True for any industry or institution. You're not just pitching to your client, you're teaching them to pitch to all the people you can't get in front of. A friend, working in the UK treasury, once described how the success of her ideas to stimulate the economy depended on whether you could pitch the idea so simply and memorably that the politician could walk straight into parliament or cabinet and repeat it verbatim. If they felt they could, and they liked the idea, they did.
When I was a young art director, part of my job was pitching to clients. I learned something crucial… Convincing the person in front of you isn’t enough. You need to give them the means of selling your idea to other people. If they can’t bring your vision to life for their colleagues, bosses or shareholders – it’s dead. We discovered some ways of getting around this. 1. Speak less, say more The human brain is easily overwhelmed. Simple messages are less taxing to recount than complicated ones. An argument doesn’t get more persuasive for being longer. 2. Use stories Numbers are convincing – but they are hard to remember. And they lack emotion. When did you last call up a friend to tell them about a stat you’d just found? Stories and anecdotes are better. 3. Write a one-page pitch Does your argument fit on a single page of A4? At BBH we would often write a one-page pitch. Doing this would help us simplify our idea. And the client could use it to refer back to. Don’t think about your buyer: Think about your buyer’s buyer. #selling #businessofcreativity #pitch #ideas