In author Luke Williams’s book, “Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in your Business,” the fifth chapter goes into detail about making a disruptive pitch. There were numerous pieces of advice that were extremely helpful to creating a perfect pitch; however there were two particular points that resonated with me. One of the most useful concepts was the importance of building tension for the audience, and the second one was the method of breaking the pitch down from nine minutes into three, three minute segments that keeps the audience mesmerized.
When developing a ‘disruptive pitch’ the speaker should be able to hook the audience in a way that truly builds a problem or tension to offer a solution for. A great example of this in the book that I found unbelievable impressive was about the British railway meeting in 1977 where clients were presented with a unique pitch. The way that the message was delivered was almost shocking, but unbelievably impactful. It was interesting enough that I began to think of some very interesting pitches for my friends who are small business owners that I would like to share this concept with.
The nine minutes time limit was also a valuable piece of information that I plan to incorporate into my presentations. The description of the movie where the coach asks for meeting at 7:58am instead of 8:00am was an interesting concept in terms of getting people to do something without flaking out. The breakdown the three categories that will each be presented in three minute segments seem like a brilliant method for the speaker and the audience. As a speaker, it becomes awkward and tediously to go on and on during a presentation, especially because most people know that the audience is barely listening. The nine minutes broken up in to building empathy, tension, and belief seems to create a perfect balance to keep the audience listening without spacing out.
I thoroughly enjoyed and found tremendous value in the concepts read in the book, and am grateful to have these tools to use in my future endeavors both person and professional.
Works Cited
Williams, Luke. Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business. Upper Saddle
River: Pearson Education, Inc., 2011.Print.
