Great Pitches Start With Change
Great pitches are not just about presenting an idea, but about sparking a change. They challenge the status quo, introduce new perspectives, and inspire action. Let's delve into the art of crafting pitches that can truly make a difference.
Great pitches don’t start with your vision or mission
They start with why, if by why you mean a reason you get up in the morning
- When you start with a problem, you offer no context for why solving it matters
- Great pitches start by naming a change in the world
- No matter what you’re pitching, your most formidable obstacle is adherence to the status quo
Yes, Change Powers Great Investor Pitches
Fearful of the status quo’s tenacity, savvy investors want to hear how you’ll combat it
- A change in the world helps them detect the scent of opportunity
- In a fascinating analysis of how much time investors spend on different types of slides in funding decks, DocSend found that the “Why Now?” slide-in which many founders articulate change-outranked everything except financials, team, and competition
- When it comes to naming the change, it’s a leap worth taking
5 Criteria for Naming a Powerful Change
Great pitches start with a change, but not just any change.
- You have to express the change quickly and succinctly
- For the change to engage audiences, it must accomplish certain narrative work
- It must meet the following five criteria
The change must, to some degree, flout conventional wisdom
Make the case that the change has already happened in a way that sparks recognition
- Look for developments that are new (and that create stakes for readers) yet demonstrably happening
- No newspaper can publish a story today solely about the unexpected results of the 2016 presidential election.
The change must give rise to stakes
Opportunity and risk for your audience
- Change must create new winners and losers
- If it doesn’t, your audience is probably justified in preferring the status quo to whatever you’re pitching
- For example, buyers now practically sleep with their phones
- Winners will engage through always-on messaging channels like Slack while losers will keep sending email
The change statement must describe how things have changed
When you’re swimming in relevant changes, you have two choices: choose the one that best meets the criteria above, or (2) craft a master change statement that captures all of them under one umbrella
- Your biggest advantage over larger, established competitors is that you can tell a more focused story
Three Signs You’ve Named the Right Change
You’re ready to replace traditional mission and vision statements (“We want to be the most trusted ___”) with the change-and the future you commit to making real for your audience.
- When you name the change, audiences nod in recognition and open up about how the change affects them, scares them, and how they see it presenting new opportunities.
The change must be a discrete, 0-to-1 shift
Don’t start by asking the team to articulate what has changed
- Instead, declare a discrete change-a 0- to-1 disruption-even if it feels like you’re exaggerating
- How has it reached a tipping point such that your audience now lives in a different world?
The change must be stated as a done deal-not the result of your actions
It is a change that has demonstrably already happened (or demonstrably happening and unstoppable)
- The change you name must spark recognition
- You’re not trying to persuade people about some future you think they should want
- Once your audience acknowledges the change, you can’t talk about a new future you want to make real