Even in my early teens I was enamored by marketing, I think I was fifteen when I decided that my career should involve the positioning of products and brands.  Im sure I thought I sounded like a genius telling people this. The truth is, I’ve always enjoyed packaging information in different ways and seeing if I can get one group to buy into something that might be less interesting if presented differently, evolving or changing a description to find common interest points.

In one of my first memories involving a pitch, I must have been around 10yrs old. My sister was saving for a her grade six backpacking trip and had recruited us to sell badges made on Dads ‘badge machine’ to help her raise the $200 she needed. The occasion coincided with an annual horse race called the Melbourne Cup, an event similar to the Kentucky derby.  So we photocopied and colored images of horses and put them in the badge-making machine.

I remember strategizing with my brother as we would offer a badge to one person, then try variations on the offer as we went person to person.  After a while I got pretty good at knowing what the story should be based on the surroundings.  If they were a senior group it was ‘buy a badge for your grandkids’, if they were a couple it was ‘buy a badge for your sweetheart’, if they were from out of town it was ‘buy a souvenir badge’.  There was always some way to make the purchase of the badge make sense.  The day was a huge success and my sister got to go on the school camping trip.

I muse every now and then as I prepare a proposal or a pitch at how the process doesnt vary too much from my badge selling experience.  Effective pitching is centered around the notion of presenting a message that touches on the points which are relevant to the reciever.  The major differences between a good and bad pitch are how it is received, not how it is given.

Thats why pitching should be flexible.  In the same way your audience varies each time you present, so should the pitch.