How to Pitch
Entrepreneurs use storytelling skills as a lever to change the world
"Johnson-Gordian-Knot" by natematias is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Before we start this week’s column, I would just like to point you to this link, which shows how you can help the Spanish Red Cross after the terrible flooding in Valencia
Pitching - a short attempt to persuade another person to do something that wasn’t on his or her radar a moment earlier - is one of the core skills of the innovation society. Identifying novel solutions to knotty problems and enlisting allies lies at the heart of most attempts to create value for other people. At least some of the projects that unlock exponential growth will begin life as pitches.
I have thought long and hard about how to pitch over the years, but I should stress that I am not an entrepreneur myself. Joining a punchy startup with big plans as an early employee in my 30s (more than 20 years ago) is a sign of an entrepreneurial streak at best, rather than being a fully paid up member of the club. I am grateful that it went onto become one of the world’s few journalism unicorns.
Over many years as a financial journalist, I have conducted plenty of interviews with proper entrepreneurs. Many of them have told me they are going to run through their standard pitch. The best ones have known how to provoke emotional engagement in their audience (in this case, me).
People who aren’t involved with startups might be surprised to hear that a number of the projects that I have fallen in love with during interviews have failed to gain traction in the real world. The best entrepreneurs can spin a great yarn, but that should never be taken as a guarantee of future success.
I have tried to apply some of the lessons I have learnt from these interviews in other areas. For example, interview requests - trying to gain access to interesting people - have much in common with pitches. This was the cornerstone of my journalism practice for a couple of decades. I have also pitched a number of ideas for new or improved projects internally, some successfully. And I have built a platform where colleagues can pitch interesting ideas to a small team of people who are enthusiastic about incremental improvements.
My thinking about pitching evolved after I was asked to be a judge in a startup competition a few years ago. I had to assess literally hundreds of written pitches in a very short time. I didn’t feel that I was qualified to assess the underlying projects, so instead I judged the pitches on storytelling skills.
In my experience, when I looked at pitches through the lens of assessing storytelling skills, I found the best ones all followed a pattern. They normally included at least four and probably five of the following elements.
The pitch identified a large and significant problem;
it explained why existing solutions to the problem tend to fall short;
before describing a novel solution with as little jargon as possible;
it then conveyed excitement about the opportunity but tempered it with a seemingly honest assessment of the difficulties ahead;
and finally described what is needed from the audience.
It is easy to adopt a scaled-down version of this advice even if you aren’t an entrepreneur or involved with startups. Imagine you want to persuade your partner or a friend to see a film in the cinema with you. Try making your pitch a solution to a problem. “You’re going to see the film sooner or later; and the longer you leave it, the more likely you are to hear spoilers. Let’s go on the opening weekend!”
The approach is very simple, but if you really want to change the world, even in a small way, please feel free to borrow it. The comments are open. See you next week!
Previously on Sharpen Your Axe
Building the innovation society
Value creation (part one, part two, part three and part four)
Exponential growth (part one and part two)
Further Reading
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Caldini
Pre-Suasion: Channeling Attention for Change by Robert B. Caldini
The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries
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