1: To land the sale. . .
To win the deal. . .
To generate genuine excitement for what we are pitching. . .
We must find something that will give our presentation. . . an edge.
“The edge is a cool fact or anecdote that makes someone metaphorically (and sometimes literally) sit up and take notice,” Brant Pinvidic writes in his terrific book The 3-Minute Rule: Say Less to Get More from Any Pitch or Presentation.
“The edge is something that cuts through the simplicity of our pitch and reminds our audience that we have something special to offer.”
2: The year was 2011. Brant was working with Jon Taffer on an idea for a TV show.
“Jon was a bar and nightclub owner and consultant who had made a sizable living and reputation rehabbing bars and nightclubs,” Brant writes. He was “big, loud, slightly obnoxious, and very impressive.”
Jon would take on a floundering bar each week, break it down, build it back up, and turn it around. “It was going to be driven by Jon’s ballsy, confrontational style and the big transformations that he helped bar owners achieve,” Brant writes.
The only problem?
“Kitchen Nightmares was already a hit show, with Gordon Ramsay doing this for restaurants,” Brant remembers. “We needed something more. We had the concept for the show, and Jon’s fiery style was definitely the hook, but it needed some oomph.”
The answer?
The Butt Funnel.
3: “On the day of our pitch to the network,” Brant remembers, “Jon and I entered a large conference room at the Viacom offices, where the network heads had gathered to hear our pitch.”
They used Brant’s 3-minute presentation framework to explain “What is it” and “How it Works.” Their “hook” was that Jon was “as passionate and knowledgeable about bars as Gordon Ramsay is about restaurants, or Simon Cowell is about music.”
Now, it was time to establish “the edge.” The story or example that best illustrates their hook.
“Jon explained that during his years of bar and nightclub consulting, he’d learned things about what made bars and restaurants successful that nobody talked about,” Brant recounts. “While a restaurant’s success largely depends on the food, clubs, and bars are much different.
“Why are some clubs popular and some clubs failures?” Jon asked. “They could be next door to each other and have completely different results. I know why, and I can tell you why, every time.”
The network executives all leaned in.
“Here’s one thing no one else will tell you,” Jon continued. “Your bar needs a Butt Funnel.”
This led to some furrowed brows and head-scratching from the gathered executives.
“What’s a Butt Funnel?” Brant could see them wondering.
“Every bar or nightclub has a flow or traffic pattern for people to walk around the location,” Jon shared. ”People in a bar move around and survey the scene. They want to see what’s going on; they want to see who’s there. That creates a basic loop that people continually follow.
“Every time I work with a new bar, I redesign their space so this loop forms a Butt Funnel. A Butt Funnel is a spot in the bar too narrow for two people to walk through side by side. If one is coming one way and another is coming the other way, they have to turn sideways to pass each other, touching butts as they go by.
“When people touch butts, it sets off endorphins, men and women touching each other and initiating this contact, which imprints on people. People with a higher level of endorphins have a better time, they stay longer, they order more drinks, they spend more, they come back more often. The bar makes more money.
“You literally funnel the people to a spot where they have to touch butts to get through.”
Jon sat down. Brant noted the the amazed expressions on the executives’s faces.
The Butt Funnel had delivered the edge the pitch needed.
The network bought Bar Rescue, a show that has now aired two hundred episodes and generated a quarter of a billion dollars in revenue.
More tomorrow!
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Action: Before making my next pitch or presentation, seek out and find my “edge,” the one story or example that will make my audience sit up and take notice.
Reflection: Afterwards, ask myself: What did I learn?
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