Most will agree that effective communication is much more than the words alone. While the formula that claims words on their own account for only 8% of the effect – with body language at 55%, expression/tone 35% – is disputed, the general principle holds. Body language matters! Continue reading
Pitching is tough, winning is not easy and there are no prizes for coming second. The frequent feedback from a client, not wanting to hurt any feelings, is the message that it was a very close call. Little consolation when you guess all the losers, however poor, were told the same thing. It is easy when the wins escape you to start thinking ‘failure’.
This is when it is time to take in the philosophy of John Wooden, legendary basketball coach at UCLA, ranked by many as the greatest coach of all time, across all sports. In a delightful, inspirational TED talk given three years ago when he was ninety nine years old, he emphasized that winning is more than scoring.
His ideology is is well summed up in his often quoted definition of success: “Success is the peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”
How does this apply to pitching? For most participants the pitch is an occasional activity and not their core skill, the area where they will strive to ‘become the best they are capable of becoming’. The pitch loss, often for reasons outside your control, is too quickly buried together with any valuable learnings. Any pitch, won or lost, is an opportunity to gain the success of reaching your personal pitching best.
This does call for study and preparation outside of the pitch. Another Wooden quote: “Confidence comes from being prepared”. As you close in on your best, winning will become more of a habit.
Tarzan has swung back into action. As the Mail said: “Still bursting with ideas at 79, Michael Heseltine makes many ministers half his age look burnt out by comparison…. If this near-octogenerian has infected them with one ounce of his dynamism, he has done us all a service.”
His Growth report, like the man, is bursting with ideas. Whether you agree with them or not, and whether Cameron can act on any of them or not, is almost secondary to the sheer impact of the energy he brings onto the scene. Interviewed on Radio 4, it was this sense of energy, rather than any particular remark, that made you feel optimistic that some positive change was in the air.
Right now few politicians are blessed with conspicuous energy. Although more energetic than most, David Cameron’s is being sapped by infighting and incompetence and Obama’s dipped, perhaps disasterously, in the first television debate.
And yet in any pitch, political or business, energy is fundamental to success.
In his remarkable book, It’s Not How Good You Are. It’s How Good You Want To Be, the great Paul Arden wrote: “energy is 75% of the job, if you haven’t got it, be nice”.
To your audience you are never more interesting than when you start, when you enter the room or stand up, when you first speak. This first impression is often the deciding one and all that follows merely confirms this first instinctive reaction. (Obama overlooked this in the first television debate as he came on stage looking a loser. He did not recover from it.)
Most of us can readily state that this first impression is formed in as little as 30 seconds and yet will often spend even less time in its preparation. This is not laziness as most pitches enjoy ferocious and often frenetic effort from everyone. The fault lies in the misguided determination on the never-ending quest to improve content- at the expense of preparing the vital opening
Before launching into the agenda, your compelling proposition or creative solution, you and your team should ‘take the stage’ with an introduction that creates an impression, an impression that raises anticipation among your audience that they will enjoy meeting you and be positively surprised by what follows.
There is no magic formula to an opening . It’s a quesion of deciding you will make a lasting first impression, allowing time to be imaginative and then rehearsing to check the impression you intend is working. However some clues can be found in a recent TED/ED video-The power of a great introduction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0_u-lourd0
In this Carolyn Mohr discusses the writing of a thesis but many of her suggestions apply to the pitch. The most relevant is the advice to develop your introduction last! By then you know what you are trying to set up and the first, and last, impression you need.
Two political performers surprised last week, one for the better and one for poorer. Ed Milliband must have read my last post Reading is not communicating. Or perhaps he remembered that David “no notes” Cameron changed his fortunes with the memorable address in Blackpool that won him the Tory leadership.
His 65 minute speech lacked substance and if he really wants to bring “nation” alive he should look at Matin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’. However deciding to deliver the whole thing from memory, with no notes to hand, was a masterstroke. Not reading freed him up to be himself, to be more natural in his body language and uninhibited, letting his feelings and his passion show. The response has been dramatic. He is, at last, seen as a leader.
By total contrast, President Obama, leader of the most powerful country in the world, was seen as a loser the moment he set foot on the stage to debate with Romney. He seemed unaware that first impressions count looking listless and dejected, clearly wanting to be somewhere else. It got worse as he constantly looked down at his feet rather than confront his opponent.
The other contrast was in the preparation. One prepared, the other didn’t. Milliband realised he needed to make a different impact and worked at making it happen, not least the impressive memorising of his entire speech, rehearsing several times. Obama must have known that TV debates can be lost on looks (Nixon/Kennedy!) but was not prepared and his body language let him down. Apparently, like Nixon, he won the radio audience. Little consolation for a tv debate.