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“It’s Both What You Say and the Way You Say It “

Coming up with creative ideas is easy; maybe not as easy as it sounds but it is the ‘selling them to strangers’ part that is hard. More often than they would wish, entrepreneurs or others associated with business or marketing come up with brilliant ideas or business plans but while trying to show them as practical ,innovative or high margin get them rejected instead. Why don’t clients or decision makers seem to understand the real value or projected worth of the idea?

Well, the answer is simple: there’s no point in having great ideas if you don’t communicate them effectively.

It turns out here that the problem has as much to do with the seller’s traits as with an idea’s inherent quality. Research suggests that humans can categorize others in less than 150 milliseconds and rush to stereotype them into little categories really fast. Judgments about the pitcher’s ability to come up with workable ideas can quickly and permanently overshadow perceptions of the idea’s worth.

There are mulitiple reasons why we would want a pitch to be effective :
• Argue and change the technical direction : input from collegues or peers can come in handy
• To convince others specially investors or higher management the worth and approach of the idea
• And finally to convince clients to purchase your product or to investors to fund your project by making them realize a need for it or to change their requirements


After you understand why you want the pitch to be effective, its is equally important to understand the target audience and that requires WISDOM

W : What do you want them to learn
I : What is their interest in what you have to say
S : How sophisticated are they
D : How much detail do they want
O : Whom do you want to own the information
M : How can you motivate them to listen to you

The one thing to remember here is that you are not marketing something that's already been made but what you are doing is trying to figure out if there is a need for this that is being proposed so using the time wisely is of utmost importance. A strong elevator pitch (a 30 second defining summary of your project) can spark up interest and do wonders because who is interested in the details anyways?

Lastly , even though there are no strict rules regarding product pitches there are certain Do’s and Don’ts that can lead to doing it better

Do’s
• Know your objective
• Motivate your idea
• Make it look good
• Present at a level appropriate for your audience (exactly why you need WISDOM)
• Provide a focused, succinct, statement of the value
• Justify the ability (and cost) of your team to do the work
• Differentiate yourself from others who offer the same (or similar) value include how, specifically
• Predict and answer the audience’s (unspoken) questions
• Leave your audience with something positive they can remember

and not to forget ,

• Be friendly , be clear & be brief –everything else is negotiable

Don’ts
• Misjudge your audience (their interests, background, requirements, etc.)
• Stop at anything less than adequately motivate your idea
• Let the audience wonder in which area does your product fit in the “big picture”
• Miss out on covering existing alternatives and what specific novelty you are offering
• Forget to present a realistic picture of how the cost of the project justifies its value