1.There is a big difference between what we are trying to tell our audience and what people really understand the message. Our brains have developed at three different levels over the years, organising itself into three different layers:

• The ‘croc brain’, or crocodile brain, was the first part of the brain to develop. That is the brain’s primitive part. It is simple, automatic and focused on survival. It is responsible for emotions such as fear.
• The midbrain is the second layer. This allows us to understand higher levels of complexity, and deal with social interactions and family relationships, for example.
• The neocortex is the most advanced part of the brain, we can reach a higher level of thinking, rationalise facts, and make analyses to understand complex phenomena.

2. When you pitch you are using your neocortex to turn your ideas into words. But the problem is that the people who are watching your presentation are not necessarily using the neocortex to understand your pitch. Most of the time, the primitive ‘croc brain’ ignores the message, which it finds very difficult to understand, and begins to ignore the pitcher immediately. If you sound complex, you become invisible to the audience’s mind.

That is why you need to prepare your pitch so that the ‘croc brain’ understands you first, gradually adding more complexity. Adding interesting aspects, novelties, and surprises in your pitch. It helps capture the attention of your audience’s primitive croc brain and allows you to reach the other two brain layers, the midbrain, and the neocortex.

3. To win and keep your audience’s attention. You need to provoke two things in your target audience with your pitch: Desire and Tension. This emotion comes when you offer them a reward, something they do not have but would like to. Even more powerful than arousing desire, is arousing fear of losing or not conquering something. When you show people that they could miss a great opportunity, or reach an object of desire, they get tense.

Dopamine is associated with anticipating rewards and desires. Want to increase your audience’s dopamine levels? Be more visual, use and abuse of your enthusiasm, engage in a fun pitch. Abuse of images, demonstrations and pay special attention to verbal and corporal communication. We must also take into account norepinephrine. It is responsible for the alertness, tension. If your pitch implies that too much is at stake, your audience’s brains will be bombarded with norepinephrine.

4. We all have different perspectives on different life situations. Most of them are based on our intelligence, ethics and our values These are also known as ‘structures’ and dictate how we will perceive all kinds of social situations.

When two people meet, their individual structures clash and only the most powerful one survive. This also happens in business situations e.g. your customer is focused on price while you are focused on quality. If your structure survives, you will have control and close the deal.

5. Learn to deal with others’ structures. Some people use the ‘power structure’, which is an arrogant structure, in which they try to stand out from other people by imposing their will. Instead, take small actions by provoking and denying this power, seeking to break this structure e.g. pretending you’re ready to leave if you are talking to someone who is not taking you seriously. It causes the power to be questioned and the person to rethink their position.

Another known structure is the ‘time frame’. The person can try to control the conversation by saying something like ‘I only have ten minutes.’ To demonstrate that he/she is in control. In response, you can act saying, ‘it’s okay, I only have five minutes.’ So you argue against it and show that you are positioning yourself against the structure that you have tried to establish.

6. Use the ‘Reward Structure’. Most of the people whom you’re going to pitch to think you’re after their money. Your goal with the ‘rewards structure’ is to change that perception that ‘money is the reward’ with the realisation that you are the reward. You need to communicate that listening to you is the reward in and of itself. It is important for people to understand that it is advantageous for them to do business with you.

7. In a pitch situation, never behave as if you were chasing people, trying to get something out of someone. Do not agree to last-minutes changes and do not try to close the deal quickly by saying things like ‘What do you think about it so far?’ This behaviour reaffirms the impression that you are after their money. You can use phrases such as ‘I am selective about who I choose to work with; Why do you think I should do business with you?’ This will catch their attention, and they will want to impress you. Using this structure, people will want to sell themselves to you, not the other way round.

8. To activate ‘hot cognition’. We make far more decisions that are instinctive than decisions that are rational. In fact, we make some decisions long before we understand the context and only then do we come up with reasons to justify them. This type of decision is called ‘warm cognition’. The decisions we make through reason are called ‘cold cognition’.

Once you’ve introduced your pitch, you’ll want to turn on hot cognition in your audience. They will make people want what you offer in a matter of seconds, instead of having them analyse their pitch for days to make a rational, cold decision.

You activate hot cognition by introducing multiple structures in a short amount of time:

• The ‘intriguing structure’. You tell the public a compelling story, a personal narrative in which a dilemma is solved.
• Use the tension frame. Informing them that they will miss a great opportunity.
• Use the reward structure. Instead of trying to impress the audience, get them to seek your approval. You could say something like ‘many investors are watching my business right now, and I need to choose which one will be my partner.’
• After that, you use the ‘time frame’, saying, for example, ‘unfortunately this is a temporary offer, I will make this decision by the end of the day at the most.’ That will make the public think they could lose a great opportunity not to move fast.

9. Neediness represents weakness. Whenever you find yourself seeking approval, this is perceived as a sign of weakness, which can be fatal in your pitch. To overcome your need, use a three-step formula:

• Try to eliminate your desires, at least in the eyes of the public.
• Focus on your strengths. Show your excellence.
• Step back a bit, saying ‘I’m not totally convinced we’re a good match.’ That will make them chase after you.

10. Status plays a vital role in almost every social gathering. A dominant member known as ‘alpha’ arises, while the others possess a subordinate position, also called ‘beta’. It’s hard to be persuasive if you’re in a beta position and that’s why you need to achieve and maintain alpha status. While pitching, you should note that the audience can use small betas traps to force you into a beta position e.g. making you wait many hours to give your pitch is a great beta trap. Hence, take the strategy:

‘When you are challenging and funny at the same time, your audience is challenged by you, and you know instinctively that you are in the presence of a specialist.’

Oren Klaff

‘No, I’m not ready yet, wait another minute.’ If you do it naturally, in a funny way, or as a joke, you can retake your alpha position. Once you possess alpha status, you should conduct the discussion by showing that you are the specialist.

11. Keep your pitch short and simple

Speak briefly about the economic, social, and technological aspects and forces that make your business critical and justify the investment at that time. Remember to do this by showing the public the emergence of a great opportunity, but it will not be available for long.