Tag Archives: pitchcoach

This week’s pitch in Manchester.

Three years ago at their Blackpool conference the Tory party faithful witnessed the five-way platform pitch that saw David “no-notes” Cameron, not the favourite, emerge as the leader elect. It was undoubtedly a masterly performance and, in a post in July, I included it in the 100 Best Pitches (Pitches and Troughs section.) It was not what he said, it was the way he said it.

This week in Manchester we will see Brown and his rival, or is it rivals, “pitched against each other in a battle for Labour hearts and minds”. (Andrew Rawnsley in The Observer.) It could be a fascinating contest.

Two years ago, also in Manchester, both David Miliband and Alan Johnson failed to rise to the occasion. They performed badly and seemingly lacked confidence. What will the outcome be this time when the stakes are so much higher?

Brown is fighting for his political life. Whilst world financial turmoil may give him some respite, he knows this speech will make or break him. Reports suggest it has been drafted, re-drafted endlessly and its content will no doubt be excellent. But can that be enough? A Downing Street aide apparently said “even if it’s Martin Luther King, some will say the speech wasn’t enough”.

So, one hell of a challenge to his confidence but maybe the battler’s instinct for survival will come through. In some ways the task of the young pretender, Miliband, could be as tough. So far his undoubted intellect has not been matched by communication skills that charm and inspire.

Alan Johnson, on the otherhand, has an easy charm that does engage. By claiming he is not a contender he has reduced the pressure on himself to perform. He might, therefore, be the only one who instils the confidence the party craves.

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Once upon a time……

They have always been there, of course, but over the last few months the “personal narrative” has become increasingly prominent in political reporting, particularly in USA. Squeezed between ‘style and substance’, or is it ‘policies and personality’, there is the narrative, the story.

You have McCain’s narrative of five years as tortured prisoner, Obama’s humble mixed race background and, most tellingly, Sarah Palin’s story, already several novels’ worth. In terms of coverage these stories are creating more attention than the policies, perhaps because they are more interesting ?

Apparently the Republican and Democrat campaign managers are finding it harder than ever to control their messaging where the free for all blogger environment is reducing the effectiveness of paid air-time. One tactic is to create controversial television commrecials but rather than air them commercially, rely on news and blogging ‘channels’, which prefer stories, to do the distribution job.

There is nothing new in this. The famous “Labour isn’t working ” poster, created by Saatchis some thirty years ago, ran for a few weeks only, on a dozen poster sites. It became the story. Picked up by all the news media, long before blogging, its impact on the election was immeasurable.

In any pitch storytelling compels.

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C..c..c..confidence.

The ‘sine qua non’ of any successful pitch, confidence.

Whether in politics, business, or pitching scripts in the extreme world of Hollywood, it is confidence that separates winners from losers. In an entertaining, perceptive paper, scriptwriter Matthew Faulk writes of his experiences pitching scripts to studio bosses where confidence is all:

“Executives smell fear. If they think I have the slighest doubt about what I’m pitching, they’ll pounce. Any idea you’re not quite sure about, they’re certainly not going to be sure about. Therefore, over-riding conviction about the idea is an absolute pre-requisite. This requires a great deal of rehearsal. I practice and practice. The words must come tripping easily off the tongue, for any hesitation will be interpreted as doubt or fear. And fear breeds fear.”

Faulk goes on to say that film executives are also nervous people. But then so are voters which is why, right now, the confidence of McCain, galvanised by Palin, is undermining Obama who has lost his. It is his ebullient confidence that carries all before him for Boris. It is Gordon Brown’s lack of it that makes life so tough for him and would-be supporters.

In business pitches the recipients, if not nervous, are apprehensive. The decisions they must take concern the future. Since this can never be certain, it is your confidence that will get their vote.

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Pit(ch)fall 7. “Being as dull as Darling”

A new expression to replace ‘as dull as ditchwater’? Alistair Darling’s platform speech to the TUC on Tuesday was received in silence and apathy, with possibly four or, as much as four and a half seconds, of applause.

Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail described him as “standing as limp as a sweet pea in the rain”!

Clearly, Darling was on a hiding to nothing, with little of substance he could offer, but surely he could have put up at least token resistance by injecting some fizz, some attack and personality into the way he spoke?

There will always be pitches that don’t go as planned. The scintillating solution that wasn’t, the audience that was unreceptive, the brief misread and so on. None of these are reason to be dull. You may not win but pitching with energy, wit and enthusiasm can lead to a next opportunity. And you’ll feel better for it, darling.

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Voting for people, not policies?

Not surprisingly, journalists and reporters are having a field day with “Palin’s meteoric appearance on the political scene”. Their opinions, as among voters in the USA, are divided. A.A Gill, in the Sunday Times, wrote “I think she looks hard and caculating and a bit of a bitch”. In the Observer, Paul Harris, “one of the most remarkable speeches of recent political history”.

Harris also reported on the views of the Republicans. ‘They believe stirring personal narratives will decide the election. They are betting that voters are looking for people to vote for, not policies.’

We may not like to admit it but this is often the case in business pitches. The decision makers are looking for people to vote for, not proposals.

Casting can make the winning difference. A brilliant solution indifferently presented, more often than not, loses out to an average one brillantly presented.

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