I always found the concept of the "elevator pitch" a little too stiff and corporate for the coaching world.   

How many times have you been standing in an elevator and actually had to pitch someone before it reaches your floor?

(Most people are staring up at the floor numbers, the elevator doors, or checking their iPhone to avoid any awkward conversation in there).

So I came up with a different phrase for telling others what I do.

I call it the "BBQ pitch".

A BBQ pitch is what you'd tell someone you meet at a backyard BBQ, after you finish with small talk about the weather and kids, and they ask "So, what do you do?”.

Your BBQ pitch needs to be short. It can’t be a long rambling speech or the person is going to look for an opening to get out of there.

Your BBQ pitch needs to easily roll off the tongue. You can’t stumble with this (Warning: drinking too many beers at the BBQ could affect your performance).

Your BBQ pitch needs to evoke curiosity. It should make the person interested to learn more. Then you can get into a deeper conversation about your coaching.

Most importantly, your BBQ pitch needs to be clear. The other person should instantly “get” it.

My BBQ pitch is: "I help coaches get more clients, without paid advertising". 

It's short, to-the-point, and I've said it so often that I can easily fire it out. 

People may ask for clarification on what a coach is (some people still think coaching is for the athletic world), but overall mine has served me well. 

If you don't have a good BBQ pitch, it's going to be harder to get clients. Yet I estimate that less than 20% of coaches have a good one (it's probably closer to just 10%). 

If you'd like help nailing down yours, I go over this in more detail on pages 2-5 in the April issue of my Secret Coach Club newsletter. 

This one is devoted to helping you get unstuck from 10 common issues tripping up coaches. 

It goes to print soon, so you have until Saturday at midnight EST to grab it: 

Marc