Rethinking the Elevator Pitch

My wife and I were out shopping the other day at a big-box electronics store.

It's the kind of store that I have to go into with my wife, because otherwise we'd go into debt every time I would walk through the doors.

After wandering around a while, inevitably I see something that catches my eye. I point it out to my wife -- a tablet that lets you write or draw directly into your computer.

"Can you imagine what we'd be able to do with that?" I say.

"Would we really use it?" she asks. I remind her that she's trying to become a Kindergarten teacher. The ability to draw her own lesson material into the computer rather than using the clunky, clumsy interfaces she's currently used to -- that would be huge.

"Look, you'd save about three hours every time you made a lesson."

A big box employee came over and, without being asked, tells us a story. What story? Read on, dear netizen.

We walked out with a tablet in hand and a smile on our faces, confident we'd made a great purchase decision.

Contrast this to a recent experience I had chatting with a client. His mission is not clear at all. He has no branding for his business. He's essentially just a Regular Joe -- so that's what we'll call him. Nobody knows the difference between him and any other pro in his field.

For the record, Joe is a landscaper.

For the better part of a year, I've been trying to convince Joe that he needs to embrace a brand for himself and run like hell. Joe hasn't done that -- instead, his brand is flat. There's no pizzaz that makes customers come back or helps leads over the purchase decision.

Until Joe can come to terms with his utter failure at branding, he's going to be just another truck on the road, filled with shovels and those little pebbles that crack your windshield.

Nobody will know about his business, because he's "playing it safe" -- just doing what's always worked. His brand lacks passion, and he'll go out of business never having found the focus required to drive toward goals, to get noticed, and to make a difference. Joe has no story.

I can't even pitch Joe to my friends because he has no website to speak of.

There's a little bit of Joe in all of us. He's the guy that comes out when it's midnight, and bed looks nicer than polishing the presentation one more time. He's the guy that'd rather play video games or do dishes than do real productive work for the day.

Don't let Joe hang around for too long. Especially this time of year. It's so easy to get bogged down in stupid details, goal setting, long-term planning, projections, whatever. But nothing -- ABSOLUTELY NOTHING -- beats action. It's the ultimate elevator pitch.

Back to my wife and I at the big box store. Mr. Big Box told us a story. He recounted his personal experiences with the tablet. He told us about the weaknesses, the strengths, and the oddities. I was already sold, but my wife needed that extra push -- and Mr. Big Box made a sale because of his ability to weave a quick tale that left us wanting to hear more. He ended the story with, "You'll know in the first 10 seconds of plugging it in if you'll like it."

In short, his elevator pitch was spot on. The ride was quick, the audience was more or less captive, and the doors opened with us wanting to experience more. We had to know how the story ended.

So get your butt in gear, man. 2012 is almost here.

You can find more from Nick Armstrong on Twitter and at his personal website.