to the world’ a true depiction of your calling. And herein lies another interesting issue.

Anything like this that sounds vague management blurb should be jettisoned. Other examples surface; “work together”, “really focused discussion”, “leave a mark”.

We know you want to change the world, but precisely which little yet vital part of it are you aiming to improve?

And then we get to your special bit of magic. Ingredient X, if you like (ahem). What is it in your enterprise that makes you truly and desirably different…?

All in all a good platform. Especially in the brevity shown.

How does your latest pitch compare?

…and as a postscript, how about the look on the face of the young lady from Upshot. It captures beautifully the feeling inside the seemingly enormous time vacuum between delivering your wonder-pitch and awaiting the response of the audience…lovely;