Too often, when we pitch an idea, product, or project, we pitch it incorrectly. We use too much detail and analysis as we try to make our target’s neocortex (the analytical part of the human brain) fall in love with our concept.
Unfortunately, it’s the “croc brain,” not the neocortex, that does the falling in love. The croc brain is the more primitive part of the brain, highly attuned to recognizing danger and driven by emotions and “gut” responses.
When a person encounters new information—including your pitch—she listens to it first with her croc brain, not her neocortex. If her croc brain filters it out, your message is ignored. The key to making a successful pitch is to figure out what the croc brain wants to hear.
Pitch Anything teaches you how to appeal to your target’s croc brain by understanding what makes it tick and working with its primitive instincts. The process starts by establishing your agenda and your perspective as dominant over your target’s, through what we’ll call “frame control.”
A person approaches every interaction, social or business, with a particular “frame.” A frame is how a person views the world, and how she expects the world to view her.
When two frames meet, they compete for dominance. The winning frame controls the tone and agenda of the meeting, and the losing frame is stuck in a reactive position, responding to the dictates of the person in control. The key to a successful pitch is establishing your frame as the dominant one.
There are three common frames you will encounter as you move through the business world, and each has its own set of techniques to counter it. These are:
A person using a “power frame” is accustomed to being in control of the room. She is often arrogant, controlling, and dismissive. You can counter a power frame, and transfer her power to you, with a “power frame disrupter”: a small act of defiance or a denial that lets your target know you are not playing by her rules.
Find an opportunity to deny your target of something or to defy her in some small way. For example, if you’ve brought visuals, and you catch her sneaking a peek, take them away and say playfully, “Not until I say so.”
A power frame disrupter tells her croc brain that you are in charge, not she. The key to doing this successfully is to use humor. If you don’t, your defiance comes across as arrogant and will put her off.
A person with an “analyst frame” views the world through cold cognitions: problem solving, rational thinking, analysis. However, you need your target to see your pitch with hot cognitions—desire, excitement, emotion—to excite her croc brain.
An analyst frame can kill your pitch by getting mired in details, derailing its momentum, and freezing excitement for it. You want to keep her focus on the bigger picture, which will emotionally connect your target to your concept. To do this:
Sometimes, your meeting still gets lost in analysis mode, despite your efforts. You can direct your target back into her croc brain by grabbing her attention with a suspense-filled story. Our brains can’t function in analysis mode and narrative mode at the same time, so hijacking her croc brain with a story overrides her neocortex. Go to each meeting ready with a personal story to pull out if your meeting gets stuck in analysis.
For example, your intrigue story may sound something like this: “I was working on a $15 million deal where it was my job to come up with $8 million of it. At the last minute, one of my investors disappeared, and the bank wouldn’t wire her money, putting the whole $15 million in jeopardy. I couldn’t find her anywhere but I managed to track down her husband. I explained the situation and asked him for a signature—as her husband, his would do—but he told me he’d separated from his wife six years ago and would rather cut off his finger than help her out. As soon as I heard that, I jumped on a plane and headed to his town.”
The most important element to using an intrigue frame is to leave your story unresolved. Stop at a tension-filled spot. Redirect your audience back to your pitch, and finish your story later in your presentation. Leaving your target in suspense keeps her attention sharp and tells her croc brain that you are in control.
The “time frame” is a time constraint thrown at you by your target. It is a way for her to assert her dominance by setting the rules and forcing you to work within her restrictions. Our croc brains are highly attuned to rule-setting: The person who sets the rules is the one in control.
Don’t confirm your target’s dominance by acquiescing to her time constraints. When faced with a time frame, counter with a time-frame disrupter. For example, your target may tell you that she only has 15 minutes to meet with you. Counter with an even tighter time frame: Tell her you only have 14 minutes. Be lighthearted about it. But mean it.
Alternatively, you can refuse her time constraint and offer to reschedule. This tells her croc brain that you value your time, and by implication, so should she. Refusing to accept overly-tight restrictions raises your value in your target’s eyes, and is part of a technique called “prizing.”
A prize frame is a frame you can adopt at any time to counter any oppositional frame you run into. This technique positions you as a reward to be pursued, thereby activating your target’s desire instincts in her croc brain.
In a prize frame, you make your target feel as if she is trying to win you over, rather than the reverse.
The key, as always, is to use humor when prizing yourself. Be lighthearted, not arrogant.
When you are in a position of higher status, you command attention effortlessly and more easily get your pitch heard. You find it easier to persuade others and drive them to a “yes.” From a lower status position, your pitch is far more likely to be ignored.
Your status is how others measure your worth in terms of wealth, power, and popularity. You can’t do anything to change your global status (your status as determined by your professional position, your wealth, and your reputation), but you can attain situational status for the duration of your meeting by understanding and managing how our croc brains perceive and establish status. This starts by recognizing and avoiding “beta traps,” and continues by grabbing “local star power” to propel you to a dominant position.
Your target’s higher status is reinforced with “beta traps”: business procedures and social rituals that confirm her status as alpha and yours as beta.
Beta traps are small ways that your target sets the rules. Remember, our croc brains recognize that the one who sets the rules is the one in command. When we enter a lobby and are told to sign here, sit there, and wear this badge, our croc brains get the message: We are following the rules, not making them.
Beta traps make us feel like outsiders and needy for social approval. When we are asked to wait in the conference room, for example, while our audience trickles in chatting and laughing, we feel excluded from the group and expected to seek approval through small talk. It triggers our croc brain’s fear of isolation, making us feel inferior and anxious.
Be aware of the beta traps you encounter, and avoid whichever you can. Follow the guidelines of the business you are visiting, of course, and don’t come across as unprofessional, but look for small ways to defy them. For example, instead of sitting in the lobby where they direct you to, stand, leaning against a wall. Above all, don’t engage in small talk.
To capture the higher status position at your meeting, you will need to seize “local star power.” You can do this by following a series of steps that positions you as the dominant player.
To effectively command your target’s attention—not just spark her interest, but hold it—you must understand the factors that control attention.
A person is paying full and close attention only when she feels both desire and tension. Desire is your croc brain telling you that this thing in front of you will improve your life or your chances for survival. Tension adds consequences, making it feel important.
Create desire by positioning your idea as something new and interesting. Then create tension with a series of “tension loops”—“pushes” and “pulls” designed to make your target feel you are rejecting her and then accepting her again.
For example, say, “We might not in fact be right for one another,” and then pivot to, “But then again, if we could find a way to work together, we’d accomplish a lot as partners.” She’ll feel tension from this exchange and will keep her attention focused on you.
Finally, no matter how terrific your pitch, wrap it up after 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, your target’s mind will begin to drift and she’ll start to forget what you’ve told her.
Now that you understand the basics of frame control, status, and attention, you can focus on the specifics of your pitch.
Your pitch will have four parts:
Introduce your pitch by assuring your target that it will be brief (20 minutes). This will put her at ease, knowing what to expect and knowing she won’t be asked to sit for an hour.
Introduce yourself with a brief overview of your past successes. Mention one or two prime accomplishments only.
Introduce your idea using a “Why now?” frame. A “why now” frame appeals to your target’s croc brain by making your idea seem novel and timely, activating its “fear of missing out” instinct. With a “why now” frame, you’ll position your idea or product against three market forces:
Then, outline your idea with a quick, top-level overview highlighting key elements.
For example:
This part of the pitch is most susceptible to the trap of analysis, cold cognitions, and boredom. Of course, these specifics can’t be glossed over if your message is to be credible, but the key here is momentum. Be brief, competent, and efficient.
Start with the budget. The budget is often the most difficult piece to put together and present, so if you nail it, you’ll set yourself apart. Spend relatively little time on your projections: these are numbers that are easier to put together and are taken less seriously anyway, as any potential investor will expect you to paint an overly-rosy picture.
When discussing your current or potential competition, focus on answering these two questions:
The secret sauce is the one thing that will give you staying power against your competition: the “unfair advantage” you have over others, and what your competitive edge is based on.
Resist the urge to dwell on this. Say it with confidence and move on, keeping in mind your target’s short attention span.
Describe to your target what benefits she can expect when she does business with you. Tell her what you will deliver, when, and how. Explain any roles and responsibilities she will take on.
To finish strong, and leave your target emotionally connected to your pitch, wrap up your presentation by running through the following four frames in quick succession. This is called “frame stacking.”
Earlier, we discussed how you can use these frames during your pitch as a response to various oppositional frames from your target. At this point in your pitch, you will proactively adopt these frames in order to drive the presentation.
Start your frame-stacking by grabbing your target’s attention with an intrigue frame. You can tell a quick, short story, as discussed earlier, or you can dangle something irresistible in front of them: something they’ll want but cannot have right now. For example, maybe you have an eccentric and interesting partner who’ll be brought in once the deal is finalized, or some other perk of the deal that will materialize later.
As discussed earlier, the prize frame positions you as the reward in your deal, instead of the other party. As you wrap up your pitch, hit this theme again, leaving your target with a lasting impression of you as the prize.
Proactively impose your own time constraint, increasing tension and adding stakes to your pitch. Our croc brains have a built-in scarcity bias and a fear of missing out on opportunities.
For example, you might say: “Folks, I’d love to give you a month to think about it, but the market’s not going to let me do that. If you don’t want the deal, don’t do it, naturally. There’s no pressure. But we’re going to need to know by the 15th whether you’re in or out.”
The moral authority frame is one in which you claim the higher ground for reasons of professionalism, ethics, and fairness.
Our croc brains instinctively recognize a moral code that sets us apart from the animal world. Reminding your target of this code positions you as an enforcer of rules, and we know that her croc brain recognizes that those who set the rules are in control.
Painting yourself as the enforcer of moral code also plays on her croc brain’s sensitivity to peer pressure and its craving for acceptance. By invoking the rules of “the group,” you implicitly threaten her exclusion from it, and position yourself as a leader of it.
Highlight your impeccable professionalism as a person who holds their business partners to the highest standards: “We care very much about our reputation, as well as the reputation of our partners. We don’t play games, and we do things right. We give you a fair price, and expect a clean deal. Are you able to play by these rules?”
There are three principle insights into how you can win over your target’s croc brain.
Too often, when we pitch an idea, product, or project, we instinctively try to appeal to our target’s higher reasoning powers, using logic, facts, numbers, and elegantly-crafted arguments. Unfortunately, our audience is listening to our message through a much more primitive system, one that is based on threat avoidance, novelty seeking, and emotional responses.
Resolving this disconnect is the key to crafting successful pitches.
As the human brain developed over millions of years, it evolved from a relatively primitive organ into one that operates with greater complexity.
These three brain levels are designed to keep you alive and, for the most part, they work together seamlessly.
Say you are headed to your car late at night, and you hear a sudden honk. Your croc brain picks it up, identifying the noise as a potential threat, and you pause what you were currently doing and go on alert.
You look around and see a car at the side of the lot. Your mid-brain kicks in to identify the car as the source of the honk and try to place it in a social context: is the driver angry or friendly? Is she honking at you or someone else?
Finally, once you’ve eliminated the possibility of danger—she’s not honking in anger, and she’s not directing it at you—your neocortex takes over and processes the situation in more detail, leaving you with a fuller understanding and an action plan: “She’s just getting her friend’s attention coming out of that store. It’s okay to ignore it.”
The croc brain functions as the triage center of our brain, deciding what’s important to pay attention to and what’s safe to dismiss. The croc brain’s instinctive goal is to preserve mental energy, and to only involve the neocortex when absolutely needed.
Complicated concepts require extra brain power, energy which might be better spent identifying survival threats or opportunities. The croc brain thus views complexity as a threat to its valuable mental resources, so if it does decide the information is worth passing up to the neocortex, it will do so in the simplest terms possible, glossing over subtleties and focusing on well-defined, high-contrast choices.
In this way, when it comes across any new information, the croc brain acts as a filtering system, ignoring what it deems unimportant and only passing along, to the neocortex, information it deems critical to survival—and then, only in severely simplified form. The key to a successful pitch is preventing the croc brain from filtering out and discarding your message.
Your pitch, being full of high-level thought, lives firmly in your neocortex. Your pitch is well-thought-out. It is thorough. It is complex. When we pitch, we often try to appeal to our target’s neocortex as well, eager to share the high-level insights and concepts our idea contains.
However, because information enters first through her croc brain, we often, without realizing it, send the wrong messages. We are too detailed, too complex, and too rational.
Consequently, our well-crafted message never makes it to its destination: our target’s decision-making neocortex. Instead, her croc brain filters it out. Our message is not marked as novel or exciting—important to survival—and it is ignored. Or, it is marked as too complex—a threat to her mental resources—and is, again, ignored.
This can happen even if your ideas are novel and exciting, and can aid in her survival (by improving her profits, say). Often, your pitch is rejected not because of its merits, but because those merits never properly got her attention. Her croc brain, operating on instinct and responding to cues we didn’t intentionally send, prevented our pitch from going any further.
By more fully understanding the croc brain and how it controls decision-making, you can learn to appeal to its desires and avoid its fears, and thus prevent it from automatically rejecting your pitch. In fact, by understanding the croc brain’s primitive instincts, you can engage it to actually help your pitch. By creating enthusiasm instead of boredom, and desire instead of aversion, you can entice your target’s croc brain to label your pitch important and exciting, thus passing it on to her neocortex for further evaluation.
In order to ensure your pitch gets through the croc brain’s filtering process, you must anticipate it’s instinctive objections to it. Fortunately, there are straightforward, measurable techniques that can help you do just that, and help set you up for a much greater chance of success. These techniques have allowed the author, Oren Klaff, to raise money for household names like Marriott, Citigroup, and Hershey’s at a steady clip of around $2 million per week.
We’ll outline each of these techniques in greater detail in the following chapters.
The first step in managing the primitive instincts of your target’s croc brain is understanding “frames” and mastering “frame control.”
Frames are mental structures that shape how we see the world. They are our particular, specific perspective on the world, and they regulate how people interact with one another: Are you the one in control? Are you the “prize” in this relationship? Who’s paying attention to whom? Frames are controlled by the croc brain and are shaped by very basic desires: power, authority, strength, knowledge, and status.
In any business or social interaction, two frames will meet and compete for dominance. The person with the winning frame will set the tone and agenda of the meeting. The losers will play by her rules, acknowledging her authority, respecting her opinions, and accepting her decisions with minimal push-back. To successfully sell your pitch, you must win this “frame collision” and establish your frame as the dominant one.
Mastering the power of frames is the most important thing you’ll learn regarding pitching. Without this skill, you might find yourself resorting to typical sales techniques like fast talking, spin selling, and trial closing, which are rarely successful.
Sales techniques like this were created for people who have lost frame control and are trying to win business from a subordinate position. Because they are typically ineffective, they are dependent on the “law of large numbers”: you might expect to make just 2 sales out of every 100 attempts. Worse, they have a reputation as being annoying and signal to your customer that you are desperate, activating her croc brain to filter you out.
(Shortform note: For a different perspective on the effectiveness of some of these sales techniques, read our summary of Neil Rackham’s SPIN Selling.)
There are three common frames that you will run into in most business situations, that your prospective buyer might adopt:
To counter these frames, you’ll use techniques specifically designed to put you in a stronger position against each, plus one more, a “prize frame,” that is useful at every pitch no matter what frame your target uses against you.
A “power frame” exudes status and authority. It is the most common opposing frame you’ll encounter in a business setting. A person who wields a power frame often displays imperial behaviors: arrogance, lack of interest in you, rudeness, and pursuit of her own interests over those of others.
If you allow your target to maintain her power-frame dominance, she will quickly shut you out. If you can establish your own frame over hers, though, you will have a much greater chance of making a deal. Fortunately, it can be quite easy to disrupt a power frame, as those who use them aren’t used to being challenged.
Before your pitch even begins, you must start working to establish your frame as dominant.
First, do not react to your target’s power frame in ways she expects. Do not act overly polite or friendly, don’t engage in meaningless small talk, and don’t let her tell you what to do. If you play by her rules, you confirm her dominance.
Second, look for an opportunity to use a “power frame disrupter”: a small act that lets your target know that you are not playing by her rules. In some minor way, deny her of something, or defy her. For example, if you brought visuals and you notice your target taking a peek, take them away and say jokingly, “Not yet” (a denial). Or, if your target says she only has 15 minutes, counter by saying you only have 14 (a defiance). Do it lightheartedly, but mean it.
The key is to keep it light and use humor. If you keep it humorous, it is typically well-received; she’ll see your challenge as a game and will enjoy the play.
The “analyst frame” is a logical, analytical way of perceiving the world that places more value on cold cognitions—data and numbers—than relationships and ideas. It is common in industries with engineers and financial analysts. However, you need your target to listen to your pitch with hot cognitions—desire, excitement, emotion—in order to prevent her croc brain from filtering it out.
Excitement is generated in the croc brain and cools in the neocortex, and the analyst frame can kill your pitch by freezing out the excitement for it. Getting mired in technical details derails your momentum and saps enthusiasm from the room.
You can counter the analyst frame with two techniques:
The “big picture'' is where hot cognitions live, so to keep your target “hot,” focus on the overall vision and the business relationship you’ll be developing rather than technical details that can be worked out later.
If your target pushes for more details anyway, give her concise, high-level information, and then redirect her attention back to your pitch. You need to anticipate these kinds of questions with a prepared answer. Have these numbers at your fingertips so you can answer quickly and move on.
For example, if she asks about specific expense and revenue numbers, you can briefly let her know the top-level numbers, then note you have other facts you can examine further at a later time, but right now, the question is, are we a good fit?
A person with an analyst frame has a tendency to lose interest in your pitch the moment she decides she’s “figured it out.”
When you start your pitch, she’s interested. Most people like being challenged with something new and different, and up front, your pitch is certainly something new. However, a person with an analyst frame will be interested in your pitch primarily as a puzzle, asking herself, “How is this problem like others I already know? Have I already solved this?” This person will focus on figuring out how your idea works, rather than the overall relationship.
If she gets to a point where she feels she can predict or explain your ideas without your guidance, her croc brain kicks in and tells her there is nothing new or exciting to be learned. She will no longer feel compelled to pay attention.
If your meeting is getting lost to analysis, use an “intrigue frame” to get it back on track, with a fast-paced, tension-filled story to grab your target’s attention. Through suspense, tension, and narrative, stories are designed to teach us survival skills. The croc brain loves them, and by hijacking her croc brain with a story, you’ll yank her out of her neocortex, because the brain can’t do analysis while it is lost in narrative—a person can’t have both hot and cold cognitions at the same time.
Think of watching a movie. If it’s a good one, you’re so absorbed in the narrative that you may only realize plot holes later, after the movie is over. Conversely, if you’re watching a movie and are aware of its plot holes, you’re no longer lost in the story. You switch to analyst mode, watching out for more faults.
Go to each pitch with a prepared personal story that you can refer to if your pitch starts getting lost in analysis.
Your narrative should follow a predictable structure that hooks the listener and ends in suspense:
Ideally, your story should be related in some way to business or your product or pitch. For example:
While typically your intrigue story will relate to your pitch or to business matters fairly directly, you may at times find it useful to insert a story for pure entertainment, if you really just need a jolt to grab your audience’s attention. Do keep it somewhat related to your pitch, so it doesn’t come across as contrived, but have fun with it.
Klaff used a story about almost being in a plane crash, which he spoke about at a pitch on an airfield (related to your meeting), when his audience was getting mired in technicalities. In his story, he was on a small plane (be the protagonist; ground your audience) when the plane started to nosedive (introduce an obstacle and serious consequences). He related that he could see the pilots fighting over the throttle (escalate the problem). Then, he broke away: “Anyway, where was I?” (provide no immediate resolution).
It’s important to note that this type of story is less instructive than entertaining. It doesn’t illustrate your skills so much as simply grab your audience’s attention if it’s waning. It can be useful in certain situations, but a business-related story that illustrates your skills is more ideal.
The “time frame” is a time constraint thrown at you by your target. It is an attempt to force you to react to her restrictions. It asserts her dominance because whichever person is reacting to the other is not in control.
It’s important you react assertively to this type of challenge. If you accept and go along with her restrictions, it signals to her croc brain that you have ceded control to her, and that you need her more than she needs you. She is now primed to reject you.
Counter a time frame using a time constraint disrupter.
If the restraint you are given is reasonable, and you can work within those limits, respond with a tighter time constraint. For example, if you arrive at a meeting and your target tells you she only has 15 minutes, tell her you only have 13. Be lighthearted about it, but mean it. Wrap it up in 13 minutes.
However, if the time constraint is not reasonable, and you would not be able to properly convey your message in that time limit, do not accept it. For example, if your target arrives late, then says she only has ten minutes, and you decide you can’t properly get your message across in ten minutes, don’t respond with a typical, “Thanks for fitting me in!” This is an expected response that only serves to reaffirm her higher position.
Instead, tell her you don’t work like that, and that you only work with people when you both respect each other's time. This lets her know you value your time, and so should she. It shows her you have high professional standards, and it makes her feel she has to earn your business.
Offer to reschedule at another time. You’ve now broken her time frame and with your unexpected response, focused her attention fully on you. Rescheduling may not even prove necessary. She may respond by admitting she actually has 30 minutes, and that she’d like to meet now.
A time constraint might also be an unspoken restriction, where you notice your audience’s attention waning and you know your time is running out. Attention spans are short. Her waning interest may not be a reflection on your pitch. She may just be at the end of her abilities to focus. For this reason, pitches should be short as a general rule.
If you notice you are losing your audience, wrap up your pitch quickly by inserting your own time constraint: “I have to run to my next meeting.” Don’t start to talk faster or rush through your presentation to get to the end, which invokes her croc brain to sense desperation, and makes her more likely to reject you. It is better to end strong by indicating you are wanted elsewhere, than to drag out a meeting which is clearly over. If she wants to learn more, she will follow up with you for a second meeting. (We’ll cover attention spans in more detail in Chapter 4.)
“Prizing” happens when you get your target to realize that the true prize is not money—it’s you: Money comes from many sources, but there is only one you. You can adopt a prize frame at any time to counter any oppositional frame you run into. By positioning yourself as a reward to be pursued, you activate your target’s desire instincts and make her more receptive to striking a deal. The croc brain places high value on things that need to be chased.
There are several ways you can project a prize frame:
Prizing is a useful tool to help you regain frame control if, for any reason, you’ve lost it. Say, for example, you arrive for a meeting only to discover that the key decision maker is no longer planning to show up. You are invited to present to her subordinates instead.
Here, you’ve lost frame control, because even if you successfully pitch to her subordinates, when they return to their boss to debrief her on the details of your pitch, their frames will be subordinate to hers. Her dominant frame will override theirs, and it’s unlikely she’ll properly listen to the merits of your pitch.
You need to position yourself as a prize in order to regain the dominant position. Your target has essentially rejected you and your way of doing business. She will expect you to accept this. To grab her attention, you need to reject her way of doing business.
Do not present your pitch to your target’s subordinates. No one can make your pitch like you can, and saying “no” to their terms conveys to them you are valuable, and not one they should easily dismiss.
Instead, tell them you’ll give them 15 minutes to “get organized” but after that, you’ll have to reschedule. This portrays you as the prize: They have to accommodate your terms. It also implies that they are disorganized and are wasting your time, again, showing that you consider your time valuable. Keep it light and friendly, but be firm.
If your target does not show up within the 15 minutes you’ve allowed them, leave. Again, keep it friendly. The others will naturally feel bad about wasting your time (this is their croc brain in action, worrying about social norms). There’s no need to press this advantage.
Offer to reschedule, but this time, at your office. This changes the dynamic: It conveys that they need you more than you need them (you have thousands of other buyers who could snap you up), and tells them they will have to earn you.
Although this technique may sound far-reaching, and it may feel unrealistic to think you can set the terms in this way, consider the fact that if you arrive at your meeting and your target does not show, you’ve already lost the sale. Positioning yourself as the prize is the only chance you have of regaining any leverage and opening the door to a successful pitch.
Once you take control, it is vital that you don’t abuse the power you now hold. Any true “frame master” knows that dominating the frame is only a means to an end. It’s not the point in and of itself. You don’t want to make the other person feel inferior, but rather, to win the game (and the deal). You are truly in control only if she allows you to be in control because she’s enjoying the experience. So keep it fun and keep it lighthearted.
An intrigue story is one you’ll inject into your pitch if you need to jolt the audience’s attention back onto you and out of analysis. It should be brief and describe a risky circumstance with tension and consequences.
Think of a short intrigue story you could use to grab your audience’s attention. Remember to ground your audience with a backstory, introduce obstacles, increase those obstacles, find a suspense-filled moment to pause your story, and then finally, resolve it. Some thought prompts:
Your status is your value as a person in the eyes of others. It is how others measure your worth in terms of wealth, power, and popularity. It affects how people instinctively treat you, and it can make or break your pitch.
No matter how elegant your logic, how solid your arguments, or how well-crafted your points, if you do not have high status, you will not command the attention and respect necessary to make your pitch heard.
There are two kinds of status.
If you hold the higher status position, you’ll command attention effortlessly and will more easily get your pitch heard. You’ll find it easier to persuade others and drive them to a “yes.”
In fact, in an illustration of the tendency of people to follow the lead of those they perceive as high-status, researchers have run studies in which a well-dressed man jaywalks across a busy street into traffic. Nearby pedestrians will very often follow, unthinkingly. They do not, however, follow a sloppily-dressed person in the same situation. They automatically trust the judgment of the person they perceive as high-status, but not the other person.
Grabbing the position of higher status at your pitch starts by recognizing and avoiding “beta traps,” and continues by grabbing “local star power” by asserting your knowledge and skills.
Your target’s higher status is reinforced with “beta traps”: business procedures and social rituals that confirm her status as alpha and yours as beta. Beta traps are small ways in which your target sets the rules of engagement for your presentation. There are three ways beta traps activate our croc brain to recognize her as the dominant force in the room:
Be aware of the beta traps you encounter, and avoid whichever you can. This is not to say you should enter a building and break all of their rules: not sign the log book and refuse to wait in the lobby. You want to appear professional, not difficult.
However, be aware of the beta traps you encounter so that you can sidestep them when possible. For example, maybe don’t sit in the lobby when they direct you to—stand, leaning against a wall instead.
However, don’t try to avoid the rules of their turf by meeting in an off-site space such as a coffee shop. If your target suggests this, avoid it if at all possible. In public spaces you are very visibly not in control. You’ll be pitching among eavesdropping strangers and will not be able to fend off interruptions like visitors stopping by to chat with your target.
The same goes for trade shows and conventions. They are filled with distractions and noise. If you need to pitch to someone at one of these events, rent a conference room or borrow someone’s office.
The most important beta trap to avoid is engaging in small talk. Be professional at all times, but do not come across as overly friendly.
To capture the higher status position at your meeting, you will need to seize “local star power.” You can be the star of the show, for the duration of your meeting, by being more knowledgeable, competent, and skillful than the others in the room in some specific area.
As an example, we’ll examine how these techniques might let a waitress at a fancy restaurant seize the higher status position when a hedge fund manager brings her colleagues to that restaurant to dine. A hedge fund manager has a higher global status than a waitress. However, for the duration of the meal, it is quite possible for the waitress to position herself as the dominant player.
You will not win the alpha position by using traditional salesperson techniques such as building rapport, pushing features and benefits, overcoming objections, and trial closing. Salespeople by default hold a lower status. Using these techniques will make your target associate you with the role of “typical salesperson,” which primes them to see you in an inferior position. Further, because these techniques have been used since the 1970s, they are extremely well-known. Your target will not only anticipate them, but she’ll also be prepared to block them and render them useless.
The only way to make a sale is to put yourself in a position of high status.
Beta traps are business procedures and social rituals that reinforce your lower-status position.
Think back to your last sales call. What beta traps did you encounter before you even began your pitch?
How did you react to the beta traps? (For example, did you consent to pitching in a coffee shop? Did you make small talk?)
How did your reaction affect your status in this situation? (Did you feel like an authority on your topic and confidently deliver your pitch? Did you feel like you had to cater to and win over your target?)
How can you bypass these beta traps in the future?
Now that you understand frames and status, and how they affect your standing in your target’s eyes, it’s time to talk about the specifics of making your pitch. This chapter first delves into the mechanics of attention—what grabs it and what holds it—and then walks you through the first three (of four) phases of a successful pitch.
In order to effectively command your target’s attention—not just spark her interest, but hold it—you must understand the factors that control attention. A person is paying full and close attention only when she feels both desire and tension.
These feelings are controlled by two specific neurotransmitters in the brain. Dopamine is the chemical of desire, curiosity, and interest. It can create interest, but by itself it’s not enough to hold it. Norepinephrine is the chemical of tension and enhances the effects of dopamine by threatening to take it away.
Desire is your croc brain telling you that this thing in front of you will improve your life or your chances for survival. It is one of your brain’s most primitive responses, and in order for your pitch to be successful, you must create a feeling of desire in your target. Without that urge, your pitch fails.
Dopamine is released when you come across something new. New things are pleasurable: the anticipation of something new causes us to anticipate a reward, which releases dopamine.
Dopamine is also released when you’re presented with a puzzle. We enjoy figuring things out. As discussed earlier, the croc brain likes simplicity. But at the same time, if something seems overly simple, it’s boring. Our brains like a bit of a challenge.
Dopamine does have a dark side: Too much of it triggers feelings of fear and anxiety. Consequently, you need to get the balance right. You want your pitch to be novel enough to spark curiosity, and complex enough to spark interest, but not so novel or complex to trigger anxiety.
Desire, though, is just one half of the recipe. The other half is tension.
Tension is the introduction of consequences. Consequences imply importance. Even with desire built into your pitch, your target won’t pay full attention if there are no stakes. She may think you’re great, and really nice, but without more to compel her, she won’t have a reason to pursue you further.
To create tension, you need to create conflict. Many salespeople try to avoid conflict, just as we avoid conflict in our daily lives. However, with no conflict, your pitch is bland and easily forgotten. Conflict is the basis of interesting relationships and connections.
You can inject tension and conflict into your pitch with a series of “tension loops”—“pushes” and “pulls” designed to make your target feel you are rejecting her and then accepting her again. This activates her croc brain’s need for acceptance, making her instinctively want you to pull her in.
To do this, say something that indicates you might reject the target’s business (push), and then immediately follow it up by qualifying it with a more favorable statement (pull). There are three levels of push-pull tension loops that you can use to hook your target. You can incorporate these loops at any time during your pitch.
No matter how terrific your pitch, you need to wrap it up after 20 minutes. A person's attention does not last long. That’s not necessarily a reflection on your pitch. It’s just the way we’re wired. After 20 minutes, you will start to lose your target’s attention. Not only will her mind start to drift, but she will begin to forget what you’ve already told her.
Furthermore, if you continue to generate dopamine and norepinephrine for too long, you’ll eventually reach a point where they start to turn on you. Too much dopamine turns desire into fear. Too much norepinephrine turns tension into anxiety. So, keep it brief.
Now that you understand the basics of frame control, status, and attention, you can focus on the specifics of your pitch. Your pitch will have four phases. The first three of these will be covered in this chapter.
We will go into Phase 4 in further detail in Chapter 5.
Your goal in Phase 1 of your pitch is to grab your target’s attention.
To do this, you’ll:
This phase will take 5 minutes.
Put your target at ease as soon as you open your pitch by letting her know that you will only be pitching for 20 minutes. “Let’s get started. I’ve only got about 20 minutes to run this down, which will leave us some time to discuss it before I have to head out.”
This lets her know she doesn't have to commit to an hour-long presentation, which is what she’s probably used to. It also lets her know that you have other places to be—telling her croc brain that you are popular, and by implication, valuable.
Keep to this time constraint. Twenty minutes is plenty of time to explain your idea. Remember that after 20 minutes, you will start to lose her attention anyway.
Give a brief overview of your relevant history. Only include your run-away successes. This is not an exhaustive review of your resume. A person’s impression of you is based on the average of the information she knows about you, not the sum. Tell her one really great thing, and she’ll think you’re really great. Tell her one really great thing and one so-so thing, and she’ll think you’re kind-of great, but also a bit so-so.
Spend no more than 2 minutes on this. For example:
You must impress upon your target that your idea is new and emerging from current market trends that you recognized and are now taking advantage of. Your target comes into your meeting with an unspoken question about why your idea is relevant and why she should consider it now. By answering these questions before she’s asked, you assure her croc brain that you have a deep understanding not only of your idea, but of her concerns. Everything you say after this will have more meaning and will come across with greater urgency.
To give your idea or product a strong “why now” context, frame it against these three market forces. Ideally, include all three (though leave out any that aren’t obviously applicable to your idea).
Be aware of the trap of “change blindness.” Our brains are trained to spot movement. We often cannot see changes if they happen without movement. For example, if you are inspecting two pictures for differences, you might not notice, say, a basketball net being swapped out for a ladder, because no movement was involved in the change.
Consequently, if you simply frame your idea as “Here’s how things used to be done, and here’s how we do things now,” you can’t guarantee that your target will make the full connections without you drawing the lines of movement.
Instead, show your target how your idea is moving away from current models and moving toward a new way of operating. Focus on change: the most relevant changes in your market and beyond; how these changes impact costs and consumer demand; and how these changes have opened a market window. Framing your idea against the three market forces shows your target how the market is moving to support your idea.
As an example of how this might work:
When introducing your concept, your goal is to position your idea as something novel but not so novel that it poses a threat. You want to grab your target’s attention but not trigger her croc brain to feel anxiety.
You can reduce anxiety by introducing your concept using the following basic introductory structure, laying out the what, the who, the why, and the competition. It hits on these key elements without delving into complicating details, giving your target a clear mental road map for where your pitch is headed. All further details you give after this will now have context, and she can listen to your message in a more relaxed state, since you’re not asking her to do the mental work of piecing the details together in a narrative.
The structure is:
For example:
While your goal in Phase 1 was to grab your target’s attention, your goal in Phase 2 is to keep your target’s attention.
In this phase, you’ll give a brief overview of the details of your pitch:
You are entering the part of your pitch most susceptible to the trap of analysis, cold cognitions, and boredom. As you introduce more details, you introduce more opportunities for the croc brain to object and cool its enthusiasm. Of course, this part of the pitch cannot be glossed over or skipped if your message is to be credible. The key is to be brief, competent, and efficient.
You must also find a balance between simplicity and complexity. Remember that the croc brain gets bored with too much simplicity, but turned off by too much complexity.
In general, though, you don’t need a revolutionary way to present this information. This is the brass-tacks section of your pitch and you’ll come across best if you simply present this information competently and professionally.
This phase should take no more than 10 minutes.
Start with the budget. Budgeting is difficult and is a respected executive ability. Getting it right will set you apart.
Spend relatively little time on your projections. Projecting revenue is a simpler task that anyone can do. Your target will view your projections with a grain of salt anyway.
Keep in mind that any potential investor will expect you to paint your budgets and projections in an overly optimistic light. Distinguish yourself by not living up to these expectations, but instead delivering realistic numbers.
After hearing your budgets, your target will naturally next wonder who you compete with. Most people don’t adequately describe the competition they face. When discussing potential competition, focus on answering these two questions:
The secret sauce is whatever prevents you from being a flash-in-the-pan company, shining brightly one day and passed over the next. It’s the one thing that will give you staying power against your competition: the “unfair advantage” you have over others, and what your competitive edge is based on.
Don’t take too long outlining this. As much as you may love this piece of it, and as special as your idea may be, remember the limits of your audience’s attention span.
Your goal in Phase 3 is to offer the deal: describe to your target what benefits she can expect when she does business with you.
Be clear and concise. Tell her what you will deliver, when, and how. Explain any roles and responsibilities she will take on. Don’t drill down into a lot of lower-level detail—tangential benefits and side points—but do include high-level details regarding what your target will get out of the deal.
Be brief, so that you can quickly move onto the next phase.
Phase 3 should take only 2 minutes.
Your idea needs a backstory that answers the question, “why now?” It should discuss changes in economic, social, and technological forces in your industry, and how these changes have opened a market window.
How have economic forces developed in your industry or in the market in general, that would affect the success of your idea?
What social forces have arisen lately, that might drive people towards your concept?
What recent technological developments will support your idea?
Based on these three forces, write a short introduction to your idea or product using your “Why now” frame.
By this point, your target will understand who you are, why your idea is important, how it works, and what she can expect by signing on. Now you will enter Phase 4 of your pitch, in which you will ignite her croc brain’s passions so completely, she will be compelled to pursue you and your concept.
To an overwhelming degree, people make decisions, even critically important ones, based on hot cognitions—emotions—rather than cold cognitions—rational analyses. We use facts and data to justify our decisions after we’ve made them, but we make the actual decisions based on what “feels” right.
When you make your pitch, you are looking to engage with your target’s hot-cognition-based croc brain, not her coldly-calculating neocortex.
After you’ve offered the deal in Phase 3, your pitch enters a crucial and delicate phase. It is here that your target can drift off into cold cognitions as she reviews and thinks about what you’ve presented.
To finish strong, you must leave your target steeped in hot cognitions, with her croc brain enthusiastically transmitting desire to her neocortex. You can do this by “stacking frames.”
Frame stacking is not just another sales technique. Old-fashioned sales tactics function by appealing to the neocortex, focusing on features, benefits, and rational explanations: cold cognitions. In contrast, frame stacking creates hot cognitions, which work with, not against, our natural inclinations.
Earlier, we discussed how you can use these frames during your pitch as a response to various oppositional frames from your target. At this point in your pitch, you will proactively use these frames in order to drive the presentation, by adopting them one after the other in quick succession. The idea is to deliver a “hookpoint”: the point in your presentation where your target goes beyond mere interest and becomes actively engaged, and finally, committed.
The four frames are:
We’ve discussed these first three frames in greater detail in Chapter 2. We’ll review them briefly here, and then discuss Moral Authority.
Earlier, we discussed intrigue frames as a way to snap your target back to attention if she’s running cold or if your pitch is entering analytical territory. Here, you’ll kick off the final phase of your pitch with an intrigue frame to spark renewed interest.
Again, an intrigue piques your target’s curiosity, snapping her out of her analytical neocortex and throwing her back into her croc brain, where her emotions live. At this point in your pitch, either toss out a fun story that illustrates your skills, as discussed in Chapter 2, or offer up something irresistible in relation to your pitch.
For example, maybe you have another partner you’ll bring into the deal once it’s finalized. Make this person sound exciting. “If you love this deal, you’re going to love my partner Rachel. She’s an interesting character—terrific person—but a little eccentric.”
Then tell a brief story about Rachel and how she saved a recent deal you had, or something similar. For example: “Last year, I had this deal of about $10 million. At the last minute, the bank backed out. No reason, no explanation, and I had no recourse. The deal was dead. I knew I had to find Rachel. I tracked her down and started filling her in on the details, but she cut me off. ‘Is it a good deal?’ she asked. And that was all she wanted to know. Later that day, I found out she had wired the money to the investors. She hadn’t asked me for guarantees or paperwork. She just trusted me and saved the deal.”
As discussed in Chapter 2, the prize frame positions you as the true reward in your deal, instead of the other party. As you wrap up your pitch, hit this theme again, to leave them with a lasting impression of you as the prize.
Paint yourself as a hot commodity, in demand in the market. “I’ve got three other firms begging me for this deal, but if you work hard and play your cards right, you can earn your way in.”
Make it clear you’re choosy about who you work with.
Let her know your partners are choosy, too. “I’m so glad I was able to find some time to come by today. Now, I have to wrap this up and get to another meeting, and I’m going to level with you—I like you but I do have to be choosy about which investors I let in and which I turn away. I also have to sell you to my partner, Rachel, who’s going to want to know why we’re a good fit. So, help me with that—how do I convince Rachel we’d work well together?”
Previously, we discussed how to respond to time constraints from your target by imposing your own. Here, you’ll proactively impose your own time constraint, increasing tension and adding stakes to your pitch.
Your target’s croc brain has a built-in scarcity bias and a fear of missing out on opportunities. Research shows adding time pressure to a decision-making event almost always reduces the quality of the decision made. This is not, in and of itself, a reason to add a time crunch. You don’t want your deal to feel associated with a cheap sales trick, and you don’t want your target to leave your meeting feeling like she was pressured into something.
However, letting your target know when you need a response is expected and professional. “Folks, I’d love to give you a month to think about it, but a deal like this, with strong fundamentals, it’s like a train, and when it’s time to leave the station, it’s time. If you don’t want the deal, you shouldn’t do it, we all know that. There’s no pressure. But we’re going to need to know by the 15th if you’re in or out.”
You don’t have to justify your deadline any further, or be any more aggressive. Everyone understands a deadline.
The moral authority frame is one in which you claim the higher ground for reasons of professionalism, ethics, and fairness. Our croc brains instinctively recognize a certain moral code that sets us apart from the animal world. Reminding your target of this code paints you as an enforcer of rules, and her croc brain knows that those who set the rules are the ones in command.
It also plays on her croc brain’s sensitivity to peer pressure and its craving for acceptance. By invoking the rules of “the group,” you implicitly threaten her exclusion from it. You also convey that you are a dominant peer—a leader, not a follower—which raises your status.
With the Moral Authority frame, you’ll position yourself as impeccably professional—a person who holds their business partners up to the highest standards because you yourself comply with these standards. For example: “I’m sure I don’t need to tell you, but we have an unimpeachable record; we’ve done $100 billion in trades this year without a single SEC sanction. We care very much about our reputation, as well as the reputation of our partners. We don’t play games, we do things right. We give you a fair price, and expect a clean deal. Are you able to play by these rules?”
In the final phase of your pitch, you’ll throw a series of four carefully crafted frames (intrigue, prize, time, and moral authority) at your target, to create a set of hot cognitions that will drive her forward.
Intrigue: Think of an element of your idea that can be used as a promised “reward,” that will pique your target’s curiosity and make her want to stick around. The author’s example was an eccentric partner who would be joining the deal later.
Prize: Put together a brief paragraph that shows you need to evaluate your target’s worth as much as she needs to evaluate yours, and that you are valued elsewhere.
Time: Write down a short set of lines that imposes a reasonable but firm deadline.
Moral authority: Create a summary of the ideals you hold that you will expect your business partners to live up to, and phrase them in such a way to convey these ideals in a lighthearted, but sincere, manner.
You’ve now got a good handle on:
In these last few chapters, we’ll discuss “neediness” and how it affects your pitch; we’ll look at a deal the author was involved in that demonstrates many of these ideas in action; and we’ll talk about your next steps as you start to master these techniques.
There is nothing that can kill your pitch swifter than signs of your neediness.
When your target sees you as needy, she sees weakness, and her croc brain tells her to run. Thousands of years of evolution have taught us that weak people die and strong people survive. Your target does not want to die, metaphorically or otherwise, and does not want to partner with a weak person. Even if you’ve held your target’s interest all the way through and have made a fantastic pitch right up until the end, you can kill it by suddenly projecting even a momentary neediness.
Neediness is a response to anxiety or disappointment, and a pitch is chock-full of potential for both. The very premise of a pitch is that you need or want something from another person. It is naturally anxiety-provoking.
It can also be full of disappointments both small and large. Your target may stop cooperating by responding to a text or a phone call, or allowing someone to come into the room and interrupt (small disappointments). Or, she may cut you short before you’ve finished your key points, start to withdraw, or show signs of losing interest in your pitch (large disappointments). When we feel disappointment, we reflexively seek validation to “fix” it; this broadcasts neediness.
Although your neediness can be triggered at any time during the pitch, the most dangerous time is the two minutes after you’ve laid everything out and are waiting to hear your target’s response. Any mistakes you make here are amplified, because the focus is now on your target and her decision. A wrong move now can destroy all your hard work of the past 20 minutes.
This is a moment ripe with anxiety, and it can be tempting to try to close the deal here by saying things like, “So, what do you think?” or “We can sign right now if you’d like.” Unfortunately, this is straightforward validation-seeking and a clear sign, in your target’s eyes, of neediness. Resist the urge.
Approach every business encounter with a strong frame that says you are valuable, competent, and needed elsewhere.
One deal the author made exemplifies many of the techniques outlined in the book.
The author was recruited by a former colleague to pitch a deal for a renovation project of an aging airfield in southern California. If they won the bid, they’d be in charge of raising $1 billion of investment in the project. Their own company would rake in $25 million in fees, and Klaff personally would earn 30% of that. So the stakes were high.
He was up against two other companies vying for the role. Both other companies were larger, were better funded, and had more experience than his firm.
He could not compete with these other companies on global status: both of them had more wealth, power, and popularity. He would have to create local star power for himself and establish situational status.
He anticipated (correctly) that both of the other companies’ pitches would likely be filled with neocortex-suited messages. He knew that he could differentiate himself by aiming his pitch at his targets’ croc brains.
Instead of focusing on numbers, projections, and hard facts, as the other firms did, he pitched his idea as a way to build a legacy airport that would provide a link between the rich history of the airfield and the present-day community that had sprung up around it. He tempted his targets with the status and social rewards that would come with building such an airstrip. He knew that these desires are stronger than the more simple desire for profit.
Throughout his pitch, he used many of the techniques discussed previously:
There are three principle insights into how you can win over your target’s croc brain.
The first is procedural: You must be alert for oppositional power frames and you must win the resulting frame collisions, thereby establishing your own, stronger frames as dominant. You must reinforce your higher status by perpetrating small denial and defiances.
The second is structural: You need to package your ideas correctly. Speak about them in ways that generate hot cognitions and avoid cold analysis. Create desire, with a sprinkle of tension.
The third is transcendent: Use humor, and have fun. Do this throughout your interactions. Even while under the surface you are fiercely fighting for dominance, you must do it all lightheartedly. Humor is a signal that you are confident enough to play around with a little conflict. It also signals that framing is a game, and invites others to join in.
Becoming a frame master takes time and practice, but it is fun from the start, and very rewarding once mastered. Learn the method by following these steps:
Successfully pitching your idea often has less to do with the merits of your concept and more to do with the psychological maneuverings of the people in the room, as their primitive instincts collide.
Mastering the techniques laid out in this book is the first step toward understanding those instincts and crafting successful pitches.
Frames are the psychological perspectives through which we see the world. To master frame control, you must learn to recognize the frames you run into.
Think of an encounter, either in a business or social setting, that you’ve had in the past week. What frames did the other people bring to the table? How could you tell—what signs broadcast their frames?
Whose frame became dominant? Think back to specific moments. How did that person’s frame win out?
Tension loops are an interplay between pushing your target away and pulling her back in, to create just a bit of conflict and keep her attention sharp.
Imagine at lunch, your colleague starts texting while you are speaking. What low-intensity push/pull loop can you use to draw her back to your conversation?