Cheatsheet: Pitch Anything

As you are pitching your idea, the croc brain of the person sitting across from you isn’t “listening” and thinking, “Hmmm, is this a good deal or not?” Its reaction to your pitch basically goes like this: “Since this is not an emergency, how can I ignore this or spend the least amount of time possible on it?”

Pitch Anything, by Oren Klaff, teaches us that our brains are hardwired to be poor at pitching our ideas, and equally poor at receiving them.  The key, according to his science, is to make our pitches novel in some way, so that our messages get through.  But before even getting to the pitch, one must first "own the frame" - a frame being a perspective that each side brings to a social encounter. Only one frame can win when frames collide, and the stronger frame always absorbs the weaker frame.  The winning frame governs the social interaction.

• Crocodile Brain: Responsible for initial filtering of incoming messages
• Mid-brain: Determines meaning of things and social situations
• Neocortex: Problem solving ability

How the Croc Brain Filters

1. If it’s not dangerous, ignore it.
2. If it’s not new and exciting, ignore it.
3. If it is new, summarize it as quickly as possible— and forget about the details.
4. 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.

The Problem

We have our highly evolved neocortex, which is full of details and abstract concepts, trying to persuade the crocodile brain, which is afraid of almost everything and needs very simple, clear, direct, and nonthreatening ideas to decide in our favor.

The harsh but true reality is that the croc brain— the source of your target’s first reaction to your pitch— is:

• Going to ignore you if possible.
• Only focused on the big picture (and needs high-contrast and well-differentiated options to choose between).
• Emotional, in the sense it will respond emotionally to what it sees and hears, but most of the time that emotional response is fear.
• Focused on the here and now with a short attention span that craves novelty.