1: “We are going to revolutionize the healthcare industry” is a typical opening statement in many presentations.
The likely reaction: “Really? I find that unlikely,” Brant Pinvidic writes in his book The 3-Minute Rule: Say Less to Get More from Any Pitch or Presentation.
Even if the rest of our pitch lands with our prospect, the best we can hope for at the end of our presentation is, “Yeah, it’s good, but I don’t know about revolutionizing the industry.”
“When I was running the TV network TLC,” Brant notes, “producers would come in and open with ‘I’ve got a new show that will be your that will be your biggest hit!’ or ‘The audience is dying for something like this,’ or ‘This is an advertiser’s dream.'”
Probably not.
Yesterday, we looked at Brant’s process to find the hook for our pitch.
The hook is “the one thing or element about an idea or story that makes us go, ‘Ah, that’s cool,'” Brant notes.
“Finding the hook for most companies is pretty easy,” he observes.
The problem? “Most of the time they come out with it too quickly.”
2: There is a misconception that we should open with our hook: “Hi, I’m Jeff from Re-Pipe Specialists, and we can take your whole re-pipe form a major renovation to a minor renovation. Let me show you how.”
When the other party hears that opening, they immediately think: “I’m not sure I believe you. Prove it.”
Now, we have to convince them otherwise. We’ve created an uphill battle.
Not a winning strategy.
Today, all of us are “being marketed to and sold to everywhere we go,” Brant observes. “We’ve learned to treat all claims with distrust and skepticism. Every statement and promise and offer are going to be scrutinized, instinctively, by our audience.”
When we use words like “revolutionary” or “greatest,” many think, “I’m being tricked. This is waste of time.”
3: There is a better way.
Brant’s recommendation? “Take out our biggest promises, our summarizing statements, our opinions on how good it is. Take anything that speaks to our hook, and set it aside.”
We take a fundamentally different approach. We “start with the facts, plain and simple, and let them build to our grand conclusion,” he suggests.
Rather than starting with “This is an amazing deal,” we simply outline the information so that our audience will naturally conclude, “That is an amazing deal,” without us having to say so.
We organize our pitch into a four-part framework: W—What is it? H—How does it work? A—Are we sure? And C—Can we do it?
“Focus on the what and how sections of the WHAC filter first. We want our statements to lead up to our hook.”
We “want the audience, after hearing our what and how, to start to form our hook for themselves,” he writes.
The hook is something we almost don’t need to say. It should be self-explanatory.
“When we finally say it, in their mind, they will say, “That’s right.”
More tomorrow!
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Reflection: Think back on a time when I pitched an idea or proposal successfully. What was my hook?
Action: Be intentional about identifying my hook in my next pitch.