I create animated summaries and I feel this two part series fits in here. It's based on a book that involves how to take over a business pitch in order to beat other people's frames and place yours on them to win deals. The rules in Pitch Anything can be applied to game, business, or just persuasion in general.

I was drawn to this book from a quote on the sleeve that says: "Move over Neil Strauss and game theory. Pitch Anything reveals the next big thing in social dynamics: game for business."

A lot of us started out thinking we were the nice guys and if only the girls could realize this they'd be much happier. In a business sense, this works the same way... "Why can't these investors see how good my idea is?" It's because they literally aren't processing it from the same part of their brain as you are.

The first part covers the neurology of a pitch to the human mind and frame control.

The second part covers how to set up a pitch and tips to eliminate neediness.

For those of you that don't like watching videos, the written version is below, but I'm just shit at formatting so bare with me, it still has value in it.

Pitch Anything, Oren Klaff

Pitching is one of the most important things we will have to do in our lives. If you have to raise money, sell a potential girlfriend, or get a raise, you’re going to have to demonstrate why you’re worth it. But if pitching is so important, why are we all so terrible at it?

The reason is that when we come up with a concept or an idea, we are using our highest level of cognitive thinking. Which stems from our Neocortex.

When we have to pitch this idea to our principles, professors, a board of investors, our bosses, we make the mistake of thinking of our brains like a computer. If I make a document up in Word, and send it over to you by email, when you open it, you’ll be opening it in word as well.

It only makes sense that since we came up with our idea using our neocortex, the high-reasoning, logical center of our brains. Then the person receiving the message will pick it up in their neocortex, right? Wrong.

There’s three parts to our brain. The Neocortex, the midbrain and the Crocodile brain.

The neocortex is where all of our logic, reasoning, artistic expression comes from.

The middle brain is where we dissect social situations and their meaning.

And our oldest part is our trusty crocodile brain. Which is the first to receive information and determines if something is a threat or ally.

Whenever we are pitching or trying to get our ideas across, what many people don’t know is that our message is first being sent through our croc brains to decide if it’s worth sending up for further processing. The croc brain works like this: if it’s not dangerous, ignore it. If it’s not new and exciting, ignore it. If it is new, summarize it as quickly as possible and send it to the neocortex. And finally, do not send anything up to the neocortex for problem solving unless you have a situation that is really unexpected and out of the ordinary.

So essentially, pitches are sent from the modern and smart part of the brain. But are received by a part of the brain that is 5 million years older. This becomes a problem as you can see. It’s like me creating a file in Word and you trying to open it through a log.

The pitch anything formula looks to appeal to the croc brain to make sure that your pitch is deemed new and exciting and then passed on for further processing. The formula looks like this:

**S – set the frame

T – tell the story

R – Reveal the intrigue

O – Offer the prize

N – Nail the hookpoint

G – Get a decision**

Setting the frame

A frame is our subjective view of how we see the world. When two people meet, a frame battle occurs where the subject’s frames collide. Now when frames collide, they don’t merge, they don’t blend, they don’t intermingle. It’s a death match, and the stronger frame absorbs the weaker.

An example of a frame battle is you being pulled over for speeding. What is your frame made of? “I was going with the flow of traffic” or “I thought the speed limit was higher then it was” where as the police officers frame is made out of authority. He has his frame reinforced morally, socially, and politically. He doesn’t have to explain why his frame is stronger then yours.

If you have to explain your authority, power, position, leverage or advantage in a situation, you do not hold the stronger frame.

Most frames you’ll encounter in a business situation are going to be the power frame, the time frame, or the analyst frame.

The power frame comes from high confidence in ones status. You will know you’re facing a power frame when they are expressing disinterest, arrogance, or rudeness.

When you approach an opposing power frame, make sure you don’t fall in the frame by reacting to it.

Find ways you can use small acts of denial and defiance in the opening moments of meetings.

Once you take the frame, make sure to keep it lighthearted and fun. No one likes to be dominated, so when you have the stronger frame, use your power in ways that are fun and mutually exciting.

The Prize Frame

The prize frame happens when the main person you’re looking to pitch doesn’t show up to the meeting. Someone will come in and say “Mr. Big can’t make it”, and you can either pitch to the subordinates hoping that they will convey the message for you, or you can take the situation over and make sure your target hears the pitch from you.

Say: “You want me to delay the start? Okay I can give you fifteen minutes to get organized. But if we can’t start by then, let’s just call it a day.”

Being bold like this will make you feel uncomfortable at first, wondering if you’ve overstepped your boundaries. But then you’ll see something great happen, people will scramble to find Mr. Big and do their best to keep you from leaving. They are worried about you.

When you set a prize frame, you are setting everything your audience does and says as if they are trying to win you over. You are not just the next pitch of the day, you’re not just another schmuck they have to put up with. They are trying to win your attention. You are the prize, not them. You can find a thousand buyers like them, but there’s only one of you. This will make you not have to close as hard and not approach the situation from a subordinate position.

The Time Frame

Frames involving time tend to occur later in the social exchange. When you see attention begin to wane, start wrapping up. Running long or beyond the point of attention shows weakness, neediness, and desperation.

Say: “hey, looks like time’s up. I’ve got to wrap this up and get to my next meeting” If they are interested in you, they will agree to a follow-up.

The goal is to set your frame as your time is important, and the subject will give you focused attention instead of treating your visit like an annoyance.

Disrupting the Analyst Frame

When you have a pitch, people are going to want to drill down on numbers, this can freeze a pitch because they are acting through cold cognition which are processes like analysis and problem solving instead of hot cognition which are feelings of desire or excitement. When faced with presenting numbers, say the numbers but state that these and other facts can be verified later. Right now the focus is on if we are a good fit, and should we be doing business together. This is what I came to work on.”

This tells your audience that A) You’re trying to decide if they are right for you. B) If we decide to work together, the numbers will back up what I’m telling you, so lets not worry about that and C) I care about who I work with.

Remember that in any specific interaction there are frames colliding. Everyone holds a frame whether they realize it or not. In order to be successful in pitches you need to be able to have the stronger frame and absorb other peoples so that you can govern a social interaction.

Now that we understand how the human mind works when being presented with new ideas, and we understand how to create and hold frames in order to be valued as an important person, let’s get into actually pitching and presenting your big idea.

So how do we do it? Don’t drone on for too long, you don’t want to be boring or over stay your welcome. There’s a very limited amount of attention to go around these days, keep that in mind, and when you begin your pitch, make sure to let your audience know that you only want a few minutes of their time and that you won’t go on for an hour.

There’s four sections to your pitch:

Introduce yourself and your big idea: 5 minutes Explain the budget and secret Sauce: 10 minutes Offer the deal: 2 minutes Stack frames for a hot cognition: 3 minutes

Introduce yourself

When introducing yourself, don’t ramble on forever. You’re not that interesting. You’re just looking to establish credibility. If you list too many accomplishments people tune out. List one great thing you’ve done and maybe two others and then stop there. You’re introduced.

When presenting your big idea follow this framework:

Who it’s for [target customer]

Who are dissatisfied with [current offerings on the market]

Your idea/product is a [new idea or product category]

That provides a [key solution]

Unlike [main competitor]

Your product is: [describe the key features]

Present your idea like this so there’s no mistaking what it is you’re offering.

Explain the budget and secret sauce

Get their attention.

Attention will only be given when your information novelty is high. To make people pay attention, you need to create desire and tension. Desire is created when offering a prize, and tension is created when taking something away. Or creating scarcity

Your secret sauce is your unfair advantage that you have over others. What do you bring to the table that no one else can? In other words, what is your Guiness world record?

When explaining your budget every experienced buyer or investors knows that you’re going to be conservative on your budget and absurdly aggressive and optimistic on your growth plans.

Make sure to not focus too much on your growth plans, anyone can do that. But demonstrate that you’re skilled at budgeting, which is a difficult and respected talent.

Offer the Deal

When offering the deal, describe to your audience exactly what they are going to receive when they decide to do business with you.

Stack Frames for Hot Cognition

We discussed in the last part different types of frames and the difference between hot and cold cognition. In order to get people to say yes to you and make decisions they need to be coming from Hot Cognition, want and desire. So don’t focus too much on numbers and make sure that you are presenting your offer with the intrigue, prize, or time frame.

Eradicating neediness

Nothing turns people off faster then someone who has to make a deal. Or someone who needs something to work out. So when you are presenting offers to your audience, make sure to display these frames of mind:

  1. Want nothing

  2. Focus only on the things you do well (this will allow you to speak with confidence)

  3. Announce your intention to leave the social encounter (I have to get going in a few moments)

Let your audience know that although you want to do business with them, you live in abundance and there’s always more opportunities around the corner. This will make you not appear to be a desperate loser.

Closing thoughts

In order to effectively pitch you need to appeal to your audience’s croc brain. You need to present a strong frame and overcome others frames. Being able to hold your audiences attention can be done by creating desire and tension. Don’t ramble for too long like a dumbie who doesn’t know he’s intruding on other people’s time.

When you present, dig in to hot cognition stuff that others will want and not on your cold cognition analytical numbers. Set yourself apart from others by figuring out what your advantage is over your competition. And don’t be needy. Never be needy.

Hope you get value out of the summary. The thing I really liked about the book is that it was told in stories, much like The Game, with all the technical knowledge woven into it. The Game didn't really have any set instructions but the writing is fantastic and intriguing in this book. I am on a bit of a kick with business books lately, so enjoyed stumbling across this and seeing that the business world works the same as the dating world.