Tuesday, August 05, 2008

The "So, What?" technique of Pitching

The famous Lawyer joke goes like this:

Question: How can you tell if a lawyer is lying?
Answer: His lips are moving.

In his book "The Art of The Start", Guy Kawasaki does a spoof on this one for entrepreneurs:

Question: How can you tell if an entrepreneur is pitching?
Answer: His lips are moving.

Guy shares a story about Bill Joos, who, during his career at IBM, was trained to imagine there was a little man sitting on his shoulder during presentations. Everytime Bill said something, the little man would whisper, "So What?" to him.

Guy suggests that every entrepreneur should carry this little man and listen to him. He further recommends : After you answer the question, follow with the two most powerful words in a pitch "For Instance..." and then discuss a real-world use or scenario of a feature of your product or service.

Now, if you say, "So What?" then Guy's answer is "The significance of what you are saying is not always self-evident, let alone shocking and awe-inspiring".

So What?

So, keep revising you pitch till you develop a pitch that is shocking or awe-inspiring!