By 8:07am last Tuesday I’m already out of the running for Father of the Year.
My wife leaves at 5:45am to handle a client emergency.
Leaving me to get a one-year-old and two-year-old to daycare by 8am.
Sounds simple enough.
I can sleep for another hour.
3 minutes later the older one starts crying.
The younger one immediately joins her.
It’s impossible to get one back down while the other one is crying.
Catch-22.
Flash of insight.
Milk!
One problem:
Neither one will let me put her down.
Have you ever tried to pour milk while holding two children?
I manage to get onto the couch with a sippy cup of milk and a child on each arm.
It’s only 6:30.
Plenty of time.
I enjoy the peace for 27 seconds.
The younger one grabs the older one’s hair.
Strong grip.
Time to pack lunches.
One-handed.
The one I’m not holding stands at my feet crying.
The one I am holding grabs the open container.
Food everywhere.
With keen insight I switch grabby for wailing and they just as smoothly switch roles.
Packing lunch takes 45 minutes instead of the usual 10.
Now it’s 7:15.
The younger one is freakishly strong.
And eager to show off her favorite skill.
Flipping onto her front.
I turn her clothes over and dress her upside down.
The older one outright rejects her outfit.
Both outfits.
She finally picks a mismatched top and bottom and proudly puts them on herself.
Backwards.
7:35.
How long can it possibly take to get them into their jackets and strapped into the stroller?
That’s why I breathe a sigh of relief as I leave the center at 8:07am.
The kids are at daycare clean, dressed, fed, and relatively on time.
Success!
And it gets me thinking about your Elevator Pitch.
Your Elevator Pitch (like my crying two-year-old) starts a messy process.
Conversations.
Misunderstandings.
Clarifications.
A recent client describes a series of misunderstandings that led to a sale.
“Gotta fix my elevator pitch!”
But she doesn’t.
Not by a long shot.
The sales process can be frustrating, sure.
It’s also the only path to a sale.
And it all starts with a conversation.
My kids aren’t any less at daycare because the process was frustrating.
And your sale is no less of a sale due to misunderstandings along the way.
In fact, it’s a better sale.
No surprises after the fact.
What you do is too complex and you are too good at it to describe it completely in 4 sentences.
Or for anyone to understand it that cleanly and quickly.
Your Elevator Pitch helps them ask the right questions.
So you can spot the misunderstandings.
And provide the clarifications.
That lead to sales.
How do you start conversations?
Happy Networking!