Dragons’ Den victim highlights the importance of a crystal-clear opening to your business presentation

BBC2’s Dragons’ Den featured a classic pitching error this week – the first entrepreneur forgot to tell the dragons what he was pitching!

We viewers had the benefit of a voiceover explaining that he was seeking investment for ‘a new national fast food franchise’. What the dragons got to see and hear was a (literally) all singing/dancing intro, followed by statistics and facts such as £3.8bn spent of Indian takeaways, two existing stores in South Wales and a dream of a nationwide network. Confused dragon Piers Linney sought clarification, saying: “You have not explained, unless I missed it, what on earth you do. What is it? A takeaway? Is it a shop? Is it fresh? What is it?” The entrepreneur responded, but his explanation was still littered with jargon about ‘the brand’, ‘social media’ etc. Eventually Linney was forced to spell it out for him.

It was a very basic error, but it is quite common. For some years now I have coached some of the most brilliant young entrepreneurs prior to making a pitch of 6-8 minutes in front of investors who have the power and resources to make their business fly. Sometimes during rehearsals I stop them mid-flow, saying: “You are now four minutes into your 6-8 minute pitch and you haven’t told me what it is yet”. They usually protest that their business coaches have stressed the importance of communicating the strength and breadth of their team, the robust nature of their financial projections and size of their potential market.  “Yes”, I reply, “but until we know what it is none of that means anything to anybody.  Once we know what it is, then as well as being intrigued and potentially excited, the fact that you have, say, a rocket scientist and a brain surgeon on your team becomes very relevant”.

So I urge them – before they have even introduced themselves – to give the one-sentence version of what they have invented and plan to unleash on the world; for instance: “Good morning, we have invented a new way to make cars run on air and water alone”. I tell them to spit it out clearly and slowly and then pause to let the message sink in. This, it has to be said, brings other challenges. I remind them that they are some of the most highly educated people in the world and they are clearly very passionate about the project they have been living and breathing to the exclusion of almost everything else. Now they have to explain it all - in a rather specific and alien manner - in just 6-8 minutes. The fact is that they know too much about their project, so I introduce them to the concept of ‘killing your darlings’ – the film maker’s  expression for having to be ruthless with your editing, perhaps cutting out whole scenes that you have lovingly and expensively crafted.

Crucial to any form of communication, however, is getting the fundamental facts absolutely crystal clear up front. If you don’t, then anything that follows is relatively meaningless and your audience are probably half asleep anyway – because you have failed to engage them at the outset.

Is communicating effectively by phone becoming a ‘lost art’?

I was called recently by a journalist who was concerned that using the phone to sell an idea or product was becoming ‘a lost art’. I agreed that he may be onto something and my take on the topic was that the younger generation seem to be developing a fear of the phone – they prefer to stay behind the protective barrier offered by email and text. They need to understand that different communications methods each have their own strengths, but a phone call can truly establish a two-way dialogue and even a relationship.

This struck a chord with my enquirer because his inspiration had come from a big dose of 1980s excess – he had been to see Wolf on Wall Street and was particularly struck by the lead character’s demonstration of effective phone technique while enjoying cocaine and a range of other pleasures. “Have you got any tips?”, he asked.  “Not like that”, I replied, "but try some of these":

• Think carefully about the name of the person you are calling before picking up the receiver – you need to be able to say it with clarity and confidence in order to get the conversation off to a good start; you are not going to engage the person you are calling if you can’t get their name right!  My own name is relatively rare but should not be a challenge to pronounce. And yet I get addressed (usually after some umms and errs) as Fizzlebert, Furzlebert and many other variations. Is that going to put me in the mood to buy something? 

• In presentation skills ‘Firsts & Lasts’ are the most important elements, not least because these are what people remember, and this certainly applies to phone calls. You need to engage the person you are calling up front and wrap up with a ‘Call to Action’, so your opening and closing need to be carefully planned, if not actually scripted.

• Speak with a smile on your face – it can be heard in the voice and will raise the level and tone of the conversation. You can take this a stage further by standing up to make a call – this raises energy levels and enables you to both breathe more deeply and use gestures that can’t be seen but will add impact nevertheless. Many radio studios now have control desks that can be raised to standing level for presenters who prefer to work this way. 

• Come straight to the point. Talk in ‘headlines’, elevator messages or what Hollywood calls ‘High Concept’ (Snakes on a Plane, Giant shark terrorises holiday resort etc) up front so that the other person gets the gist of your subject matter immediately. Business communicators generally can be very bad at bringing high focus to what they want to say – they talk around the subject rather than get to the point. When offering to help associates with business introductions, legendary sports agent Mark McCormack used to brush aside long-winded credentials, saying: “give me something I can phone in”.

• Observe basic courtesies upfront, but focus on establishing whether the other person has a moment to speak rather than asking if they are having a good day. 

• If the person you are calling starts to speak – let them do so! Start listening - it sounds as though they are actually interested enough to start a conversation, so don’t plough on with your spiel!

• Think carefully about a suitable time to make your call. Put yourself into their shoes and consider how they will feel about receiving your call at that particular time.

In the old days we had an expression when hiring PR people – ‘he/she gives good phone’. I haven’t heard that for a while – such skills need to be developed and nurtured.

A version of this article appeared in PR Week.

Monty Python and the Communication Grail – what to talk about when you meet a famous person

So the Monty Python crew are back on stage for one last huge hurrah, designed to sort out a variety of needs including pension pots, alimony payments and legacies for young wives. And it reminds me of an incident that brought a communication conundrum into sharp focus: when you meet a famous person in a domestic situation, do you talk about what made them famous?

My general rule of thumb is that, once you have shown initial acknowledgement and appreciation, you talk about anything but what made them famous. I put this into practice one evening in the early-80s, when I went straight down to the pub, finding just two people there: the landlord and Rick Parfitt from Status Quo. As soon as he had served my drink, the landlord disappeared, leaving just Rick and myself. It really didn’t feel right to start discussing the joys of his band’s 1973 gig at the Guildford Civic Hall, so we talked about how to cook oven chips, the price of petrol and who might have borrowed his hedge clippers. At the time, this man was considered to be a bit of a hellraiser!

I learned the lesson in a rather painful way, however, one night as I sat down for dinner two places away from Monty Python’s Terry Jones. At the time Terry lived immediately next door to some mutual friends who had a lot of parties, so I saw him on a fairly regular basis. We therefore exchanged ‘catch up pleasantries’, as he told me about a Radio 4 series he was working on and I touched on my new training programme. He even asked about a special magic convention he knew I been attending. Almost as an aside, I added: “Oh, by the way, congratulations on winning the poll” and he responded with slightly embarrassed gratitude. 

“What’s that?”, asked the woman sitting between us. I explained that there had been a lot of press coverage during the week about a survey conducted to find the funniest-ever line in a film – and Terry came top. “So what was the line”, probed the woman. Trying to move the conversation on, I said that it was the ‘famous one from The Life of Brian’. “But which one?” she persisted. I looked at Terry and he shot back a pretty clear ‘you’re not getting Python’s greatest hits tonight’-expression. “Well”, I replied, “it’s the one where he says: ‘He’s not the Messiah; he’s a very naughty boy’ ”.

I had just performed the funniest-line-ever in a movie. In front of its originator. We reverted to domestic trivia as quickly as possible.