Did you know Your Pitch Has a Heart ?

In my last post about pitching (blog/types-of-pitches-elevator-business-and-investor), I detailed the elements of the three main types of pitches, Elevator, Business, and Investor. That post focused on the differences between these pitches. This post explains what is shared between them, what I refer to as The Heart of the Pitch.

The heart of your pitch is composed of two parts. The first part is the problem you solve. The second part is the solution you offer. One of the mistakes I often notice when I listen to pitches is that people go too quickly to the solution. Sometimes, they go there immediately. I get why people do that. It’s normal and natural to want to share what you do, what you offer, or what you have invented. You are excited about it, and you want others to get excited too.

However, the information about your solution and how great it is has no place to land in your listener's mind if they don't first understand the problem you solve.

The brain likes to put pieces of information together. It wants to create links. One way of thinking about this is using the analogy of a coat tree, the object that stands in an entryway of a home or office where people hang their coats.

The branches of the coat tree are the elements of the problem. The goal is to have a branch on your coat tree of every component of your solution. If you don’t create a landing place for each element of your solution, your listener won’t fully understand its impact and retain the information about it.

When I work with clients, I help them create a "robust" problem statement using a specific technique that I have developed. Once we create coherence between the problem they solve and the solution they offer, we can create a detailed and emotionally engaging story that communicates the problem, leads into the solution, and emotionally engages the audience. I’ll be expanding on that in my next post.