To carry the pride of your nation to the world’s stage is a daunting task. To be one of the people charged with bringing that stage to your city, is equally so. Regardless of whether you’re in the marketing field or own a business, the odds are good that you’ve presented an idea to a group. Conjure that adrenaline-fueled memory as you get into the Olympic spirit and cheer for your country’s athletes this year. And if you have time before then, read the book Perfect Pitch: The Art of Selling Ideas and Winning New Business. It’s not only a phenomenal roadmap to making your ideas resonate with an audience, it’s also the true story of the people who brought the world’s greatest athletes to the land of falling bridges – London. Pick up a copy or download the audiobook this week. You’ll thank us.
The coup de grâce on this little piece of brilliance is the breakdown of the 45-minute presentation given July 6, 2005 by the London olympic bid team – former athletes, British royalty and the Prime Minister – to become the dark horse winner for the 2012 Olympic Games and beat out frontrunner Paris, France. Without giving too much away, this team beat out all other global cities by knowing who their audience actually was, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and realizing what THEY wanted out of the presentation.
This London team, seven years before the actual 2012 Olympics, came to realize and thus convey the message that the goal of the Olympics and the IOC was to inspire the world and the future athletes of the world by way of allowing London to host the international event.
For the last few years, Perfect Pitch is one of the staple books that we recommend to students and recent graduates when given speaking opportunities. It’s also the Day 1 homework for our new hires. The ability to logically convey and sell (pitch) an idea is a skill that a person in absolutely any business will use. At its core, this book is not just about presenting. It’s about communicating effectively and the art of influencing people by telling a story. When you connect on an emotional level and learn to do more listening than talking, people will WANT to know your idea.
The book sails through other examples of effective (and ineffective) presentations from all industries including many from the experience of author and advertising strategy guru Jon Steel. True to Steel’s own teaching, case studies are presented in a narrative that makes dissecting the tactics of the O.J. Simpson legal defense team enjoyable and even admirable (almost). Even former President Bill Clinton gets a hat tip for his techniques to diffuse and win over crowds.
True advertising nerds like yours truly will take vigorous notes at the discussions on how to assemble a pitch team and how that helped the author work with brands like Sega, Porsche and Unilever. However, anyone in sales, R&D, engineering or management will appreciate the simple yet effective techniques for deploying a theme line and presenting a complicated idea in a digestible manner.
The final chapter, with its breakdown of the actual London presentation and strategy behind it, will give you a new respect for what it means to a country that hosts this event. Think a slideshow is tough? Try 35 revisions and 7 rewrites to a script, 10 rehearsals and an accompanying video for each speaker. Pride, millions of dollars and the eyes of the world…Just another presentation.
Oh, and one more thing…U-S-A! U-S-A!