Some of the key points which I personally like are summarised below for your reading pleasure:
1) To pitch successfully, you have to understand that it's not about widening someone's knowledge base, it's about giving them a jolting power surge to their emotional electricity.
2) Great pitches are designed not as information but as storytelling.
3) Watching people working on pitches, I'm often struck by how easily they get obsessed with detail. Which, inevitably, means that they are not looking at the big picture - particularly whether there is a clear shape to their argument.
4) British army and their rubric for good communication - say what you're going to say, say it, say it again.
5) Don't concentrate on the data, concentrate on the problem.
6) When you construct your pitch, construct it as a story - not just any story, but a story of problem and resolution.
7) A good pitch starts with a crystal-clear exposition of the problem you are trying to solve. Then elaborate. The purpose of this stage is plain: it is to make your audience gut-wrenchingly, suicidally miserable about the scale of their problem.
Why? Because a doctor who cures a headache will be remembered for a moment, but a doctor who cures a cancer will be remembered for a lifetime.
8) The key to understanding pitching is to understand that it is the pitcher who is on trial, not the presentation (This is an interesting point. The Authors emphasizes the importance of the presenter and very often, people are judging the presenter on his confidence, body language, etc. more than the content of the presentation itself. Therefore, to present well, you have to present yourself well!)
9) Winners, like any other category of human being, come in all shapes and sizes. Yet, they do tend to have four things in common:
a) They set their sights high; they are ambitious.
b) They are pragmatic. Ambitious they may be, but they are not dreamers.
c) They concentrate on the big issues. They get others to do the detail.
d) They keep it simple.
(Do you have the above traits?)
10) When faced with a problem you'll achieve far more by getting on and doing something than by searching endlessly for perfection.
There is no truer dictum than 'a bad decision on Monday makes more money than a good decision on Friday'.
(I agree strongly with this point that we need to be decisive in our role as leaders. However, I also think that we must do some "acting" in front of client and pretends that we arrive at our decisions after careful considerations and covering all angles. This is because some people have the impression that fast decision making is rash and is not well-thought of. They need to read Malcolm Gladwell's Blink).
11) Part of the magic of reading a good book is that the reader brings his imagination into play, and so adds to the story. If your pitch works well, the same thing will happen. Your audience will get involved and start to add their own light and shade. That's when you know you've won.
12) When you write a pitch, be sure that you have a powerful idea at its core. Then be sure that the central idea is crystal clear to your audience - because if it's not vivid to them, it might as well not be there.
The Authors call it the 'cornerstone slide".
13) Be sure your pitch has a strong central idea. Be sure it is encapsulated well in one slide. Then use that cornerstone slide in your delivery to dramatize the simplicity and strength of your promise.
14) Have a summary; keep it clear; keep it simple. Above all, put it at the end of the pitch, where it keeps the power with you, the pitcher.
15) When people are asked to back a plan, in reality they are being asked to back the person behind the plan. That's why trust and confidence are so important. If the person asking the question is the kind of person which inspires confidence, he is likely to get the answer he wants. So the ability to radiate confidence is crucial.
16) How can you radiate confidence? First, by not trying too hard. The clever pitcher finds ways of demonstrating that his previous work and his previous experience should encourage his audience to trust him for the future.
17) Confidence is also about dealing with your audience as if you are an equal, not a supplicant. So your tone and your body language must suggest that we are all looking at this problem as equals together.
18) The audience must always feel that you can live without them. There's nothing more sexy than a hint of hard-to-get, and there is nothing less sexy than being too eager to please.
19) Confidence is also tied up with simplicity. If you express yourself simply, it inspires confidence. The more complex the reassurances you give, the less reassuring you become.
20) Get the content of the presentation absolutely right first!
21) Confidence is infectious.
22) The one technique to avoid at any price is to present by giving everyone in the group a bound book of the presentation slides, and taking them through it page by page.
23) When you lose control you lose everything.
24) The question of speakers using notes. It's very simple: Don't.
25) If you want to make it feel long and tedious, there is no better way than to read out every word on a slide.
26) Never, ever read out the slides.
27) When someone asks you a question, look at them.
28) An interview is just like any other pitch - if you are going to be successful, you need to define very clearly what success looks like for that particular pitch.
29) All pitches need an element of reassurance and an element of excitement.
30) Numbers may be how you keep the score, but they aren't how you play the game. What drives business success is emotion: passion, greed, ambition, determination, courage.
31) If you can do it, then do it. If you can't do it, then learn how to do it. But don't put your trust in someone who tells others how to, but never has himself.
32) What constitutes a good CV?
a) First, make it short. Very short.
b) Second, think what the new job is, think what you have done, and find ways to link them.
c) Third, analyse your strengths and weaknesses, then find ways to overcome the weak points and emphasize the good.
d) Fourth, show your personality.
e) Fifth, don't say anything about your private life unless you can make it interesting.
f) Sixth, get a designer to help you make it look distinctive.
g) Lastly, don't be embarassed to include a photo of yourself.
33) Pitching is a theatre where the potency of emotions counts for far, far more than the aridity of statistics, information and analysis.
34) Cut away the fat and never forget that your audience want one big answer, not fifteen little ones.
35) The psychology of pitching:
a) The pitcher must deal with his audience's fear of loss and risk.
b) The pitcher must excite them (his audience).
c) It's about the removal of negatives and the creation of positives.
36) Understanding that the transfer of power in a pitch is a two-way street is massively important.
37) In relationships (with friends, new acquaintances, etc.), the key is to drop your ambition to be known as a good talker, and embrace the ambition of being known as a good listener instead.
38) On charismastic people: First, they aren't afraid to be different from the rest of us. And second, but very important, they look as if they are enjoying themselves.
39) People with charisma follow their own path. And they have fun doing it.
40) Passion matters!
41) Don't aim to get things done and not offend someone somewhere. You can't do both.
42) Basic disciplines of a good pitch:
a) Find a calm space to think in.
b) Remember that people's emotions count for more than logic.
c) Think through your proposition before you spell it out.
d) Articulate it in the simplest way.
e) Don't go for an unattainable perfect solution, go for what works.
f) Focus on what it means to them, not on what it means to you.
43) A gentleman, it used to be said, is someone who is never rude...unintentionally.
44) The best possible test for psychological health is the ability to get on with other people.
45) Emotions are twice as important as facts in the consumer's decision-making process.
46) On seduction, or, how to get to yes: Subtlety is more likely to bring results than a brutal approach. To disguise something is, in effect, to draw attention to it.
47) People who lack confidence are great votaries of the 'no' function in man: they are always ready with a reason why some suggested strategem is impossible, difficult or merely just uncomfortable.
48) People who lack confidence are terrified of being wrong. (I agree whole-heartedly. This is why you see successful people as positive people while many others are very negative. Everything seems impossible to them. We must train our thinking towards making it happen rather than seeing impossible obstacles all the time. Ability to perceive obstacles is good as long as we work towards overcoming them).
49) Everybody knows, after Disraeli, the confident person's motto: 'Never complain and never explain',...........'Your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.' Confident people never make excuses.
50) Eleanor Roosevelt: 'You must do the thing you think you cannot do'.
51) The confident person finds insecurity stimulating and opportunity exciting.
52) Charisma means brimful of confidence, the ability to win the assent of any audience. Or to win a pitch.
53) Poet Jean Lorrain: 'A bad reputation never did anyone any harm'. With respect, a little malice can be useful and enjoyable.
54) In a business culture if everybody thinks it's a good idea, then - whatever it is - it probably isn't.
55) Thomas Watson, founder of IBM: 'If you want to succeed, double your failure rate'.
56) You can also win an unfair advantage just by accumulating more ideas and information than the next man.
In summary: This is a good book on pitching (or making presentations and communications). I find it useful as I have seen many presentations which are cluttered and not well-structured. Audience simply lose interest after a few slides. The book highlights many important points to make a good presentation and it also made it clear that the presenter himself is also important (if not the most important). Therefore, in our journey through work and life, we must continuously improve our skills and bring confidence and joy to the people we meet. Doesn't the world looks brighter already with all the possibilities out there?
Good luck. And one more point, if you happen to meet the girl of your dreams, remember to make your pitch (not with a whiteboard, but with your conversations, charm, etc.) an interesting, exciting and most important a two-way process. Also, a little bit of mystery and subtlety will help. I know it works ;)
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