Pitch Archive - Page 4 of 5 - The Art of Communicating

Speaking with confidence

Most of your competition leads with vague statements such as “improving efficiency”, “providing flexible solutions”, “using high quality materials”.

One of the easiest ways to differentiate yourself from this competition is to be really specific in what you promise. What does “improving efficiency” mean? What does it look like? How will it change our processes?

And then make a bold statement about it. “X will increase Y by at least a factor of 3.”

There’s one important pitfall: You need to keep your promises. It’s easy to make bold promises. It’s a different thing to actually keep them.

Yet, this is the actual differentiator – and the reason why so many companies shy away from making specific promises. They lack the confidence to actually make them happen. They don’t go all the way to make sure that this will always work (or figure out which version of the promise will always work).

The best pitches start with empathy: Understand what matters to your customers. Make a bold innovation to improve this aspect. Work hard to be able to keep a promise around it.

When you’ve done this, speaking about it with confidence will be the easiest part.

Bill Gates doesn’t get the Internet

In 1995, Bill Gates really struggled to make a case for the Internet:

Funny isn’t it? The CEO of the dominant software company can’t clearly say what the benefits of one of the most significant technological advances in mankind actually are.

Now, here’s a question to you: 26 years later and knowing what you know now, would you do any better? Could you answer Letterman’s question about what’s the big deal about the Internet in a TV compatible way?

As Letterman said: It’s easy to criticise something you don’t fully understand. And yet, that’s exactly the position that our customers are in. They don’t fully understand the thing we’re trying to explain to them. And one of their most pressing questions is this: So, what’s the big deal about this?

It’s easy to make fun of one of the most successful businessmen in history. But again, would you do better? Or more precisely, do you do better for the things you sell?

(PS: This fall, I’m launching the “Leaders Light the Path” masterclass which helps you do better. Get notified here.)

The value of a well crafted email

Many businesses underestimate the value of a well crafted email.

More than 90% of all deals that I’ve pitched were basically decided at the time I showed up in person. The purpose of the pitch was just to rationalise a decision that has long before been made.

A well crafted email gets the reader’s attention and triggers an “I want that! Now!” impulse. In the shortest possible way.

When we signed our first worldwide licensing deal in the toy industry, there wasn’t even a pitch presentation involved. On a Sunday afternoon we sent an email. On the next day, we were being asked to send over a prototype and a week later, the managing director was sitting at our table (not theirs) and we were negotiating the deal.

All thanks to a well-crafted email.

Start with work that matters. Build something that people actually want. And then speak (or write) about it using plain language in a short and concise way.

Who are you pitching to?

“I like it”, he said. “Maybe just one thing. Could you add a small overview of the other products that we offer? Just in case they would be interested in one of these as well.”

So, what do you do?

Please your boss and include the overview? Or please the customer and focus the pitch on what they asked for? Include everything your boss asks for or exclude everything that bores your customer?

It’s better to make this decision consciously.

Using up trust

We tend to think about sales as a competition. About winning the pitch, making the sale, and getting the deal. And when we do get it, the deal is the end to the story, isn’t it? (A happy end for that matter!)

But what if you considered it to be the beginning of the story? The inciting incident of a story about a long-lasting relationship with a client …

Would that change the way that you approach your pitch? Your ad? Your conversation?

For many of my clients it does. Instead of using up trust to make a deal they shift to building trust to enter into a relationship. It immediately rules out hyperbole and favours the truth.

Telling a true story about the things that you care about is what builds trust. Investing the empathy to relate it to what matters to our audience is what creates resonance. And resonance has no end. There is no winning. The whole point is to keep resonating.

What are sales pitches for?

“We are awesome!”

That, in essence, is the summary of 99% of all sales pitches.

Yet, that’s not what decision makers care for. At all.

Decision makers care for how awesome they are. And whether buying your product will make them even more awesome. To make them see how is the actual job of a sales pitch.

Make it about them, not you.

Sales deck? No, thanks!

“No, thanks!”

That’s my answer when a salesperson asks me whether I want him to walk me through his sales deck. “No, thanks, I’ve already researched your company info before the meeting.”

Time’s precious. I don’t want to waste time with info that I can more efficiently get before a meeting. I invited that person because I already believe that there might be common ground and that it might be a fit.

So, when we meet, I want to dig deeper. I want to understand how this service or product would be just the right solution to my problem. I just don’t have time to figure that out myself after suffering through 27 slides of generic marketing messages. I don’t care for how large your building is and how many other departments you have.

John Caples, the famous copywriter, said it like this:

“The most frequent reason for unsuccessful advertising is advertisers who are so full of their own accomplishments that they forger to tell us why we should buy.”

Sales decks are often full of own accomplishments and the only thing they talk about is themselves. Yet, when you want to sell something, it’s not about you. We know that you want to sell. It’s about us. It’s about why we should buy. Why is this for us? We care for whether you understand our business. Whether you see our problem and feel our pain. And whether your medicine will work. We don’t want a lecture about how great you are but a conversation about why we are a great fit.

Natural born pitchers

You’re pitching ideas for as long as you can remember. You pitched the idea of owning a PlayStation to your parents. You pitched the idea of having your honeymoon in Iceland. You pitched the idea of buying a new coffee machine for the workgroup to your boss.

For sure, you haven’t been successful with all of them but I bet that when you really cared, you succeeded. You wanted it so badly that you gave it your all. You just didn’t give up.

More importantly, you were able to empathise. You were finding the reasons that matter to them. You were, in fact, looking to make it easy for the other person to say yes rather than forcing them (which often wouldn’t even have been possible) or persuading them (which often wouldn’t have worked, anyway).

This is one major aspect of pitching that gets lost when we don’t care as much. Then, we don’t try as hard to make it easy to approve. We don’t try as hard to walk in their shoes. As a result, we expect them to figure out why it’s also great for them. We leave it to them.

At least two take-aways here:

It’s much easier to pitch when you really care. So, if you don’t care as much, it most likely pays off to work on the idea first before pitching it.
It’s invaluable to walk in their shoes. They are so much more likely to approve when it’s easy for them to say “yes!”.

(PS: registration for “The Art of Pitching”-sessions opens soon. Subscribe to get notified and secure a special rate).

Wenn du das Wichtigste zuerst sagst, warum sollte jemand länger zuhören?

Weil das Wichtigste hochrelevant für deine Zuhörer ist.

Es trifft sie mitten ins Mark. Es ist genau, was sie brauchen. Es ist das, wonach sie die ganze Zeit gesucht haben, ohne dass es ihnen selbst klar war.

Und genau deswegen wollen sie wissen, wie es weitergeht. Wie funktioniert das? Was kostet es? Was müssen sie verändern? Welche Voraussetzungen gibt es? Gibt es noch mehr davon? Kann man das auch auf andere Probleme übertragen? Wann können wir starten?

Wenn dein Produkt gut ist und wenn es genau das richtige Produkt für deine Kunden ist, dann ist dein Thema auch spannend. Dann ist die Frage nicht: „Wie machst du dein Thema spannend?“, sondern: „Wo steckt die Relevanz in deinem Thema?“

Echte Spannung entsteht durch Relevanz, künstliche Spannung durch Hinauszögern.

Künstliche Spannung mündet oft in ein Gefühl der Enttäuschung, weil die versprochene Information gar nicht das hält, was die künstliche Spannung versprochen hatte. Echte Spannung mündet in ein Gefühl der Zufriedenheit. Künstliche Spannung zwingt der Erzähler auf. Sie muss mit immer neuen Finten gefüttert werden, um die Spannung aufrecht zu erhalten. Echte Spannung speist sich selbst, weil die Zuhörer immer mehr wissen wollen. Sie erzeugt ein Verlangen nach Informationen. Und das ist ein guter Grund, um mit dem Wichtigsten zu beginnen.

Warum sollte ich Ihnen zuhören wollen?

Mit oder ohne Sprudel?

Einfache Entscheidung: Mit oder ohne Sprudel …

… bis PowerPoint in’s Spiel kommt und wir daraus eine Entscheidungsvorlage machen. Im Nu wird aus einer einfachen Entscheidung eine Schlacht aus 10 Folien, ohne ein einziges Mal die eigentliche Frage zu formulieren. Stattdessen:

Folie 1: Titelfolie mit Vortragstitel („Vor- und Nachteile unterschiedlicher Wasserdarreichungsformen“), Name des Vortragenden, seine Abteilung, Datum, Ort, mindestens fünf Logos
Folie 2: Agenda
Folie 3: Umsatzanteile der Wassersorten mit und ohne Sprudel während der letzten 6 Quartale, aufgeschlüsselt nach Regionen. Unten Vergleich mit zuckerhaltigen Erfrischungsgetränken.
Folie 4: Mission Statement für das hippe Wasser ohne Sprudel, Marktanalysen.
Folie 5: Zusammensetzung der Inhaltsstoffe, so klein, dass man nichts erkennen kann, dazu Zertifikate der Lebensmittelprüfinstitute sowie von Stiftung Warentest.
Folie 6 & 7: Das Gleiche für die Sorte mit Sprudel
Folie 8: Customer-Satisfaction-Rating und Award für die kreativste Brand-Kampagne 2019
Folie 9: Einordnung in die Brand-Range mit verschiedenen Geschmackszusätzen, Fit-Varianten, Größen und Sonderaktionen.
Folie 10: Zusammenfassung
Bonusfolie 11: „Vielen Dank für Ihre Aufmerksamkeit“

11 Folien lang über sich geredet, kein einziges Mal die Frage „Was mögen Sie lieber?“ berührt und kein einziges Mal die Frage „Mit oder ohne Sprudel?“ überhaupt gestellt.

Entscheidungen werden umso einfacher, je klarer ist, wofür oder wogegen man sich entscheiden soll. Es lohnt sich jedes Mal, das auf den Punkt zu bringen und sich zu zwingen, die eigentliche Frage in einem, maximal zwei Sätzen zu formulieren.

Und sich dann in die Perspektive der Entscheider zu versetzen. Welche Informationen brauchen sie überhaupt, um entscheiden zu können? Wie kann ich ihnen das so schnell und einfach wie möglich erklären?

Und oft ist es einfacher, als man denkt. Dann ist jeder froh, wenn ein Thema auch einmal in 2 Minuten abgehakt ist. Wirklich. Wenn alles gesagt ist, ist alles gesagt.

Ich mag übrigens lieber ohne Sprudel.

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