Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal

by Oren Klaff

• Going to ignore you if possible. • Only focused on the big picture (and needs high-contrast and well-differentiated options to choose between). • Emotional, in the sense it will respond emotionally to what it sees and hears, but most of the time that emotional response is fear. • Focused on the here and now with a short attention span that craves novelty. • In need of concrete facts—it looks for verified evidence and doesn’t like abstract concepts.

Setting the frame Telling the story Revealing the intrigue Offering the prize Nailing the hookpoint Getting a decision

What are the basic primal attitudes and emotions that will be at play?

power-busting frame.

intrigue frame.

time ...

prize ...

1. Power frame 2. Time frame 3. Analyst frame

1. Power-busting frame 2. Time constraining frame 3. Intrigue frame There is a fourth frame you can deploy. It’s useful against all three of the opposing frames and many others you will encounter: 4. Prize frame

Observing power rituals in business situations—such as acting deferential, engaging in meaningless small talk, or letting yourself be told what to do—reinforces the alpha status of your target and confirms your subordinate position. Do not do this!

When you abide by the rituals of power instead of establishing your own, you reinforce the opposing power frame.

To instigate a power frame collision, use a mildly shocking but not unfriendly act to cause it. Use defiance and light humor. This captures attention and elevates your status by creating something called “local star power.” (You will read about creating status and local star power in Chapter 3.)

1. Perpetrate a small denial, or 2. Act out some type of defiance.

Defiance and light humor are the keys to seizing power and frame control.

When you are defiant and funny at the same time, he is pleasantly challenged by you and instinctively knows that he is in the presence of a pro.

that is the entire purpose of this game—to capture and keep attention until your pitch is complete.

This is a subtle framing technique known as prizing. What you do is reframe everything your audience does and says as if they are trying to win you over.

What prizing subconsciously says to your audience is, “You are trying to win my attention. I am the prize, not you. I can find a thousand buyers (audiences, investors, or clients) like you. There is only one me.”

When you rotate the circle of social power 180 degrees, it changes everything.

strengthen your resolve and commit completely to your frame. No matter what happens, no matter how much social pressure and discomfort you suffer, you must stay composed and stick to your frame. This is called plowing. So you prepare yourself to plow, as an ox might plow a field. Always moving forward. Never stopping. Never any self-doubt.

When you are reacting to the other person, that person owns the frame. When the other person is reacting to what you do and say, you own the frame.

So what should you do if someone demands details? You respond with summary data that you have prepared for this specific purpose. You answer the question directly and with the highest-level information possible. Then you redirect their attention back to your pitch.

No one takes a meeting to hear about something they already know and understand.

Audience members are, with full concentration and at the most basic and primal level, trying to figure out the answer to this question: “How similar is your idea to something I already know about or to a problem I have already solved?”

Narrative and analytical information does not coexist.

The Intrigue Story

Your intrigue story needs the following elements: 1. It must be brief, and the subject must be relevant to your pitch. 2. You need to be at the center of the story. 3. There should be risk, danger, and uncertainty. 4. There should be time pressure—a clock is ticking somewhere, and there are ominous consequences if action is not taken quickly. 5. There should be tension—you are trying to do something but are being blocked by some force. 6. There should be serious consequences—failure will not be pretty.

Breaking it down into such simple terms helped me to understand a crucial concept: If you trigger curiosity and desire, the croc sees you as something it wants to chase. You become the prize.

1. We chase that which moves away from us. 2. We want what we cannot have. 3. We only place value on things that are difficult to obtain.

1. Make the buyer qualify himself back to you. Do this by asking such questions as, “Why do I want to do business with you?” 2. Protect your status. Don’t let the buyer change the agenda, the meeting time, or who will attend. Withdraw if the buyer wants to force this kind of change.

The money needs you.

“I’m glad I could find the time to meet with you today. And I do have another meeting right after this. Let’s get started.”

it is in this role reversal that we begin to see the incredible power of situational status.

Your social value is fluid and changes with the environment you are in—or the environment you create. If you wish to elevate your social value in any given situation, you can do so by redirecting people into a domain where you are in charge.

The person makes a hasty judgment using three measurable criteria: your wealth, your power, and your popularity.

Seizing Situational Status Here are the steps involved in elevating your status in any situation.