The 7-Step Pain Hook
Parent: Pitch Playbooks
The rhetorical move that turned the ET pitch from "interesting idea" into "we need this now."
How it works
Walk the prospect through every manual step of one workflow they're doing today. Don't generalize. Be brutally specific. Count the boxes.
The ET version — PSA invoice loop
Today, one PSA invoice takes seven manual steps:
- Email arrives — Lab sends the invoice. Someone has to notice and open it.
- Download PDF — Pull the attachment off the email manually.
- Rename & file it — Rename by convention. Drag to the right project folder.
- Open both programs — Invoice on one screen. Excel tracker on the other.
- Type it in — Key invoice fields into Excel by hand. Hope nothing gets transposed.
- Watch the balance — Manually check whether charges have hit the billing threshold.
- Build the pay app — Compile all the lines and assemble the client invoice. Then repeat.
The dollar math (always end with this)
30 hours a week × $75/hr loaded × 52 weeks = $117,000 a year in labor on this one workflow — and that's a conservative number. Every one of those steps is something a machine can do.
Why this works
- Each step is concrete, so it can't be argued with
- The labor calculation makes the pain a real number, not a feeling
- "Every step is something a machine can do" plants the solution without selling
How to use it for a new prospect
Before the call, ask them to walk you through ONE workflow that drives them crazy. Take notes step-by-step. Mirror it back to them in this format on the next call.
Last updated: 2026-05-24