Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal (10 page)

He cal ed out my mistake and then quickly pol ed the table for the information needed to make the correct decision. He chose the correct wine, making sure it was a better wine at a lower price than I had chosen, and then gave me credit for making the proper choice. This was an early masterstroke that secured his control of the social power he had taken from me two minutes earlier.

His next move was to strengthen his position by co-opting one of my guests into his frame, making it impossible for me to attack him without simultaneously attacking her.

He waited for someone to comment on the wine—anyone, any comment—and lavished praise on them to distribute some of his social power to that person. When one person joins his frame, the others wil fol ow. And now the table was his.
Voilà!

Back to the dinner. As expected, the entrees were superb, and Benoit suggested a second bottle of wine, something a little different to capture the flavors coming from the progressing meal. Benoit appeared more regularly now, floating around the table, col ecting information, making suggestions, and basical y doing the hard work of protecting his superior social position. My guests told me that this was one of the best meals they’d ever had. I thanked them for joining me and then gave Benoit an appreciative nod. At first, I wanted to smack Benoit, but now I was real y starting to like him.

As the plates were cleared, Benoit disappeared. I had an expectation that something more was coming, but what? Ten minutes went by. Where was Benoit? I knew something was up.

I was right about that. Benoit had chosen the dessert. Moments later, a gleaming silver cart was rol ed to our table, fol owed by a cart lined with brandy and cigars. Behind al this was the coffee cart—the attendant fil ed individual French press cylinders with freshly ground coffee.

“Madames et messieurs, for this evening’s dessert, I have taken the liberty of making something special for you,” Benoit announced. What he meant was, “I have taken over your host’s mind and bank account.”

“
Baba de rhum
,” he continued, “our most famous dessert, a light and delicious cake made with cream, rum, and a little sugar. Please enjoy.”

The table applauded, and Benoit cut the cake with flair. I was so owned by Benoit at this point that it real y no longer mattered. I smiled, relaxed, and decided that Benoit was going to get the largest tip he’d ever seen. In fact, the tip is the only power I had left in this situation.

My guests were delighted, and now, as the evening closed over coffee and brandy, Benoit slowly released some social power back to me. For a very good reason: The check was coming, and I was sure it would melt my neocortex.

“Madames et messieurs, it has been our pleasure to serve you this evening,” Benoit gushed. He deftly placed a smal silver tray near my left arm.

On the tray was a tiny slip of paper turned face down, held in place by a smal silver fleur-de-lis paperweight. No itemized bil could possibly fit on this miniscule slice of paper, just a single number would be on it. As my guests warmly thanked Benoit with hugs and handshakes, I managed a peek at the bil , flipping up the corner, like a poker player, not wanting to show any reaction.

It wasn’t as bad as I thought.

With the performance Benoit gave, and the control he held throughout the evening, I was expecting him to take advantage. He had the power to do so, but in a final display of total frame control, he chose moderation over self-indulgence. Now I was absolutely delighted, and the large tip I was thinking of leaving him was just raised.

Alpha and Beta

It doesn’t matter how wel you argue, the way your points are crafted, or how elegant your flow and logic. If you do not have high status, you wil not command the attention necessary to make your pitch heard. You wil not persuade, and you wil not easily get a deal done.

As you are now starting to realize, pitching any kind of idea or deal involves playing a complex and tricky status game. And before I talk about the ways to win the game, and possible ways to lose it as wel , I should cover the real advantages held by the person with the highest status, the
alpha
.

The alpha enjoys most of the attention in a social interaction, even when he’s not demanding it. And when he
does
demand it, the alpha captures the group’s attention immediately. When he makes a statement, it’s regarded as true, and the claims go unchal enged. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that the alpha in a group is trusted and fol owed without question. To il ustrate this, researchers have set up many tests in which men, dressed in high-status business suits, jaywalk across a busy street when it’s unsafe to cross. Lower-status pedestrians tend to fol ow the high-status decoy into the danger zone. They wil not fol ow someone who is dressed badly, however.

When you take the high-status position in a social interaction, you
feel it,
and it is also felt by your audience. Do not underestimate the importance and value of status to your overal success.

For more than 40 years, sales trainers have been teaching techniques and methods that help “situational y disadvantaged” salespeople (read: those with low social value) get an appointment, establish a temporary relationship (cal ed
building rapport
, which contributes absolutely nothing to your social rank), package a business transaction in a thin and fragile emotional wrapper, and sometimes, if they’re either lucky or doggedly persistent, close a sale.

During the 1970s and 1980s, these techniques worked, but even then, only for the most tenacious, hard-driving, type A personalities. Stil , the purveyors of process-based sales methods continue training mil ions of ambitious salespeople in seminars from coast to coast. Today it’s difficult to find an executive who isn’t familiar with techniques like building rapport, pushing features and benefits, overcoming objections, and trial closing.

As a consequence, after generations of this process-driven business behavior, targets know how the sales game is played.
Use this stuff, and
they will see it coming.
Even the best of these techniques are now so commonplace that clients have developed strong defenses and barriers to block them. These defenses are cal ed
beta traps
, meaning that you are held in a subordinate position to the target (or buyer) at al times. You are
PWNED
from start to finish.

There is no substitute for holding a position of high status. The good news is that you need not be a celebrity or a bil ionaire to enjoy high levels of social status. There are ways you can create it instantly. And with it, you can capture and hold the attention of any audience or target.

The first step toward elevating your social status is to avoid the beta traps.

Beta Traps

In social interactions and business meetings as in nature, those who hold the dominant alpha rank are able to accomplish more than those holding a lesser rank. Alphas cal the shots, give the orders, and create the outcomes they want with a minimum of effort. It’s important to them emotional y and economical y to remain the highest-ranking person in their social group.

Because they occupy a coveted rank, alphas have to constantly fight to maintain and protect their position. As top dog, their rank is under constant threat, and alphas protect themselves by asserting their authority over their employees and coworkers. They ask subordinates to run their errands, bring them coffee, and deal with matters that are disinteresting to them or are deemed to be below their rank. These are the nicer forms of dominant turf-protecting behaviors; many who hold alpha rank behave in far worse ways.

To shield themselves from people of higher social rank who visit them in their work environment, they erect a protective ring of social barriers intended to deflect and demote any threatening alphas.

A beta trap is a subtle but effective social ritual that puts you in the low-status position and works to keep you there, beneath the decision maker you have come to visit, for the entire duration of the social interaction. Most business environments are surrounded by a moat of beta traps that you already recognize and know: the reception desk, the lobby, the conference room, and any public meeting space in or near the office.

The first beta trap you encounter is the lobby. It’s a venue created to welcome visitors, right? In fact, the lobby serves to demote you from the moment you arrive and keep you demoted throughout your visit.

You know the dril ; how many times have you experienced this scenario?

You enter the lobby of the office where you wil be meeting your target. You approach the reception desk. The receptionist looks up—“Hi, can I help you?”—then takes a cal before you can answer. You stand, wait, and take a business card from the tray on counter. The receptionist transfers a cal and then looks at you. “Yes? Can I help you?”

You say, “I’m here to see Bil Jones for a 2 o’clock. I talked to you earlier, I think, and you confirmed. …”

The receptionist looks past you. “Sign the visitor’s book, please. Here’s your visitor’s pass. Keep it with you at al times. Please take a seat. Bil ’s assistant wil come get you in a few minutes.” She then turns to finish a text message. You take a seat in the lobby. A table fil ed with dog-eared trade magazines and week-old newspapers indicate that others like you have been here before.

This sequence, in translation, reads as fol ows: Be a wel -behaved salesperson, do as you’re told, and you shal be rewarded with a bottle of water, a short visit, and a vague promise to “review your materials and information” after you leave. When you observe office power rituals, you are signaling to your target that you are a beta.

At 2:10 p.m., a young aide approaches you. “Hi. Yes, Bob is running a little late, shouldn’t be more than another 10 minutes. Water and coffee are over there. Help yourself.” You blink, she’s gone.

Your target arrives late, offering a mock apology for his impossible schedule, tel ing you that he now has only a few minutes and stil hasn’t had a chance to review your materials. And now the decision maker, “Mr. Big,” won’t be able to attend the meeting as planned. Sorry.
At this point, you
have been beta trapped and are completely and utterly defeated. You may as well go home.

What a demoralizing way to do business. Yet this is how mil ions of people set and conduct business meetings. It’s a waste of time because the behaviors and outcomes are so predictable and so unproductive.

Another common beta trap is the conference room. If it’s empty when you arrive, you are usual y left alone for several minutes, cooling your heels while you wait for your targets to arrive. When they arrive, the mood is often jovial, with lots of light social chatter, smiles, and handshakes. They are happy because they are now taking a break from their daily work to come into a nice, larger room to see today’s entertainment—that’s you. Who isn’t happy when they step into a circus tent and take a seat at ringside? They know a show is about to start, and they’re looking forward to relaxing and having a good time.

As you wait for the latecomers—the decision makers you real y need in the room—conversations are now taking place that do not include you.

Others talk to each other as if you were not in the room, which is not only annoying, but it’s also one of the most degrading things one person can do to another. In this situation, you are the jester in another king’s court, and your value is purely based on the quality of your entertainment. You have no status whatsoever.

Then there are public spaces where customers sometimes decide to take a meeting. “Let’s get a coffee and talk,” they say, leading you into a cafeteria or close-by café where you exchange smal talk in the queue and manage an awkward moment over who should pay for the drinks. You take a place at a nearby table, within earshot of a dozen strangers. This is no place for a pitch.

Your status level is zero. You are owned, processed, and now are nothing but a pleasant social interlude in an otherwise boring day. But you press on, believing in yourself, and your offering. You open your pitch and are moving along nicely when suddenly someone walks up to your customer and starts talking to him as if you do not exist. “Hey, Jim, how’s it going?” the intruder says, shaking his hand and ignoring you. “Did you get my e-mail about the shipping delays in Dal as?” They continue their conversation for a while as you can do nothing but stare.

Eventual y, when he decides he needs to go bother someone else, the intruder leaves, and your customer turns back to you. His face is blank, his eyes are empty, and his brain has stopped functioning. “Where were we?” he asks.

Need I go on?

There have been many frame col isions in this interaction—but you didn’t win a single one of them. You have no control over the situation.

In general, public spaces are the most deadly beta traps and should be avoided. For a real pitch, coffee shops are an absolute last resort. I wil mention one more public beta trap because it’s common: trade shows and conventions.

If you exhibit at trade shows, you know that the absolute worst possible venue for pitching a customer is in a tiny booth or even on the convention floor. There are so many distractions that not even a frame-control ninja could hold an audience’s attention for more than a few minutes without being interrupted by noise, announcements, or throngs of bag-carrying conventioneers mindlessly gathering free items to fil their brightly colored sacks.

If you need to pitch someone attending a conference, rent a hospitality suite or a hotel conference space or borrow someone’s office conference room—pitch anywhere but on the floor of the convention hal .

A person standing in a trade show booth may as wel erect a neon sign above his or her head that reads,
“I Am Needy!”
Like a caged pet-shop puppy or a late-night infomercial host, you try to draw them into your 8- by 10-foot cube and hope to wow them with your pitch. It’s sad.