How to close your next deal: a minute-by-minute breakdown of what to do in the first 15 minutes
Feb. 28, 2013 at 3 P.M. Eastern, Noon Pacific
Achieve better outcomes for your and your organization by learning how to pitch and present more persuasively, every time.
Based on real science and proven through more than $400 million in deals, the Pitch Mastery approach will enable you to make great pitches, the kind that can make you a lot of money – starting now!
Pitching and closing deals is a fast-moving business. What makes a great pitch so hard to pull off? One reason is the attention span of the people you are presenting to is even shorter than you think. And your current pitch is probably too slow, too long and too detailed to be convincing. It’s never easy to give that one great pitch, but it gets more manageable when you can leverage your strengths. That requires the right tools. The Pitch Mastery toolbox is stocked with a few powerful apps and tools that have made big differences in the impact we create when we present. It’s all about tilting the odds in your favor, right? Get and hold people’s attention. Make complex ideas simple. Tell your story in a way that others can repeat after you’re gone. That’s where these tools help.
Join.Me
When you email someone a file, and discuss it by phone, you assume they’re looking at the same page as you. Usually, they’re not. To literally get on the same page, use free and simple collaborative screen sharing from join.me. This enables you to get your far-away audience on the same page. No more emailing bulky files back and forth, and you control the pace of the discussion. It’s a must.
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Were you born with the blood of master deal maker? If not, you’re just like the rest of us, and you’ve discovered that to sell your big ideas, you have to get the small things right.
It’s time to admit: we are cursed to believe that we’re better than we actually are. It’s this overconfidence that causes so many million-dollar presentations to flame out. Here’s the good news: You can get a lot better at making pitches and presentations by avoiding some common pitfalls. Here are some things to watch out for as you prepare your next pitch:
1. Don’t tell your listeners, “Stop me anytime if you have questions.”
When you welcome an interruption, it signals to your audience that you don’t have a short, tight presentation, and that you’re about to go into a meandering ramble that will not be focused and on point. It says to them that you have no confidence in the explaining power of your presentation. What you can do: Plan instead to have a short question-and-answer period near the end of your presentation.
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Watch the replay video of Oren on the Chase Jarvis LIVE show where he discusses how to pitch creative services to command higher rates in industry tiers, how to avoid getting crammed down and how to make YOU and YOUR WORK become “the prize”.
If you like what you see, and want more, here is a link to the follow-up webinar video on How to Pitch Your Creative Services.
I first met Derrick when he contacted us by email:
Oren,
I’m hustling to get a job with a large health business as their Creative Director.
Sent a note to the CEO. Went in with a prize frame. Like gangbusters got a very positive response from both the CEO and the COO within the hour saying they would like to meet with me.
Then, nothing. Radio silence. It’s a bummer because I’ve done my research and I could crush this job.
Any thoughts on how to follow up without conveying neediness?
If this situation hasn’t happened to you … don’t worry, it will. Why? Because as you become better at giving your pitch, you’ll be playing at the highest level of business. And the folks on that level – CEO’s, investors and bankers – are busy. While they get excited about new ideas quickly, almost as fast, something new and even more interesting enters their field of view, and they have moved on to the next thing.
Truth is, the CEO of a growing company will pay attention to whatever flashy object is in front of his face.
This behavior is also found in toddlers, where it’s called “object impermanence”, You can see this part of human nature when a child has reached for an object that is partially hidden, indicating knowledge that the whole object is still there. However, if the object becomes completely hidden, the child makes no attempt to retrieve it. He forgets that it ever existed.
Recognizing this out-of-sight-out-of-mind part of human nature and breaking it down into such simple terms helped me understand a crucial dealmaking concept: If you receive initial excitement about your deal, but are now being ignored, the deal is not dead. It can be restarted. But you must clearly identify what is causing the problem: you have low status and a weak frame. Not only is your frame weak, you have lost frame control. (A frame is the way your brain mentally packages your power, authority, strength, information, and social status)
Listen to the brief call I had with Derrick, in which I helped him how to use the Moral Authority Frame to restart his dead deal.
Here is a video of Oren’s discussion to a group of entrepreneurs at the Founders Institute on where to find investors.
With 12 years of experience as an investment banker, Oren Klaff has extensive experience raising capital, selling companies and closing complex deals. Click here to learn more →
