Lyne’s positive energy was infectious! She already had the pain part of her elevator pitch down pat. She knew exactly how the problem she solved manifested in companies. What was missing, was to focus her into a specific industry and to add the ultimate cost of that pain into her pitch. Often, what lends dimension to the pain of an industry is the use of a statistic in your elevator pitch.

It lets people know that you’re an expert in that pain. As well, it makes the prospect feel a shared pain with their industry (and not so much of a lone loser!). When I polished Lyne’s pitch, I simply had to ask a few questions to get her to enunciate the actual consequence of the pain she was talking about (ie. The true pain). Because in reality, conflict in the workplace is not the pain. It is simply the symptom. The real cause is the lack of leadership that causes it. Furthermore, the real pain is staff turnover. When you have mere seconds to hook a prospects’ attention with your elevator pitch, you need to get straight to the pain.

You need to use stats to scare the bejesus out of them. Then you have to offer them your solution to that problem. Now, Lyne has a perfectly polished and specific pitch that she can test out at any of her target industry’s events.

If you thought what Lyne went through was a great experience, email me at chala@repositioner.com to be my next guest.