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Pitch Anything
An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal
Oren Klaff
McGraw-Hill, 2011 
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Recommendation
Have you ever made a pitch or presentation that offered all the facts
perfectly and countered every objection, but still fell flat after all your
efforts? Investment banker Oren Klaff suggests that how you pitch is
more important than how many pitches you throw. You can win your
audience by knowing how the human brain reacts to new information
and by learning how to control each interaction by using “frames.” With
Klaff’s pitching method, you engage each listener’s emotional “croc
brain” and keep your audience members in a state of “hot cognition”
until you win their business. getAbstract recommends Klaff’s perceptive
methods and illustrative stories to everyone who pitches and presents.
You might have logical reasons to read this, but your emotional
response is what will keep you interested.

Take-Aways
• How you present a pitch is fundamentally different from how
people receive it.
• More pitches do not necessarily mean greater sales success.
• To pitch profitably, you must keep your audience members’
attention.
• The human brain is divided into the “croc brain,” the midbrain
and the neocortex. To reach the decision making neocortex, you
must first win over the croc brain.
• The croc brain responds to information emotionally and
instinctually.
• To impress the croc brain, use the “STRONG” pitching process: “set
the frame, tell the story, reveal the intrigue, offer the prize, nail
the hookpoint and get a decision.”
• Control the pitch process and remain the dominant person in the
room.
• Higher perceived status positions you and your idea as a prize to
be won.
• Never pitch for more than 20 minutes.
• Gain and hold your audience members’ interest, make your pitch
and then withdraw.

Summary
Here’s the Pitch
Regardless of the business you’re in or the product you sell, common
wisdom holds that you must work harder to land more sales pitches
and that you will make only a couple of sales from every 100 pitches.
Thus, sales is a numbers game that depends only on effort and volume.
“ ”
“There is a fundamental disconnect between the way we
pitch anything and the way it is received by our audience.”

That sounds like a pretty difficult way to make a living, because it

depends on the idea that – no matter how good your presentation skills
– you are destined to strike out most of the time. Instead, you need to
learn this crucial secret: As a presenter, the success of your pitch is less
about your presentation skills and more about how you get and hold
your audience’s attention.

Crocodiles and Business

To boost your pitch success percentage, take a moment to understand
some basic neuroscience. The brain is divided into three parts. The first
and deepest part is the “crocodile brain”: The “croc brain” responds
first to all incoming messages and reacts in a fundamental way, with
raw emotion and a fast fight-or-flight reaction. The second part is the
midbrain, which responds next and gives meaning and thought to the
input it receives. The last response comes from the neocortex – the part
of the brain charged with making sense of complexity and with solving

“
problems.

”
“Pitches are sent from the modern – and smart – part of the
brain: the neocortex. But they are received by a part of the
brain that is five million years older (and not as bright).”

This poses a challenge for presenters. You develop presentations and

pitches in your neocortex and construct your sales argument as a
complex problem to solve. Then you share your solution with your
audience. Your audience members, however, receive your message
through the croc brain, which responds one of three ways: losing
interest, deciding the message is a threat or passing the information on
to the midbrain in a condensed form. Sales pitches always face this
cognitive process unless you are selling “a product so sexy it’s
irresistible,” like a Ferrari.

Making a Pitch Your Audience Will Catch

To impress the croc brain with your message, use the “STRONG"
process. STRONG stands for: “setting the frame, telling the story,
revealing the intrigue, offering the prize, nailing the hookpoint and
getting the decision.”
“ ”
“A great pitch is not about procedure. It’s about getting and
keeping attention.”

When you go into a business meeting, you must first set the frame. Try
to establish a framework – a set of conditions – favorable to keeping
your audience’s interest. Your audience members have likely seen
several similar presentations. They will try to frame the meeting to get
it to end as quickly as possible without having to engage with you. In
terms of the cognitive science at work, “the stronger frame absorbs the

“
weaker,” and whoever sets the frame prevails.

”
“Deciding that you like something before you fully
understand it – that’s a hot cognition.”

For example, consider the last time a police officer pulled you over for a
minor driving infraction. The cop had a number of tools that created an
advantage over you – like sirens, lights and a uniform. As the officer
walked toward your car, you probably reacted with an elevated heart
rate and the desire to explain yourself; the cop was in charge before
even asking, “Do you know why I pulled you over?” The police officer

“
controlled the frame.

”
“Attention will be given when information novelty is high
and will drift away when information novelty is low.”

In a business situation, you need to control the frame and understand

the frames that other people present to you. Those who feel they are
more important than others in attendance will use the “power frame.”
Such people expect you to defer to their status. Defuse this tactic with a
“power-busting frame” that includes a “mildly shocking but not
unfriendly act.” For example, if your audience member demonstrates
personal power by doodling on your handouts, take your handouts back
to demand attention.

“Whenever you are entering a business situation, the first

question you must ask is, ‘What kind of frame am I up
against?’”
You also will encounter the “prize frame.” The task in this frame is to
determine who is the prize in a given discussion. You always want that
prize to be you. If the main client you plan to pitch to is absent from the
meeting or running late, make yourself the prize. Instead of pitching to
staff subordinates, offer to wait a short while and then say that you will
need to reschedule for a later date at your office. While this might
unnerve you the first time you try it, you are reframing the discussion
to make clear that the information you will present is a prize worth

“
pursuing.

”
“To hold your target’s attention, there must be tension – a
form of low-level conflict – guiding the interaction.”

Another important frame is the “time frame.” Whoever controls the

timing of the meeting controls this frame. Watch for signs that your
audience is losing interest – at that point, they control the time frame.
Keep control of the timing of the meeting and wrap things up before

“
your audience cools and wants to move along.

”
“We notice things that have movement through space and
time because they are likely to be important.”

Finally, there is the “intrigue frame,” which is often at war with the
“analyst frame.” Remember that the croc brain governs emotion and
interest, which are “hot cognitions,” while the neocortex handles
problem solving, which involves “cold cognition.”

You want to keep your audience members involved in a hot cognitive

process for as long as possible. When they can analyze the puzzle you
present and reach their own solution, they’ll lose interest. Maintain a
sense of intrigue and challenge throughout your presentation to keep

“
the hot cognition active.

”
“If you wish to elevate your social value in any given
situation, you can do so by redirecting people into a domain
where you are in charge.”
Accomplish this by telling a brief story in which you are the star. The
story should pose some sort of “risk, danger and uncertainty,” and a
plot that forces you to solve the problem in the story in a limited
amount of time or face serious consequences. The element of risk and
the looming threat of bad results create necessary tension. You want the
people in your audience to feel that they must know how you will solve
the problem. Their emotions remain active as they journey through the
story with you, and their analyst frames will not come into play.

Establish Your “Status”

How others view your status determines your ability to master a
dominant frame and control the interaction. You don’t gain status by
being nice. If you lack “high status,” you won’t be able to get the
audience focus you need to throw your pitch. Status is about taking the
“alpha” position, the one with primacy and the most authority. If you
don’t seize that position, you will fall into the “beta trap” of being
subordinate to the alpha. Nobody listens to or pays attention to the beta.

“
You must have status in order to persuade and to close.

”
“Our most important messages have a surprisingly low
chance of getting through.”

Pitch meetings are almost perfectly designed to put you in a beta

position. First there’s the lobby, where a gatekeeper greets you and asks
you to take a seat. The wait demands that you cede control of the timing
of your visit to whoever comes to escort you to the meeting. Such “beta
trapping” continues throughout the meeting, keeping you at a
disadvantage. “Your position in the social hierarchy is an artificial
measure of your worth to others, a construct based on your wealth,
your popularity within society at large and the power of the position

“
you hold.”

”
“This is why you see presenters lose more and more of the
audience as time goes on – those who solve the puzzle drop
out.”

To assume the alpha position, manipulate the variables. Start by

ignoring the rituals that exist to put you in the beta position. Do not be
deferential, never join in pointless pre-meeting chatter and don’t let
anyone tell you what to do. Also, ignore your customer’s status. Look for
ways to boost your frame and to shift the conversation to areas where
you can demonstrate expertise. Make yourself the prize and encourage
your customer to acknowledge your alpha status.

The Pitch
Many salespeople let a pitch go on for too long. To keep your listeners’
croc brains engaged and the hot cognition going, limit your pitch to

“
about 20 minutes.

”
“Successful prizing restores calm and poise to the social
interaction.”

To introduce your idea, discuss “why now.” Speak to your presentation’s

urgency by examining the economic, social and technological forces
that affect the aspect of the client’s business that your pitch addresses.
This is an important step in establishing “movement,” another
neurological trigger to maintaining interest – the brain is wired to see

“ ”
movement and change, not stability.

“Anything can be pitched in 20 minutes by a pro.”

This technique also allows you to grab your audience’s attention, which
is crucial to maintaining control of the pitch. You need to create both
“desire and tension” in your audience, and that requires understanding
their neurochemistry. Both of these emotions are linked to the
production of dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain. Dopamine
transmits the pleasant feelings a person gets when anticipating a
reward. The brain creates norepinephrine in response to tension.
Manage the creation of these two chemicals, and you’ll have your
audience members’ attention. Then, you can deliver your secret sauce,
which is “the unfair advantage you have over others.” This sets you up
to offer the deal, which takes the least amount of time in your 20-
minute pitch. Deliver it in four steps:

1. “Introduce yourself and the big idea: five minutes.”

2. “Explain the budget and secret sauce: ten minutes.”
3. “Offer the deal: two minutes.”
4. “Stack frames for a hot cognition: three minutes.”

Bringing It Home
Your final step is to keep your audience members in hot cognition so
they stay emotionally excited about your idea. Once they are
enthusiastic about the concept you’re offering, demonstrate your alpha
position by reinforcing your power through the frames you use, one
after the other, stacking the intrigue, prize, time and “moral authority”
frames.

The powerful moral authority frame shows up quite often in daily life.
Think of your doctor, whose approach might be “the most powerful
frame in the world.” The doctor commands all the cues that
demonstrate clout. A physician has specialized knowledge that can
mean the difference between life and death, or sickness and health. To
attain that knowledge, doctors dedicate a significant part of their lives
to education, and they earn commensurate salaries. When you
encounter your doctor, you are likely wearing a flimsy gown, while the
doc is dressed in business attire or a white coat. You accept your
physician’s recommendations almost as commands. By taking a piece of
this moral authority and applying it to your pitch, you can gain some
part of the automatic response you give doctors or others with
moral authority.

Avoid looking needy as you pitch: “It’s incredibly bad for frame control.
It erodes status. It freezes your hot cognitions. It topples your frame
stacks.” Neediness can torpedo your pitch; the croc brain sees it as a
threat and shies away just when you want it to engage. Neediness can
be hard to avoid, because it arises from the natural human tendency to
seek validation – to want feedback from your audience that says your
pitch is acceptable. Avoid closing your pitch with statements such as
“So, what do you think?” or “We can sign a deal right away if you want
us to.”

To combat neediness, use “the Tao of Steve,” a philosophy from the film
of that name, which is based on the qualities of actor Steve McQueen,
TV’s Six Million Dollar Man Steve Austin and Hawaii Five-O cop Steve
McGarrett. The heroes evince three lessons:

1. McQueen shows how to “eliminate your desires” – Don’t want

something.
2. Austin shows how to “be excellent in the presence of others” –
Show expertise.
3. McGarrett shows when to “withdraw” – Stop while your
audience still wants more.
In other words, keep your cool while your audience is thinking hot,
demonstrate your area of competency and stop even though your
audience still wants more.

Keep a sense of humor about your pitch. Remember the example of

frame control that presidential candidate Ronald Reagan exhibited in
his 1984 debate with his opponent Walter Mondale. While Mondale
wanted to take control of the campaign through a frame that focused on
Reagan’s advanced age, Reagan deflected this with the famous
comment, “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going
to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and
inexperience.” Mondale was 56 at the time. Reagan became the alpha by
taking control of the frame with good humor and a likable attitude. The
American electorate embraced his pitch and awarded him a second
term.

About the Author

Oren Klaff is director of capital markets for the investment bank
Intersection Capital, where his neuroscience-based pitches have grown
the firm’s assets to $250 million.

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