Pitch Like a Girl
No this isn’t a baseball advertisement, sexist rave or feminist argument. Pitch Like A Girl
My particular favorite, well the one I will mention today, deals with pitching to the correct people for the correct reason, something often overlooked by many.
“Indeed, if you take away only once concept from this book,” Ronna writes, “Let it be this: The best prospects care about what you’re trying to do because the goal benefits them, too. The best pitchers think through this benefit ahead of time and fashion their pitch around why supporting them is good for the people to whom they’re pitching.”
To be honest this is something I have always done but it occurred to me when reading it that perhaps others don’t. To me I think it is the most important ingredient in pitching success.
When I first came to New York, I was sent to Celebrity Wrangle (an awful job much like selling vacuum cleaners). I had to sign twelve US celebrities to a new travel show I had created. The catch: I had no budget, scheduling and only ‘interest’ from a US network. This of course, all had to be done in four weeks.
Now, as you can imagine this was more than difficult most in the industry deemed it ‘impossible’. Particularly since I had very few contacts in the States (actually none); I came from Australia representing a small production company and this was my first time ever as an Executive Producer and Celebrity Wrangler.
You’ll be glad to know I signed fifteen. How? I simply looked for people to whom this project would benefit. Who could benefit from suggesting a show to their client that may or may not go ahead? Publicists.
I contacted every publicist I could find and pitched my little heart out. By finding people to whom my project would benefit I succeeded.
Indeed with every new venture I attempt that is the very first question I ask, “why would someone want to do this for me?” “How can it benefit them?” And it’s something I do when creating written pitches. In every pitch I dedicate a whole page to ‘what this project can do for you and your business’. It’s an important aspect of pitching. We are all busy and overloaded make your pitch irresistible.
‘Pitch Like a Girl’ by Ronna Lichtenberg, published by Rodale Books © 2005.
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