Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal (13 page)

The “Why Now?” Frame

You’re almost ready to pitch the “big idea.” But first, a reminder of the obvious: Nobody wants to invest time or money into an old deal that has been sitting around.
This is why you need to introduce a “Why now?” frame. It’s vitally important that the target knows that your idea is new, emerging
from current market opportunities and that it’s not some relic left over from bygone days.
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. And the target needs to know that you have more knowledge about these things than anyone else.

There are unspoken questions in the target’s mind as to why your idea is relevant and important and why it should be considered as important
now.
By anticipating these questions and definitively answering them before they are verbalized, you wil tick an important checkbox in the target’s mind and put the target more at ease. Everything you say from that point forward wil have context, greater meaning, and more urgency, reinforcing its scarcity.

What I have discovered over time is that in every business there are three market forces that together triangulate to answer the “Why?” question, and you can use these forces to create a strong “Why now?” frame.

Three-Market-Forces Pattern: Trendcasting

When you describe your idea, project, or product, first give it context by framing it against these three market forces or trending patterns that you believe are important.

1.
Economic forces.
Briefly describe what has changed
financially
in the market for your big idea. For example, are customers wealthier, is credit more available, is financial optimism higher? Increases or decreases in interest rates, inflation, and the value of the dol ar are considered as prime examples of forces that have significant impact on business opportunities.

2.
Social forces.
Highlight what emerging changes in people’s behavior patterns exist for your big idea. An obvious example in the market for automobiles, concern over the environment—a social force—is driving demand for electric vehicles.

3.
Technology forces.
Technological change can flatten existing business models and even entire industries because demand shifts from one product to another. In electronics, for example, change is rapid and constant, but in furniture manufacturing, change is more gradual.

Describe the genesis of your idea, how it evolved, and the opportunity you saw as it was emerging.
The backstory of the idea is always
interesting to the target.
Once this story is told, everything you say in your pitch wil be legitimized by it.

As you craft your backstory, think in terms of how it came to be where it is today and how you found it. Describe the steps in its evolution, and show how it evolved—how it moved—to final y become the opportunity you have now identified and captured.

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.

Here is an example that ties the three market forces together into a tight pattern that supports the “Why now?” frame for a product cal ed
UpRight
, a device you wear on your wrist that wakes you up slowly, at exactly the right time, so that you feel wel rested.

Economic force.
The cost of making this product has just gone below the $10 mark. This means that the retail price can be $69. We’ve been waiting two years to hit this price point.

Social force.
One of the changes in our society is that people don’t get enough sleep or even the right kind of sleep. While this problem is growing only 1.8 percent a year, awareness of it is skyrocketing. People know that they need better sleep; it is a hot topic at al levels of society.

Against this backdrop, your idea begins to occupy the foreground. To continue with the example:
Technological force.
This device requires a control ing chip and solenoid that now can be manufactured smal enough and at a control able price, al owing us mass-market capabilities.

By starting your pitch with the three market forces, your idea now enjoys a prominence that it did not have before. Now your idea has a history, an exciting evolutionary path to the present time, and credibility. The idea is displayed against the economic, historical, and sociologic changes that made it emerge from the shadows—but it has just barely emerged. You were alert and saw the potential and are now developing it. (This is a nice point to strengthen your prize frame.)

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

As you write the “Why now?” frame for your idea, start by thinking in the broadest terms possible, going back as far as you need to go to understand and explain how it came from the past into the present and why it is special. Remember, it doesn’t matter if you’re pitching jet fighters, securities, real estate, software, or cotton bal s, you need to frame your deal in this way because it explains the force behind its evolution.

Movement is a critical element in the “Why now?” frame.
Your target needs to understand the forces that are pushing your deal and to understand that your success is inevitable and imminent as a consequence of these greater forces.

This is another area where you need to understand how the crocodile brain of your audience is working.
A huge part of the brain is devoted to
detecting movement.
This is what makes it so hard to find things you have lost. Your keys, cel phone, or pencil do not move. You can look right at something and not see it because it is stil . This is why animals, when they are frightened, tend to freeze.
Your brain grows accustomed to things
that are not changing, and they effectively vanish.
A bird, holding its head very stil , can hunt efficiently because the only thing it can see is a wiggling worm. If you injected your eye muscles with curare—a paralytic poison—the same thing would happen to you. Even without such injections, though, it is clear that movement captures your attention. And this is what you want to take advantage of with your pitch. You don’t show people a static picture of how the world would be if your plan were implemented, but instead you show them how you’re idea is moving away from the current standard to a new way of doing things.

There is one more detail about how the brain works that you need to know, and it’s cal ed
change blindness.
It is surprising, but if you show people two pictures in rapid alternation, and one of them has some change in it—even a relatively major one—people wil not see it. You can replace grandma with a tree.
It does not count as movement, and the brain ignores it.
You can hunt and hunt for what is different between the two pictures as they go back and forth and think they are identical. It is only when your attention is focused deliberately on the thing that is changing that you can final y “see” it. Once you know this fact about how your audience’s mind works,
you realize that you cannot just show audience members
two possible states and hope that the difference captures their attention.
You need to show them the movement from one to the other.

We are not wired to see or hear a static pitch: “
That
was the old way, but
this
is the new way.”
That can trigger change blindness, where the
target won’t
get
your deal at all.
The formula I’ve just given you, the three changing market forces, overcomes the potential for change blindness.

With three market forces coming into alignment, you are literal y showing the mind’s eye how the market is moving to benefit your big idea.

Here’s an example of my col eague Joe giving a pitch:

“In recent years, there hasn’t been much going on in the business of building new airports. In fact, it would be fair to say that the market has been dead. But now things are heating up.
Three major forces are changing the market. First,
banks have started lending to aviation projects.
Second,
the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) is now issuing building permits.
Third,
our main competitor is excluded from bidding on this deal because of a conflict of interest.”

The target sees that there’s a market rationale for Joe’s airport deal.
It makes sense.
The combination of the bank’s new wil ingness to lend, the new FAA pressure on the airport, and the lack of competition have created the opportunity for this deal to happen now.

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 want to see movement, and they don’t like deals that have been sitting around, ignored by other investors or partners. It would be like the copier salesperson saying, “Hey, how would you like the Model T100? We’ve had 50 of them in the warehouse forever.”

Introducing the Big Idea

This does not take 15 minutes. It takes 1 minute. You don’t have to explain the big idea in great detail. Oh, I know you want to. It’s instinctive: First, introduce yourself; then dive into details. I get the same urges. And this seems like the perfect time to do it.
But it’s not time for details.
Your target doesn’t want the deal yet. So the pitch temperature is cool. Lots of details wil turn it cold. The details can come later. First, you wil establish the big idea using an
idea introduction pattern
. The venture capitalist Geoff Moore developed this pattern in 1999, and it stil works today.

The Idea Introduction Pattern

This idea introduction pattern goes like this:

“For [target customers]

Who are dissatstifed 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].”

Here’s an example of a quick introduction for a big idea cal ed the “EnergyTech 1000.”

Example 1

“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.”

That’s it. The big idea can be introduced with this pattern in about one minute.

Here’s another example of the idea introduction pattern.

Example 2

“For busy executives

Who don’t have enough work space on their computer monitor.

My product is a visual array

That provides eight flat-screen monitors, linked together, that can fit on any desk.

Unlike the common do-it-yourself solutions, having just two or three monitors,

My visual array lets executives use Excel, Firefox, Word, Gmail, Skype, Photoshop, Explorer, and TradingDesk at the same time with no confusing windows.”

Here’s how Joe used the idea introduction pattern to introduce his airport deal.

Example 3

“For investors needing a 10 percent cash yield or better

Who are dissatisfied with risky investments such as stocks.

My airport deal is a project with low risk and lots of protection

That provides a current cash flow.

And unlike most development projects, you can cash out any time you want.”

Certainly this does a lot to capture the target’s attention.
It is important to realize, however, that capturing the target’s attention
doesn’t mean
that you are commanding attention.
You wil soon be skeptical that attention can ever be
commanded.
What’s worse, you’l appreciate how it can be lost in a few seconds by making the wrong moves. The rudimentary model of how attention works goes like this:
We notice things that have
movement through space and time because they are likely to be important.
But there’s a catch—a lot of the time things that move are also things we have to run away from. Starting from this premise, in the pitch we want to create attention without threat. This is why I have come to believe in—

and rely on—the idea introduction pattern, because, of al the ways to introduce an idea,
it does the least to trigger threat avoidance in the croc
brain.

Neuroscientist Evian Gordon is convinced that minimizing danger and threats around us is “the fundamental organizing principle of the brain.” As I’ve said before,
the croc brain doesn’t think about threats too deeply.
It just reacts. It doesn’t stop to research whether the snake coming toward us is a copperhead or a cottonmouth.

Although this natural defense mechanism is beneficial in evolutionary terms, researchers believe that when we enter social situations (like a boardroom where we are expected to pitch), there’s one undeniable fact—we sense a potential threat to our own wel -being. For example, we could get rejected. We could embarrass ourselves. We could lose the deal or lose face. When these social threats appear, the threat-avoidance system in our own brain starts pumping adrenaline and other neurotransmitters. Anxiety kicks in. We’ve al felt it—that moment when we are standing in front of an audience and it feels like they’re not paying attention. Our heart rate increases, our face turns flush, and sweat pores open up.