Unless your pitch is a Hollywood blockbuster, you’re losing business
Presenting expert Emma Bannister asks why adland’s pitches are still overloaded with bullet points, reams of text and marketing jargon.
Remember the last pitch you sat through, sneakily scrolling through your smartphone? Or the last pitch you gave, where your audience (the very people you were trying to impress) sat sneakily scrolling through their smartphone?
Mind-numbing presentations are a major cause for concern in the marketing and advertising world – even more so if you’re using them to try and secure a contract or new deal. Busy professionals have minimal time (and bandwidth for anything boring), so you’ve got to be able to get your message across quickly and succinctly to have the right impact and influence.
So, a bad pitch is not good, while a great pitch is good.
Thanks for that. Now I know where I was going wrong all these years.
If that’s the only thing you’re going to take out of this article then I have another one for you:
“The contents in your coffee cup might be hot”
You’re welcome.
Is the industry in such bad shape it needs these basics spelled out? Whether your are pitching an ad campaign or at Hardly Normal trying to flog a new toaster to someone, the principles of “selling” are always the same.
Thanks for the article. It’s a great reminder how important emotion is. Passion and enthusiasm for a topic or brand is always memorable.
This is the worst thing I’ve ever read.
“We’ve been told that problem-solving and decision making should rely on our logic and analysis. This simply isn’t true.”
*proceeds to quote statistics*
Please quit your day job.
Imagine being that small a person that you tell someone to quit their day job because you didn’t like a simple article they wrote. Get a life.
Well done Emma. We ALL need reminders from time to time – even those (like me) who have been presenting and teaching for several decades. Those with negative comments (below) would do well to heed or possibly ask THEIR audiences how well THEY are doing – they might get a nasty surprise. Complacency is the real enemy of true professionalism!
This article confuses me.
I don’t know about anyone else – but I haven’t seen a pitch full of bullet points and reams of text in…well ever.
Yes, emotion is critical when selling in an idea, however everyone worth their salt in the business also knows that strategy, structure and logic protect great ideas (and the emotions they caused…which have worn off by then) as the idea goes up the chain.
The reality, for me at least, is that logic and emotion need to be intertwined to create a compelling and undeniable argument.
Emotions stay with me over facts every time! It’s hard to break out from these stats and figures but it has to be done! Couldn’t agree more Emma