powerful – they make your solution highly credible. Honesty, expertise, confidence, simplicity, authenticity – from both the person and business they work for – all help. 4.) Identifiable Targets: If you can’t build a list of prospects or channel partners or marketing options to get access to them, you can’t very well go after them! How would you build a list of “technology CEOs suffering from severe depressive episodes at least once per quarter” or “companies that need to change the software they’re running their website on”? 5.) Unique Genius: To find or be found, to close deals, to avoid commoditization – you must be different or unique. Every business (and individual) has unique strengths, weakness and superpowers – whether or not they realize it. A talent for making money, focusing, creative writing, art, service, engineering, relationships, innovation, a passionate community, celebrity employees, an interesting personal story or history… Sometimes it’s clear, like the customer service and culture of Zappos. Sometimes it’s hard to put your finger on, or it needs developing. But it’s always there. What makes you stand out? What are your special advantages? If you can come up with nothing else, you have the personal stories of the founders and employees. Personal stories – like “I struggled, I wanted to help others avoid the same struggle so I did x, y, z” – can themselves be very compelling. ELEVATOR PITCHES ARE ALWAYS FRUSTRATING With an elevator pitch, you're not trying to sell people on buying something or get them incredibly excited and jump up and down. You’re only giving them a quick sense of whether they want to find out more or not. Most people doing this with a pitch that’s too long and too much about them: We’re the leading scalable networked social media platform innovator…blah blah blah. A tight elevator pitch can tell someone quickly whether they are a prospect or not. You’re not trying to engage everyone, just the people to whom you’re relevant. So: ● Avoid jargon. ● Keep it simple. ● Simple is better than accurate. ● It’s always frustrating: you'll never be 100% satisfied, so stick to “good enough.” No doubt you can find a million formats and templates for elevator pitches on the Internet. Here’s one sample format that’s worked for us: Start by saying, "You know how some people have [problem]? Well, we [solution and/or benefit]. For example, [one sentence case study].” “You know how some retail chains struggle getting mobile users to redeem coupons? We have a way to increase redemption rates by 50%. For example, Bob’s Tacos saw redemptions double in 30 days.”