A powerful pitch requires a clear vision above all else

Without a clear vision, its hard for the person at the receiving end of your pitch to know what action to take next. If they’re unclear, they’ll probably just nod and be polite, but ultimately do nothing.

Pitching isn’t really any more complicated than that. Yes there’s an architecture to a good pitch. Yes there are some details. But when it comes down to it, you need to have a clear understanding of where you’re at right now, where you want to be at a particular point in the future and what resources you need to get you there. That’s about it.

This got nailed home for me recently. Two things happened.

Firstly, I listened to a podcast interview of Tristan White from The Physio Co who talked about a Painted Picture Vision he created for his business. It’s a very clear snapshot, documented, of what his business will look and feel like at a particular point in time in the future.

Now just stop and think about that for a sec. That’s a powerful concept. We move in the direction of our focus, therefore a clear painted picture vision provides a clear focus. So it begs the question. How clear are you of what you want your business to look like in 3 years or even 5 years time? Do you have that documented? I’m not talking about a wanky vision statement declaring “we will be the leader in our field” etc. I mean a practical and pragmatic picture of what the business will look like, right down to the tinniest of details. Now I get there’s a psychological resistance to want to define the future to that degree, mainly because the future is such an unpredictable thing. I get that. But, in actual fact, is the future really such an unpredictable thing? Or is it only unpredictable because we typically don’t take the time to plan and focus on what we want our picture of the future to look like?

To illustrate my point, imagine two scenarios. One where I give you a brand new puzzle box with the picture of the puzzle on the front and all the pieces jumbled up inside vs. one where I give you all the pieces of the puzzle, without the box and in turn the picture of the complete puzzle. Which do you think you would have a harder time putting together? Obvious, right? Well without a picture of what you want your business to look like at a particular point in the future, its very hard to arrange all the pieces of the business to fit together in a the way that brings that picture to life.

Secondly, I was having a chat with my business partner Daniel Priestley about pitching. He gave an example I had heard him talk about before. It goes something like this

“Imagine you’re wanting to start a business and I organised for you to have 30 meetings with 30 influential entrepreneurs. Imagine you attended each meeting, excited to meet each person but without a clear picture of where the business is at right now and where you want to take it. What results could you expect to achieve from the meeting? You might say things like, ‘I’d just love to pick your brains’ or ‘what advice do you have for someone just starting out?’ and walk away with some inspiration at best, but no real traction or actual progress. The point is, those entrepreneurs either have, or have access to, all the resources you need to fill in blanks between where you’re at right now and where you want to be. But without having a clear ‘now’ and ‘then’, they can’t possibly know how to help bridge the gap”

And there it struck me, clear as day, that a compelling pitch requires a clear vision above all else.