By Bob London, President & Founder of London, Ink (www.londonink.com)

Almost everyone in the business world has heard of the “elevator pitch.” For the uninitiated, an elevator pitch has nothing to do with selling elevators, nor is it a contest between behemoths trying to see how far they can toss your standard issue 8-person elevator.

An “elevator pitch” is basically a short description of your business. The term originated in response to this question: “How would you explain your business if you were fortunate enough to be on a 30-second elevator ride with a prospective customer?” The next and infinitely more challenging question is, “What are you going to do for the remaining 20 seconds after the prospect begins thumbing away on his/her PDA while you’re 10 seconds in to your pitch?”

Nevertheless, elevator pitches have gained in popularity over the last 10 years, with entire cottage industries springing up populated by consultants who can help you “hone your pitch,” “simplify your message,” or become “a great storyteller” about your business.

But…

There is far more critical but lesser known prequel to the elevator pitch: the Customers’ Elevator Rant. The Customer Elevator Rant (CER) is what your ideal prospect says on the elevator ride with his/her boss when you are not around. The CER is your prospect’s candid, specific and sometimes emotional articulation of his/her pain in trying to get some part of his/her job done correctly–perhaps something your product or service can address.

The only way for you to know if your product or service solves that pain is for you to figure out the rant. Here are some very basic ways to start doing this:

• Ask the Prospect. Yes, it’s obvious but think of how infrequently we ask questions unless we’re already trying to sell something. As soon as a sale or deal is in the air, the prospect will go into his corner and put on his company hat, and is unlikely to share any real insights with you. Any successful salesperson will approach the prospect at least once or twice before trying to sell something. They will ask him how things are going. What’s his experience with customer support or service delivery. What was his golf score at the management off site and, by the way, what was on the agenda. Once they start talking, listen carefully as the rant may be in there–it might jump out at you or it might be somewhere between the lines.
• Server Diving. This is the legal, Web 2.0 equivalent of dumpster diving. User-generated content, such as industry or company blogs, company ratings and recruiting sites, is a boon for the savvy marketer willing to do a little online research. Last year I gave a talk at the annual conference of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions on using new/social media to get inside the head of credit union executives. Turns out there are at least a dozen legitimate, informative blogs by credit union insiders, plus several MySpace pages and YouTube videos that helped provide new insights on what’s happening in the credit union world, from the credit unions’ point of view.
• Seek Independent/Objective Input. Again, this may sound obvious, but fans of the bestseller “The Wisdom of Crowds,” by James Surowiecki, will recall that having one skeptic or critic in the room makes everyone in the room smarter and the outcome more sound. The group is forced to address the skeptic’s points and examine their validity. And, more often than not, the process yields real benefits in decision-making. The independent/objective source could be someone from another department, a partner, a prospect or a consultant with relevant experience. The key is to be willing to explore and embrace what even your harshest critics have to say about your company or product.

So before you go off developing your elevator pitch and distributing it to your sales team, executives, managers and other employees, make sure you invest the necessary time and effort to uncover your Customers’ Elevator Rant. It’s certain to pay off.