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25/05/2009
The Urban Legends of New Business Pitching
‘Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em. Tell ‘em,
then tell ‘em what you told ‘em,’ is one of the pieces of
trite advice that’s bandied about as if it’s some truth that will
produce guaranteed results. It was developed for military use, where I understand
perfectly that it makes sense to tell your comrade three times to aim to the
left, as you will be on the right. But lethal weapons are seldom fired in presentations,
and a clear story does not necessarily have to be repeated three times. Here
are some more urban legends of pitching:
- They will choose the best people for the job.
If you’re pitching to perform surgery on the client, then yes, maybe
they will. For non-life threatening situations, they do not choose the best
people for the job – they choose the person or team who shows them a
future with the greatest added value from the relationship.
- We need to get a number of important points across
No. You need to get one point across. As any successful defense lawyer will
tell you: “If you argue ten points, and even if each is a good point,
when they get back to the jury room they won’t remember any.” The
trick here is exclusion. What you don’t present can sometimes be your
best part. You can’t have more than one North Star.
- We will follow the plan
On the battlefield no plan survives contact with the enemy. The bulb can go
on the projector and you could even have forgotten to take your tourett’s
medication - as long as you have communicated the ‘Commander’s
Intent’ to the team, the plan will have served its purpose. The military
recommends that a commander arrives at a Commander’s Intent by asking
two simple questions:
- If we do nothing else during tomorrow’s mission, we must….
- The single, most important thing that we must do tomorrow is…
- People need to be fully informed
Nonsense. If people are connecting the dots for themselves, they’re
involved. And that’s what every new relationship needs – involvement.
Do we ever say: “Come over to my place, I’d like to show you my
homework”?
- Rehearsal is the most important thing
No it’s not. Telling a clear story with a structure that everyone understands
is. If I had two choices: rehearse or prepare notes for the presenters, I would
go for the latter. However both are ideal.
About the author
Sid Peimer is the strategic director (urban legend has it) of www.behp.co.za and
runs his personal site www.stratplanning.com,
where he provides numerous resources on pitching.
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