Pitch Anything – An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal
I added this book to my reading list after listening to a podcast (The Art of Charm) with the author Oren Klaff.
This guy is a master of persuasion.
I was so impressed by that interview that I bought the soft copy of the book to read, but also the audio version to listen to him tell his story.
Oren knows his stuff and he comes across with passion and confidence in his method. It is no wonder he is so successful, raising millions of dollars in the investment world.
Not only that, this book is right up my alley. It combines money, psychology, and social skills applied to the business world.
His unique mindset and approach applies perfectly to the real estate investing world.
As investors we are always pitching.
- Getting a loan from a bank? Pitching
- Trying to form a partnership for a deal? Pitching
- Buying from a motivated seller? Pitching
- Convincing your family that this real estate thing is worth it and you’re not crazy? You get the picture
Like I said, I highly recommend the audio version, but also get a copy of the book itself because it is a manual that you can look at and refer back to.
Pitch Anything is highly tactical with step by step formulas so that you can weave the right story to influence the right people effectively. What makes it effective?
Lesson 1: Simplify the Complex
This book dives into our evolution as human beings to explain the psychology of why we make decisions the way we do. Our brain evolved in stages with different priorities in a set hierarchy.
Survival first, everything else second. Our brain interprets everything in that frame work. Here is how you know that is true.
Ever been scared to pick up the phone to call a seller (or anyone else for a deal)?
Why?
Nothing bad is going to happen. The worst thing they can tell you is no. Why does rejection (often, not even rejection, but the fear of rejection) scare us?
Because our brain interprets rejection as a threat to our safety.
Brain – “If you get rejected, then someone from the tribe is saying no to you, that means you might be cast out of the group, that means you will be alone, that means you will die”.
While not true in today’s society, that is how our thinking evolved. Run on sentence and all.
Making complex ideas into simple explanations is difficult. I know because this entire website is dedicated to that endeavor.
When pitching something we must balance between boring with too much detail and simplistic with too little substance.
The primal part of our brain, the croc brain, as Oren calls it, has two tendencies:
- Ignore things that are boring (or too complex)
- Run from things that are scary (or too abstract)
Therefore, we need to package the concepts of our pitch in a way that is exciting, interesting, and compelling while having concrete facts that are easily understood.
Lesson 2: Control the Frame
The perspective that you take on something is a frame.
It is the point of view that you see the world though.
It is the lens that affects how the outside world is seen in your mind.
Your frame is especially important in social situations because that is where it informs you and everyone else how to treat you.
“A frame is the instrument you use to package your power, authority, strength, information, and status” – Oren Klaff
All social encounters utilize frames.
The strongest frame governs the social interaction.
For example:
- If you are in court on trial the judge’s frame is stronger than your defendant frame and your act the part. You refer to them as “Your Honor” you speak to them politely, your future depends on their verdict.
- On the other side of the equation you can go home to your children and they defer to your frame. You are the grown up, the one in charge, head of the household, defender and provider. Your roof your rules.
In business the value we provide creates the frame.
We can either look at a seller as the person that has what we want (property), or we can look at ourselves as the stronger framer because we have what they want (solutions).
We can reframe borrowing money from a hard money lender. Yes, they have the capital that we need, but we have the deal that will make their business money. There is no win without our participation.
There is nothing in the business we cannot reframe.
Once we realize we have the power it removes neediness that stops people from working with us.
Lesson 3: Have Fun
Who mentions fun in a business book? How is having fun one of the biggest lessons in this book?
For one thing it removes the neediness that we just talked about.
Neediness will kill deals faster than anything else because people want to work with people that they know, like, and trust. Needy people are harder to trust.
Confident people get things done either because they are truly competent, or they will at least make others believe in them. That’s huge.
Having fun improves motivation. We simply continue doing the things we enjoy doing.
If you have followed my writing so far you know that I don’t believe motivation is essential.
Discipline will always win out over motivation, but if you can have fun and keep the motivation high then take advantage.
You can reframe your mentality to have fun.
There are a lot of things that are not inherently fun in real estate.
There is a lot of paperwork, spreadsheets, little tasks that you would rather not do. (Yes, delegate and delete them, that is a topic for another post).
But, if you can reframe it to something that can be a challenge to make it fun or interesting to your own croc brain then do it.
Make mistakes, enjoy the process, and learn from everything!
Part of the journey doing anything worthwhile in life is being able to take in the moment and eventually look back and laugh.
Easier said than done, I know. There is a difference between having the knowledge and implementing, but give it a try.
Great book!
I cannot recommend it enough because it combines the high level concepts needed to understand human nature and drills down to tactical applications to successfully pitch anything.
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