060: Why Your Pitch May Not Be Working

SUMMARY:

You happen to find yourself on an elevator with a person of significance and you have a just a few seconds to pitch them what you re doing. That’s what an elevator pitch is: Selling an idea in a clear and concise manner, in a short amount of time, and inspiring the person you re pitching to take action. Whether you know that analogy, or this is the first time hearing it, your elevator pitch matters. Good ideas die with bad communication. This episode is about finding, refining, and improving your pitch.

Welcome to episode 60 of the podcast.

LINKS + RESOURCES:

JOIN THE WAITLIST FOR ELEVATOR PITCH

Elevator Pitch is an online, workshop-style video course that guides you through proven methods to shape, hone and sharpen your message and polish your delivery. It includes a printable, digital workbook with exercises providing the step-by-step directions and the writing space you need to develop your pitch as you go.

Following the process outlined in Elevator Pitch, you ll have crafted your pitch in approximately four hours. How could a stronger, clearer message impact your next presentation, sales call or team meeting? Make your next presentation your best presentation with Elevator Pitch.

Registration for Elevator Pitch is currently closed. It will open soon. Sign up for the waitlist so you don t miss the next enrollment.

THREE TAKEAWAYS:

If you can t say it simply, you don t understand it well enough.

The goal here is to keep it simple. When you pitch a product, you want to tell people who can tell other people. Nobody is going to share your idea with others if they can t understand it.

A great idea, poorly communicated, is a stalled, unfunded and unsupported idea.

You might have the greatest idea in the world, but if you don’t know how to communicate it well then it’ll never get off the ground. When you’re building out your idea, practice how you would simply and concisely explain it to others. (And practice it again and again and again.)

Your pitch is like your packaging.

Think about the experience of buying a brand new iphone from the Apple store vs. buying a used one on ebay. One comes in the crisp white box, headphones perfectly folded, screen protector on. The one from ebay will probably arrive in a padded yellow shipping envelope. Which one would you be more excited for? That’s because packaging matters, and your pitch is your packaging. Don’t rely on the fact that you have a great idea and think that the communication doesn’t matter. The communication is what makes the experience great.