“Pitch Anything” Summary by Rusty Bishop 2023

“We are hardwired to be bad at pitching. It is caused by the way our brains have evolved.”

OWEN KLAFF, PITCH ANYTHING

Buy it on Amazon – Hard Cover | E-book

The One Thing – Pitch Anything Summary

The Idea Introduction Pattern originally developed by Geoff Moore is the absolute perfect elevator pitch.

If you are a Founder or a Sales Person reading this take note. I’ve sat through 1000s of pitches from both sides of the table. I can say with absolute certainty that not one time has the person pitching gotten this right. ZERO.

This idea introduction pattern goes like this:

“For [target customers]

Who are dissatisfied with [the current offerings in the market].

My idea/ product is a [new idea or product category]

That provides [key problem/ solution features].

Unlike [the competing product].

My idea/ product is [describe key features].”

Simple and perfect.

So here’s my shot at this for “pitching” the Pitch Anything book to you.

For Founders of Tech Companies seeking to raise money

Who are dissatisfied with Investors’ reactions to their pitches

“Pitch Anything” is a simple-to-read book.

That provides a step-by-step process to craft the perfect pitch.

Unlike every other pitching book I’ve read, Oren’s method is backed by brain science, the experiences of one of the best deal makers of all time, and will fundamentally change the way you understand the person on the other end of your pitch.

If you get this right though, everything else will fall into place and it will be the cornerstone of your Marketing Messaging.

Let’s jump into more ideas from this excellent sales/marketing book.

Buy it on Amazon – Hard Cover | E-book

Pitch Anything Summary

The book has a lot of brain science information that is very digestible even for non-science types and laced with great stories about the pitches Oren has done over the years.

Some of these seem Wolf of Wall Street ridiculous but at least they entertain and illustrate the author’s ideas in a humorous way that makes the book fly along (I read it in a little over 2hrs while taking notes).

I copied this straight from the text:

Here’s the “big idea” in 76 words:

There is a fundamental disconnect between the way we pitch anything and the way it is received by our audience. As a result, at the crucial moment, when it is most important to be convincing, nine out of ten times we are not. Our most important messages have a surprisingly low chance of getting through.

The “getting through” part is the most important concept in those 76 words! Are you really getting through? As a CMO, I can tell you that you are definitely not.

“The art of selling is a tale as old as time, but what happens when you infuse it with the cutting-edge science of neuropsychology?”

Owen KLAFF, PItch Anything

Getting Past the Croc Brain

Our sophisticated minds have evolved to understand and present complex logic and data, but ironically, when we attempt to win over a prospective client, we’re evaluated by the oldest parts of their brain. This is what the author calls the Croc Brain.

This mismatch often leads to suboptimal results for sellers and buyers alike.

So how do we navigate this cognitive landscape?

Klaff proposes a systematic approach to structure your sales pitch in a way that the primitive brain finds irresistible and allows you to talk to their thinking brain.

Here’s how

1. Capture and retain your prospect’s attention and interest
2. Help them recognize your offer as a golden opportunity
3. Cultivate a strong desire for what you’re offering

Now, I know that sounds pretty basic, but if read this part carefully you’ll find it’s very similar to the approach outlined in The Jolt Effect (reviewed here).

The key to achieving these goals is understanding that your potential customer is assessing the situation at a deeply primal level (croc brain).

Who’s dominant?

Who exudes confidence?

Who’s the hunter, and who’s the prey?

Further enriching our sales repertoire are concepts such as framing, motivation, and curiosity littered throughout the book.

By adeptly framing your sales narrative, leveraging motivation techniques, and sparking curiosity, you can guide your prospect’s decision-making process.
Remember, a well-orchestrated sales pitch is not merely a presentation – it’s a performance.

Summary

“Pitch Anything” adds an important piece to the puzzle about how I perceive the sales process. And the Idea Introduction Pattern is worth the read in and of itself.

My journey through the realms of entrepreneurship, as a tech founder with a successful exit and now, a CMO of a public company, has taught me this: we must work smarter, not harder.

By understanding and utilizing the tenets of neuropsychology as outlined by Klaff, we can reinvent the art of selling and propel our careers toward unprecedented heights.

Buy it on Amazon – Hard Cover | E-book

My Highlights from Kindle

Chapter 1 The Method

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Here’s the “big idea” in 76 words: There is a fundamental disconnect between the way we pitch anything and the way it is received by our audience. As a result, at the crucial moment, when it is most important to be convincing, nine out of ten times we are not. Our most important messages have a surprisingly low chance of getting through.

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Our thought process exactly matches our evolution: First, survival. Then, social relationships. Finally, problem solving.

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We are hardwired to be bad at pitching. It is caused by the way our brains have evolved.

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“Since this is not an emergency, how can I ignore this or spend the least amount of time possible on it?”

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If you got a chance to look at the croc brain’s filtering instructions, it would look something like this: 1. If it’s not dangerous, ignore it. 2. If it’s not new and exciting, ignore it. 3. If it is new, summarize it as quickly as possible—and forget about the details. And finally there is this specific instruction: 4. Do not send anything up to the neocortex for problem solving unless you have a situation that is really unexpected and out of the ordinary.

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First, given the limited focus and capacity of the croc brain, up to 90 percent of your message is discarded before it’s passed on up to the midbrain and then on to the neocortex.

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Second, unless your message is presented in such a way that the crocodile brain views it to be new and exciting—it is going to be ignored.

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Third, if your pitch is complicated—if it contains abstract language and lacks visual cues—then it is perceived as a threat. Not a threat in the sense that the person listening to your pitch fears he is going to be attacked, but a threat because without cues and context, the croc brain concludes that your pitch has the potential to absorb massive amounts of brain power to comprehend.

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There are the two questions we always ask ourselves after we have made a presentation or pitch: 1. Did I get through? 2. Was my message well received?

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First, you don’t want your message to trigger fear alarms. And second, you want to make sure it gets recognized as something positive, unexpected, and out of the ordinary—a pleasant novelty.

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The croc brain is picky and a cognitive miser whose primary interest is survival. It doesn’t like to do a lot of work and is high maintenance when it is forced to perform. It requires concrete evidence—presented simply in black and white—to make a decision. Minor points of differentiation don’t interest it. And this is the brain to which you are pitching.

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

Chapter 2 Frame Control

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“Look, I

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only want to know two things from you. What are monthly expenses, and how much are you paying yourself?”

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No one really knows whether there are human energy fields or not, but perhaps this is the best way to think about the mental structures that shape the way we see the world, which I call frames.

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Another person can look at the same thing through his own frame, and what he hears and sees may differ—by a little or a lot. The common label given to this is perspective.

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Should I eat it or mate with it?

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When frames come together, the first thing they do is collide. And this isn’t a friendly competition—it’s a death match. Frames don’t merge. They don’t blend. And they don’t intermingle. They collide, and the stronger frame absorbs the weaker.

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This is what happens below the surface of every business meeting you attend, every sales call you make, and every person-to-person business communication you have.

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Sales techniques were created for people who have already lost the frame collision and are struggling to do business from a subordinated or low-status position.

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This is a good intro point

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Own the Frame, Win the Game

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A frame is the instrument you use to package your power, authority, strength, information, and status. 1. Everyone uses frames whether they realize it or not. 2. Every social encounter brings different frames together. 3. Frames do not coexist in the same time and place for long. They crash into each other, and one or the other gains control. 4. Only one frame survives. The others break and are absorbed. Stronger frames always absorb weaker frames. 5. The winning frame governs the social interaction. It is said to have frame control.

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Every social interaction is a collision of frames, and the stronger frame always wins. Frame collisions are primal. They freeze out the neocortex and bring the crocodile brain in to make decisions and determine actions. Strong frames

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Going into most business situations, there are three major types of opposing frames that you will encounter: 1. Power frame 2. Time frame 3. Analyst frame

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You have three major response frame types that you can use to meet these oncoming frames, win the initial collision, and control the agenda: 1. Power-busting frame 2. Time constraining frame 3. Intrigue frame

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

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Power busting frame – use humor and small defiance to shift the frame to you

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Think of how many ways you can use small acts of denial and defiance in the opening moments of meetings.

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

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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.

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The Prize Frame

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The Avocado Farmer’s Money I looked down at my phone.

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You just stay committed to your frame and keep it strong. You plow.

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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.

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“The revenue is $ 80 million, expenses are $ 62 million, the net is $ 18 million. These and other facts you can verify later, but right now, what we need to focus on is this: Are we a good fit? Should we be doing business together? This is what I come here to work on.”

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If you’re pitching a product and the drill-down is on price, don’t chase this conversation thread. Do answer fast, answer directly with high-level details only, and go straight back to the relationship question.

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When it no longer seems that communication is flowing back and forth, the other person is in something called a nonreactive state.

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You can tell that this is starting to happen when you notice remarks or body language that indicate that your presentation is not intriguing—

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Most intelligent people take great pleasure in being confronted with something new, novel, and intriguing.

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

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Let’s consider three of the most fundamental behaviors of human beings: 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.

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Prizing 201: Avoiding the Mistakes

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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.

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The money needs you

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“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.”

Chapter 3 Status

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Chapter 3 Status

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Status plays an important role in frame control. How others view you is critical to your ability to establish the dominant frame and hold onto the power you take when you win the frame collision.

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The French Waiter

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Beta Traps

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In social interactions and business meetings as in nature, those who hold the dominant alpha rank are able to accomplish more than those holding a lesser rank. Alphas call the shots, give the orders, and create the outcomes they want with a minimum of effort.

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A beta trap is a subtle but effective social ritual that puts you in the low-status position and works to keep you there, beneath the decision maker you have come to visit, for the entire duration of the social interaction. Most business environments are surrounded by a moat of beta traps that you already recognize and know: the reception desk, the lobby, the conference room, and any public meeting space in or near the office.

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Another common beta trap is the conference room. If it’s empty when you arrive, you are usually left alone for several minutes, cooling your heels while you wait for your targets to arrive.

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I knew instinctively that our first frame collision would not yield power to me.

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Here are some other important things to remember: • If you think you’ll start a meeting from the beta position, always be on time for the appointment. When you are late, you are giving away power. It’s difficult to establish strong frames when you can’t play the game of business by its most basic rules. • Momentum is key. Create high status immediately. Do not hesitate. Choose a frame, and force a collision at the most

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early. The longer you wait, the more you reinforce the status of your target. • Avoid social rituals that reinforce the status of others. Idle social banter diminishes your status. • Have fun. Be popular. Enjoy your work. There is nothing as attractive as someone who is enjoying what he or she does. It attracts the group to you and allows you to build stronger frames and hold them longer. As we have been saying, when

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1. Politely ignore power rituals and avoid beta traps. 2. Be unaffected by your customer’s global status (meaning the customer’s status inside and outside the business environment). 3. Look for opportunities to perpetrate small denials and defiances that strengthen your frame and elevate your status. 4. As soon as you take power, quickly move the discussion into an area where you are the domain expert, where your knowledge and information are unassailable by your audience. 5. Apply a prize frame by positioning yourself as the reward for making the decision to do business with you. 6. Confirm your alpha status by making your customer, who now temporarily occupies a beta position, make a statement that qualifies your higher status.

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“Remind me again why in the world I want to do business with you?”

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“Yeah, that’s good, I’ll keep that in mind.”

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“Have you ever done a deal this large before?”

Chapter 4 Pitching Your Big Idea

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Chapter 4 Pitching Your Big Idea

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The most important scientific discovery of the twentieth century can be pitched in five minutes.

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The most important discovery in the 20th century was pitched in 5 minutes

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No company in America should let its executives pitch for an hour. In

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To put them at ease, I have a simple solution: It’s called the time-constraint pattern.

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You’re going to make the pitch in four sections or phases: 1. Introduce yourself and the big idea: 5 minutes. 2. Explain the budget and secret sauce: 10 minutes. 3. Offer the deal: 2 minutes. 4. Stack frames for a hot cognition: 3 minutes.

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The target needs to know that you are pitching a new idea that came to life from a pattern of forces that you recognized, seized, and are now taking advantage of.

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Three-Market-Forces Pattern: Trendcasting

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1. Economic forces.

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2. Social forces.

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Technology forces. Technological change can flatten

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The backstory of the idea is always interesting to the target.

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This is why c Los we did research story works

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The three basic steps are: 1. Explain the most important changes in our business. Forecast the trends. Identify important developments—both in your market and beyond. 2. Talk about the impact of these developments on costs and customer demand. 3. Explain how these trends have briefly opened a market window.

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It does not matter what your idea, project, or product is—they all have a history and legitimacy when framed within the three-market-forces pattern.

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Movement is a critical element in the “Why now?” frame.

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One of the most important things I’ve learned that has made every one of my deals possible is that targets simply do not like old deals. They

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Introducing the Big Idea This does not take 15 minutes. It takes 1 minute.

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But it’s not time for details. Your target doesn’t want the deal yet.

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Geoff Moore developed this pattern in 1999, and it still works today.

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The Idea Introduction Pattern This idea introduction pattern goes like this: “For [target customers] Who are dissatisfied with [the current offerings in the market]. My idea/ product is a [new idea or product category] That provides [key problem/ solution features]. Unlike [the competing product]. My idea/ product is [describe key features].”

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“For companies with large buildings in California and Arizona Who are dissatisfied with their aging solar panels. My product is a plug-and-play solar accelerator That provides 35 percent more energy from old panels. And unlike the cost of replacing panels, My product is inexpensive and has no moving parts.”

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First, you put the target at ease by telling him in advance that the pitch is going to be short, just about 20 minutes,

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Then, you give your background in terms of a track record of successes,

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are market forces driving the idea,

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you paint a picture of the idea moving out of an old

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simple pattern makes sure that your idea is easy to grasp and focuses on what is real.

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Phase 2: Explain the Budget and Secret Sauce

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The opportunities to scare the croc brain seriously multiply when you start to explain how stuff works.

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What you really want to do is tune the message to the mind of the target.

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When someone can only see a situation one way, their theory of mind is weak. When you have a strong theory of mind, you recognize how other people have different perspectives—

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The croc brain hates thinking about probabilities.

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As I look back on my experiences, two giant realizations tower above all others: Realization 1: It doesn’t matter how much information you give, a lot or a little, but instead how good your theory of mind is. In other words, it’s important how well you can tune your information to the other person’s mind. Realization 2: All the important stuff must fit into the audience’s limits of attention, which for most people is about 20 minutes.

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Attention will be given when information novelty is high and will drift away when information novelty is low.

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The two parts of the attention cocktail are novelty and tension, which in a pitch work together in a feedback loop for about 20 minutes until—no matter what you do or how hard you try—they get out of balance and then stop working altogether.

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Low-Key, Low-Intensity Push/ Pull Pattern.

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Draper replies, “You’re a nonbeliever. Why should we waste time on Kabuki [theater]?”

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years ago when an audience tried to impose its

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The greatest problem in short-form pitching is deciding what details and specifics to single out for attention—what to leave in and what to leave out.

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The main requirement is that you understand that what’s happening in your mind is not what’s happening in the target’s mind.

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Every experienced buyer and investor knows that you will be doing these two things: 1. Saying that your budgets are “conservative” 2. Preparing absurdly aggressive and optimistic plans

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To the investor, for example, every pro forma looks the same, a hockey stick chart that shows the following: We need lots of money today, and way down the road we’ll make it back (sometimes it works out that way; usually it doesn’t).

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How do you get around the skepticism that surely will fall on your plans? Focus on demonstrating your skill at budgeting, which is a difficult and highly regarded executive talent.

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Phase 3: Offer the Deal

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Keep it brief but rich in high-level details so there is no question as to what the audience is going to get.

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And remember, the most important deliverable in your deal is you.

Chapter 5 Frame Stacking and Hot Cognitions

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Chapter 5 Frame Stacking and Hot Cognitions

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In the course of my activities seeking out money for deals, I discovered that investors do not operate only on cold, rational calculation.

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This is hot cognition at work. Deciding that you like something before you fully understand it—that’s a hot cognition.

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How to Stack Frames

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Here are the four frames we’re going to stack in quick succession. (Doing this correctly will move you quickly into the last part of the pitch—the hookpoint.) Hot cognition 1: the intrigue frame. Hot cognition 2: the prize frame. Hot cognition 3: the time frame. Hot cognition 4: the moral authority frame.

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Here’s the time frame pattern you can use and follow: “Guys, nobody likes time pressure. I don’t like it, and you don’t like it. No one does. But good deals with strong fundamentals are like an Amtrak train, or more like a deal train. They stop at the station, pick up investors, and have a set departure time. And when it’s time—the train has to leave the station. “You have plenty of time to decide if you like me—and if you want this deal. If you don’t love it, there’s no way you should do it; we all know that. “But this deal is bigger than me, or you or any one person; the deal is going ahead. There’s a critical path, a real timeline that everyone has to work with. So we need to decide by the 15th.”

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why do most people make presentations in the cold cognition style targeted to the neocortex? Here’s why I think people go this way: Our faculties of reason tell us that the neocortex is way smarter than the croc brain. We think that if we create a message in our own smart neocortex, it should be sent to the target’s neocortex, which will do a better job of understanding the pitch. It makes sense to think this way because the neocortex really is an insanely capable problem solver.

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No pitch or message is going to get to the logic center of the other person’s brain without passing through the survival filters of the crocodile brain system first. And because of the way we evolved, those filters make pitching anything extremely difficult.

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Chapter 6 Eradicating Neediness

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Chapter 6 Eradicating Neediness

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Neediness is a signal of threat.

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If these people said no, it would be my third rejection in a row. And the company would have almost no options left. I felt scared and anxious. I said things like: • “Do you still think it’s a good deal?” • “So, what do think?” • “We can sign a deal right away if you want us to.” This is the purest form of validation seeking and the most lethal form of neediness.

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Plain and simple, neediness equals weakness. Broadcasting weakness by seeking validation is often a death sentence.

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You can tell when you are losing your audience because their growing discomfort is easy to read. They glance at their watches, turn their bodies away from you, cough nervously, and/ or close the folder they had been leafing through. There are lots of outward signs.

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eradicating neediness. Here’s the basic formula: 1. Want nothing. 2. Focus only on things you do well. 3. Announce your intention to leave the social encounter.

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Eliminate your desires. It’s not necessary to want things. Sometimes you have to let them come to you. Be excellent in the presence of others. Show people one thing that you are very good at. Withdraw. At a crucial moment, when people are expecting you to come after them, pull away.

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I made three points. Here’s what I told the Enterprise investors: 1. This deal will be fully subscribed in the next 14 days. 2. We don’t need VC money, but we want a big name on our cap sheet that will strengthen our initial public offering (IPO) registration. 3. I think you guys are interesting, but are you really the right investor? We need to know more about you and the relationships and brand value your firm can bring to our deal.

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Never be needy!

Chapter 7 Case Study: The Airport Deal

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Prepitch Thoughts Here’s what was running through my head at the last minute: 1. Get the tone right, frame myself as the alpha, seize status, and hit their hot buttons. 2. Deploy a big idea that is human and captures the theme of “building a legacy.” 3. Keep it captivating with visuals that resonate. 4. Create hot cognitions. Make Jeffries and the committee want the idea before they even know the details.

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And by the same measure, if you only ‘like’ us, then you also must throw us out. And I’m totally okay with that, too. Because we could not possible work with you if you didn’t love our big idea. We believe in the big idea that strongly.

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But we are not going to do this for you. We will have to do it together with you. When you feel that the time is right, I encourage you to come to our office and talk over how we can make that happen.”

Chapter 8 Get in the Game

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Every croc brain responds the same: • When something is boring: Ignore it. • When something seems dangerous: Fight/ run. • When something is complicated: Radically summarize (causing information loss) and pass it on in severely truncated form.

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In the buyer’s experience, most salespeople submit to their every whim and command:

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Once they come across someone like you who doesn’t submit to these whims, they take notice, thinking,

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This is so because strong frames allow you to selectively ignore things that do not move you forward toward your goals, and such a recognition amplifies your focus on the things that do.

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Step 1: Learn to recognize beta traps and how to step around them.

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Here are the most important terms for you to know and to own personally: Frame control Power-busting frame Frame collisions Prizing Beta traps Seizing status Local star power Push/ pull Alpha Hot cognition Crocodile brain Neocortex

Chapter 1 The Method

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Here’s the “big idea” in 76 words: There is a fundamental disconnect between the way we pitch anything and the way it is received by our audience. As a result, at the crucial moment, when it is most important to be convincing, nine out of ten times we are not. Our most important messages have a surprisingly low chance of getting through.

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Our thought process exactly matches our evolution: First, survival. Then, social relationships. Finally, problem solving.

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We are hardwired to be bad at pitching. It is caused by the way our brains have evolved.

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“Since this is not an emergency, how can I ignore this or spend the least amount of time possible on it?”

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If you got a chance to look at the croc brain’s filtering instructions, it would look something like this: 1. If it’s not dangerous, ignore it. 2. If it’s not new and exciting, ignore it. 3. If it is new, summarize it as quickly as possible—and forget about the details. And finally there is this specific instruction: 4. Do not send anything up to the neocortex for problem solving unless you have a situation that is really unexpected and out of the ordinary.

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First, given the limited focus and capacity of the croc brain, up to 90 percent of your message is discarded before it’s passed on up to the midbrain and then on to the neocortex.

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Second, unless your message is presented in such a way that the crocodile brain views it to be new and exciting—it is going to be ignored.

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Third, if your pitch is complicated—if it contains abstract language and lacks visual cues—then it is perceived as a threat. Not a threat in the sense that the person listening to your pitch fears he is going to be attacked, but a threat because without cues and context, the croc brain concludes that your pitch has the potential to absorb massive amounts of brain power to comprehend.

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There are the two questions we always ask ourselves after we have made a presentation or pitch: 1. Did I get through? 2. Was my message well received?

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First, you don’t want your message to trigger fear alarms. And second, you want to make sure it gets recognized as something positive, unexpected, and out of the ordinary—a pleasant novelty.

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The croc brain is picky and a cognitive miser whose primary interest is survival. It doesn’t like to do a lot of work and is high maintenance when it is forced to perform. It requires concrete evidence—presented simply in black and white—to make a decision. Minor points of differentiation don’t interest it. And this is the brain to which you are pitching.

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

Chapter 2 Frame Control

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“Look, I

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only want to know two things from you. What are monthly expenses, and how much are you paying yourself?”

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No one really knows whether there are human energy fields or not, but perhaps this is the best way to think about the mental structures that shape the way we see the world, which I call frames.

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Another person can look at the same thing through his own frame, and what he hears and sees may differ—by a little or a lot. The common label given to this is perspective.

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Should I eat it or mate with it?

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When frames come together, the first thing they do is collide. And this isn’t a friendly competition—it’s a death match. Frames don’t merge. They don’t blend. And they don’t intermingle. They collide, and the stronger frame absorbs the weaker.

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This is what happens below the surface of every business meeting you attend, every sales call you make, and every person-to-person business communication you have.

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Sales techniques were created for people who have already lost the frame collision and are struggling to do business from a subordinated or low-status position.

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This is a good intro point

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Own the Frame, Win the Game

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A frame is the instrument you use to package your power, authority, strength, information, and status. 1. Everyone uses frames whether they realize it or not. 2. Every social encounter brings different frames together. 3. Frames do not coexist in the same time and place for long. They crash into each other, and one or the other gains control. 4. Only one frame survives. The others break and are absorbed. Stronger frames always absorb weaker frames. 5. The winning frame governs the social interaction. It is said to have frame control.

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Every social interaction is a collision of frames, and the stronger frame always wins. Frame collisions are primal. They freeze out the neocortex and bring the crocodile brain in to make decisions and determine actions. Strong frames

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Going into most business situations, there are three major types of opposing frames that you will encounter: 1. Power frame 2. Time frame 3. Analyst frame

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You have three major response frame types that you can use to meet these oncoming frames, win the initial collision, and control the agenda: 1. Power-busting frame 2. Time constraining frame 3. Intrigue frame

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

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Power busting frame – use humor and small defiance to shift the frame to you

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Think of how many ways you can use small acts of denial and defiance in the opening moments of meetings.

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

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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.

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The Prize Frame

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The Avocado Farmer’s Money I looked down at my phone.

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You just stay committed to your frame and keep it strong. You plow.

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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.

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“The revenue is $ 80 million, expenses are $ 62 million, the net is $ 18 million. These and other facts you can verify later, but right now, what we need to focus on is this: Are we a good fit? Should we be doing business together? This is what I come here to work on.”

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If you’re pitching a product and the drill-down is on price, don’t chase this conversation thread. Do answer fast, answer directly with high-level details only, and go straight back to the relationship question.

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When it no longer seems that communication is flowing back and forth, the other person is in something called a nonreactive state.

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You can tell that this is starting to happen when you notice remarks or body language that indicate that your presentation is not intriguing—

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Most intelligent people take great pleasure in being confronted with something new, novel, and intriguing.

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

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Let’s consider three of the most fundamental behaviors of human beings: 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.

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Prizing 201: Avoiding the Mistakes

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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.

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The money needs you

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“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.”

Chapter 3 Status

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Chapter 3 Status

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Status plays an important role in frame control. How others view you is critical to your ability to establish the dominant frame and hold onto the power you take when you win the frame collision.

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The French Waiter

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Beta Traps

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In social interactions and business meetings as in nature, those who hold the dominant alpha rank are able to accomplish more than those holding a lesser rank. Alphas call the shots, give the orders, and create the outcomes they want with a minimum of effort.

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A beta trap is a subtle but effective social ritual that puts you in the low-status position and works to keep you there, beneath the decision maker you have come to visit, for the entire duration of the social interaction. Most business environments are surrounded by a moat of beta traps that you already recognize and know: the reception desk, the lobby, the conference room, and any public meeting space in or near the office.

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Another common beta trap is the conference room. If it’s empty when you arrive, you are usually left alone for several minutes, cooling your heels while you wait for your targets to arrive.

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I knew instinctively that our first frame collision would not yield power to me.

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Here are some other important things to remember: • If you think you’ll start a meeting from the beta position, always be on time for the appointment. When you are late, you are giving away power. It’s difficult to establish strong frames when you can’t play the game of business by its most basic rules. • Momentum is key. Create high status immediately. Do not hesitate. Choose a frame, and force a collision at the most

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early. The longer you wait, the more you reinforce the status of your target. • Avoid social rituals that reinforce the status of others. Idle social banter diminishes your status. • Have fun. Be popular. Enjoy your work. There is nothing as attractive as someone who is enjoying what he or she does. It attracts the group to you and allows you to build stronger frames and hold them longer. As we have been saying, when

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1. Politely ignore power rituals and avoid beta traps. 2. Be unaffected by your customer’s global status (meaning the customer’s status inside and outside the business environment). 3. Look for opportunities to perpetrate small denials and defiances that strengthen your frame and elevate your status. 4. As soon as you take power, quickly move the discussion into an area where you are the domain expert, where your knowledge and information are unassailable by your audience. 5. Apply a prize frame by positioning yourself as the reward for making the decision to do business with you. 6. Confirm your alpha status by making your customer, who now temporarily occupies a beta position, make a statement that qualifies your higher status.

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“Remind me again why in the world I want to do business with you?”

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“Yeah, that’s good, I’ll keep that in mind.”

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“Have you ever done a deal this large before?”

Chapter 4 Pitching Your Big Idea

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Chapter 4 Pitching Your Big Idea

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The most important scientific discovery of the twentieth century can be pitched in five minutes.

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The most important discovery in the 20th century was pitched in 5 minutes

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No company in America should let its executives pitch for an hour. In

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To put them at ease, I have a simple solution: It’s called the time-constraint pattern.

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You’re going to make the pitch in four sections or phases: 1. Introduce yourself and the big idea: 5 minutes. 2. Explain the budget and secret sauce: 10 minutes. 3. Offer the deal: 2 minutes. 4. Stack frames for a hot cognition: 3 minutes.

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The target needs to know that you are pitching a new idea that came to life from a pattern of forces that you recognized, seized, and are now taking advantage of.

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Three-Market-Forces Pattern: Trendcasting

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1. Economic forces.

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2. Social forces.

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Technology forces. Technological change can flatten

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The backstory of the idea is always interesting to the target.

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This is why c Los we did research story works

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The three basic steps are: 1. Explain the most important changes in our business. Forecast the trends. Identify important developments—both in your market and beyond. 2. Talk about the impact of these developments on costs and customer demand. 3. Explain how these trends have briefly opened a market window.

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It does not matter what your idea, project, or product is—they all have a history and legitimacy when framed within the three-market-forces pattern.

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Movement is a critical element in the “Why now?” frame.

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One of the most important things I’ve learned that has made every one of my deals possible is that targets simply do not like old deals. They

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Introducing the Big Idea This does not take 15 minutes. It takes 1 minute.

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But it’s not time for details. Your target doesn’t want the deal yet.

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Geoff Moore developed this pattern in 1999, and it still works today.

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The Idea Introduction Pattern This idea introduction pattern goes like this: “For [target customers] Who are dissatisfied with [the current offerings in the market]. My idea/ product is a [new idea or product category] That provides [key problem/ solution features]. Unlike [the competing product]. My idea/ product is [describe key features].”

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“For companies with large buildings in California and Arizona Who are dissatisfied with their aging solar panels. My product is a plug-and-play solar accelerator That provides 35 percent more energy from old panels. And unlike the cost of replacing panels, My product is inexpensive and has no moving parts.”

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First, you put the target at ease by telling him in advance that the pitch is going to be short, just about 20 minutes,

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Then, you give your background in terms of a track record of successes,

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are market forces driving the idea,

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you paint a picture of the idea moving out of an old

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simple pattern makes sure that your idea is easy to grasp and focuses on what is real.

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Phase 2: Explain the Budget and Secret Sauce

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The opportunities to scare the croc brain seriously multiply when you start to explain how stuff works.

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What you really want to do is tune the message to the mind of the target.

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When someone can only see a situation one way, their theory of mind is weak. When you have a strong theory of mind, you recognize how other people have different perspectives—

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The croc brain hates thinking about probabilities.

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As I look back on my experiences, two giant realizations tower above all others: Realization 1: It doesn’t matter how much information you give, a lot or a little, but instead how good your theory of mind is. In other words, it’s important how well you can tune your information to the other person’s mind. Realization 2: All the important stuff must fit into the audience’s limits of attention, which for most people is about 20 minutes.

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Attention will be given when information novelty is high and will drift away when information novelty is low.

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The two parts of the attention cocktail are novelty and tension, which in a pitch work together in a feedback loop for about 20 minutes until—no matter what you do or how hard you try—they get out of balance and then stop working altogether.

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Low-Key, Low-Intensity Push/ Pull Pattern.

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Draper replies, “You’re a nonbeliever. Why should we waste time on Kabuki [theater]?”

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years ago when an audience tried to impose its

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The greatest problem in short-form pitching is deciding what details and specifics to single out for attention—what to leave in and what to leave out.

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The main requirement is that you understand that what’s happening in your mind is not what’s happening in the target’s mind.

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Every experienced buyer and investor knows that you will be doing these two things: 1. Saying that your budgets are “conservative” 2. Preparing absurdly aggressive and optimistic plans

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To the investor, for example, every pro forma looks the same, a hockey stick chart that shows the following: We need lots of money today, and way down the road we’ll make it back (sometimes it works out that way; usually it doesn’t).

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How do you get around the skepticism that surely will fall on your plans? Focus on demonstrating your skill at budgeting, which is a difficult and highly regarded executive talent.

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Phase 3: Offer the Deal

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Keep it brief but rich in high-level details so there is no question as to what the audience is going to get.

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And remember, the most important deliverable in your deal is you.

Chapter 5 Frame Stacking and Hot Cognitions

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Chapter 5 Frame Stacking and Hot Cognitions

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In the course of my activities seeking out money for deals, I discovered that investors do not operate only on cold, rational calculation.

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This is hot cognition at work. Deciding that you like something before you fully understand it—that’s a hot cognition.

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How to Stack Frames

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Here are the four frames we’re going to stack in quick succession. (Doing this correctly will move you quickly into the last part of the pitch—the hookpoint.) Hot cognition 1: the intrigue frame. Hot cognition 2: the prize frame. Hot cognition 3: the time frame. Hot cognition 4: the moral authority frame.

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Here’s the time frame pattern you can use and follow: “Guys, nobody likes time pressure. I don’t like it, and you don’t like it. No one does. But good deals with strong fundamentals are like an Amtrak train, or more like a deal train. They stop at the station, pick up investors, and have a set departure time. And when it’s time—the train has to leave the station. “You have plenty of time to decide if you like me—and if you want this deal. If you don’t love it, there’s no way you should do it; we all know that. “But this deal is bigger than me, or you or any one person; the deal is going ahead. There’s a critical path, a real timeline that everyone has to work with. So we need to decide by the 15th.”

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why do most people make presentations in the cold cognition style targeted to the neocortex? Here’s why I think people go this way: Our faculties of reason tell us that the neocortex is way smarter than the croc brain. We think that if we create a message in our own smart neocortex, it should be sent to the target’s neocortex, which will do a better job of understanding the pitch. It makes sense to think this way because the neocortex really is an insanely capable problem solver.

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No pitch or message is going to get to the logic center of the other person’s brain without passing through the survival filters of the crocodile brain system first. And because of the way we evolved, those filters make pitching anything extremely difficult.

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Chapter 6 Eradicating Neediness

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Chapter 6 Eradicating Neediness

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Neediness is a signal of threat.

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If these people said no, it would be my third rejection in a row. And the company would have almost no options left. I felt scared and anxious. I said things like: • “Do you still think it’s a good deal?” • “So, what do think?” • “We can sign a deal right away if you want us to.” This is the purest form of validation seeking and the most lethal form of neediness.

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Plain and simple, neediness equals weakness. Broadcasting weakness by seeking validation is often a death sentence.

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You can tell when you are losing your audience because their growing discomfort is easy to read. They glance at their watches, turn their bodies away from you, cough nervously, and/ or close the folder they had been leafing through. There are lots of outward signs.

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eradicating neediness. Here’s the basic formula: 1. Want nothing. 2. Focus only on things you do well. 3. Announce your intention to leave the social encounter.

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Eliminate your desires. It’s not necessary to want things. Sometimes you have to let them come to you. Be excellent in the presence of others. Show people one thing that you are very good at. Withdraw. At a crucial moment, when people are expecting you to come after them, pull away.

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I made three points. Here’s what I told the Enterprise investors: 1. This deal will be fully subscribed in the next 14 days. 2. We don’t need VC money, but we want a big name on our cap sheet that will strengthen our initial public offering (IPO) registration. 3. I think you guys are interesting, but are you really the right investor? We need to know more about you and the relationships and brand value your firm can bring to our deal.

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Never be needy!

Chapter 7 Case Study: The Airport Deal

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Prepitch Thoughts Here’s what was running through my head at the last minute: 1. Get the tone right, frame myself as the alpha, seize status, and hit their hot buttons. 2. Deploy a big idea that is human and captures the theme of “building a legacy.” 3. Keep it captivating with visuals that resonate. 4. Create hot cognitions. Make Jeffries and the committee want the idea before they even know the details.

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And by the same measure, if you only ‘like’ us, then you also must throw us out. And I’m totally okay with that, too. Because we could not possible work with you if you didn’t love our big idea. We believe in the big idea that strongly.

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But we are not going to do this for you. We will have to do it together with you. When you feel that the time is right, I encourage you to come to our office and talk over how we can make that happen.”

Chapter 8 Get in the Game

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Every croc brain responds the same: • When something is boring: Ignore it. • When something seems dangerous: Fight/ run. • When something is complicated: Radically summarize (causing information loss) and pass it on in severely truncated form.

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In the buyer’s experience, most salespeople submit to their every whim and command:

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Once they come across someone like you who doesn’t submit to these whims, they take notice, thinking,

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This is so because strong frames allow you to selectively ignore things that do not move you forward toward your goals, and such a recognition amplifies your focus on the things that do.

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Step 1: Learn to recognize beta traps and how to step around them.

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Here are the most important terms for you to know and to own personally: Frame control Power-busting frame Frame collisions Prizing Beta traps Seizing status Local star power Push/ pull Alpha Hot cognition Crocodile brain Neocortex