Tag Archives: pitchcoach

CARNIVAL FEVER PITCH!!

The sun shone most of the time on the Notting Hill carnival today. Not that rain would have dampened the exuberance. Too many performers have anticipated the day, planning that started the day the last one ended, creating ever more exotic costumes, 100 strong steel band rehearsals,floats louder than ever, building to the fever pitch of carnival. 

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 It was an experience anticipated by half a million people. They were not let down. It was joyful, surprising, engaging, vibrant, creative and loud.

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 Compare with the average business pitch. Formal, predictable, safe.  And yet this audience too will have arrived with a sense of anticipation,  hoping for a performance that if not loud is surprising, engaging, vibrant and creative.

Next time you pitch, add a touch of carnival!

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Are there any Churchills out there?

An article in the Daily Mail, marking the anniversary of Churchill’s “never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many  to so few ” speech, posed the question: could any modern politician have made this speech? Or one like it.

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The answer is no. Not because there is not in Britain some smouldering orator waiting to ignite but because there is no situaton so desparate or despairing that calls for such a speech. Great orators greatest performances have been in response to a passionately held need to ‘bring a nation with them’, to change their views.

In the second half of the 20th century the few recognised orators include Martin Luther King- “I had a dream”, J.F.Kennedy- “think not what your country can do for you..” ( imitated by Cameron) and, less happily, Enoch Powell and his infamous “rivers of blood”. This century Obama- “Yes We Can” is the only English speaker seen as a true orator. 

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The answer is also no because of the medium. Orators need platforms and audiences not the conversational approach of television. David Cameron’s celebrated ‘no notes’ platform speech at the Blackpool conference, whilst not great oratory, did win him the leadership. Churchill’s platform was, of course radio. Not as we know it today but radio as the nation’s lifeline with a captive and spellbound audience hanging on his every word.

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Rehearsal or run-through? What’s the difference.

 My last post, Make Feedback your Friend, described how experimental opera performers subjected themselves to the potentially painful criticism of a live audience.  An extreme form of rehearsal and rehearsal is something many pitch teams go out of their way to avoid. They settle instead for the run-through.

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Is this enough and what’s the difference?

 The run-through is a necessary activity. It will involve talking through likely content, who says what and for how long, a discussion on visual aids, working out timings and hand-overs,  who sits where  or stands, how the room will be propped, where will the client sit, what are the likely questions and who fields them and so on.

Necessary but not a rehearsal. Pitching is performance and it is no good escaping the ‘pain’ of rehearsal with a run through. To improve performance you need an audience  in front of you. Other members of your team are not good for this. They already know what you are going meant say and will be be more concerned with content than your style.

Any non-participant, given a simple briefing of the context, can raise the value of rehearsal.  In any pitch you are putting on a show and in rehearsal you need someone to show off to.

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Make feedback your friend!

The lively Riverside Studios in London’s Hammersmith are hosting this week  The Opera Festival. It is run by tete-a-tete, an organisation that sets out to help groups and individuals grow as artists. New and experimental performances take place on stage in front of a paying audience.   This not a rehearsal but it is a form of product testing.

The audience are more or less coerced into filling in a feedback form before they leave. The possible  overall ratings range from:  (1) =Sorry. didn’t work for me to: (4) =Bloomin marvellous. Then you can chose any three of;

Challenging.      Passionate.      Loved it.      Unengaging.       Unfinished.       Serious.       Original.       Commonplace.         Not my cup of tea.    Confusing.    Ship-shape.    Ship-wreck.

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Listening to ‘funny’ amateur  reviewers discussing their feedback over drinks in the bar made you feel a touch concerned for the would be artists but this was an intelligent and brave exercise. Improvements will come, even if egos suffer in the process.

Pitches are performances yet it is surprising how few companies will put themselves through a similar feedback process.  It is called rehearsal. They are the ones who will be “unengaging” at best and “ship-wreck” at worst.   And “sorry it didn’t work for me”!

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Camaraderie, winning factor.

Athletics is not a team sport.  Success calls for individuals who are self-motivated to a ridiculous degree and totally selfish, to the point of obsession, in pursuing training schedules that will allow them to achieve the ultimate goal of the PB , the personal best.

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 Spear-headed  by Jessica Ennis, who combines astonishing athleticism with steely competitiveness, all the British athletes who performed great feats in Barcelona did so as individuals. Team mates can’t help you jump higher. Well, not usually but this time there was another factor at work. It was camaraderie.

In various interviews, carried out in predictable fashion by the BBC, the athletes paid genuine tribute to the happy sense of team and the unusual level of camaraderie. Even ‘bad guy’ Dwain Chambers, who failed by 1/000th of a second to win a medal, was gracious to fellow team members in defeat.

They all felt this camaraderie, fostered by the ‘tough love’ of Head Coach, Charles van Commenee,  boosted individual performance. Compare and contrast with Capello and England’s so called ‘team’ in South Africa!

In any good business developing camaraderie is a given.  Sharing the adrenaline of competitive pitching is a great way of doing it.

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