How Watching Shark Tank Makes You a Better Copywriter

You can also learn some amazing lessons in positioning by watching the Sharks.

I noticed on the show that the entrepreneurs that almost always get the Shark People to bankroll them are the one's that have a proven market place. If you walk in there with at least $500,000+ in sales and about $100,000 in profits you are a shoe-in, fer shure!

ELMO

Although his sales presentation or pitch was just perfect, this guy fell down when he was prodded with questions on product placement in big retail stores. I think he needs to get his act together and polish up that 'interview' portion so he doesn't act so flustered over lack of success with getting his product placed. As mentioned before, lots to be learned from a show like this, not just for copywriting but for any type of sales, especially live presentations which depend on over coming customer objections face to face.

It's also a good example of a company that can benefit from a Mr. or Mrs. Inside and a Mr. or Mrs. Outside.

This guy sounds like a classic Mr. Outside, who has charisma and can effectively lead the PR and promotional effort.

But every company needs an Inside person who is good with detail and execution.

These traits are rarely found in high degrees in the same person.

I disagree with this point. They get a basic structure to follow, but many of the pitches are so bad I doubt they are getting much help. There doesn't seem to be a lot of discipline involved.

In fact, a guy who does a podcast recap of Shark Tank says too many pitches are made as if they are talking to their friends and family.

Here are some of the recommendations he makes to succeed on the show:
-- Know your numbers like the back of your hand.
-- Don't pitch like you are selling your mother. You are making a business pitch.
-- Show me. Create a demo!
-- Know your prospect. Tailor the pitch to the individuals on the panel.

Perfect 'Shark Tank' Pitch - Business Insider

Really love Shark Tank too. There are a lot of lessons to be learned there.

I bet less people hate Mark Cuban because of it too lol

I love the show... However, I don´t think it will help with developing better copywriting skills.

What stuns me about Shark Tank is how terrible these gazillionaires can be when it comes to persuading the contestants to accept their offers. Many times speaking like newbie sales people.

No particular examples in mind but I know I've seen it countless times. Instead of reeling in the contestant and getting them to decide in their favor, they'll threaten, saying things like "you really need me if you want to make money" or put down the competition "Lori doesn't know what she's talking about", they plead, "Come to Mr. Wonderful!"

Their sales abilities are limited to throwing their weight around.

If you reply to this post, I get a royalty for every response in perpetuity. C'mon, what are you waiting for? Come to MisterMe! The others are just going to take your equity and leave you with nothing, my friend.

Evil investor archetype is one thing. Smart business is another. Sometimes they overlap. Often, they do not.

My brothers good friend John was on their latest episode. His name is John Depaola the guy who pitched the paint brush cover.

Whats funny is 3 years ago John was annoying us about this stupid piece of plastic he made to cover paint brushes. At the time, me and my brother would make fun of him behind his back. Although we saw potential in the idea, we thought it was too "stupid simple" to get any attention. And the guy was so passionate about this stupid piece of plastic we thought he was losing his mind.

But damn were we wrong.

First they got the product on the shelves of home depot (John, his brother Sal and their friend Anthony Caputo), and I nearly crapped my pants. Then they struck a deal with Lori and I almost lost my mind. I was so bitter and jealous I wanted to put my head through a wall.

It hasn't been uploaded to ABC's website yet but you can catch their pitch here: (starts at 29 mins) http://billionuploads.com/huyh8gkwh43g

It starts off as a complete disaster but within 20 minutes they manage to double their evaluation. I'm still in a state of shock since I saw the show. John had filmed this last September and managed to keep the deal a secret till a few days ago. Thats 7 months that he couldn't tell anyone. Because Shark Tank prohibits you from talking about anything until the show airs.

I've been watching every episode of Shark Tank since the first season airred. A lot of episodes I've seen more than twice. And I agree, you can learn a lot just by watching the show. Not just about copywriting but sales, marketing and business in general.

The only thing I don't like... they have to dumb down the show so much for your average tv viewer. John told us they took out like 80% of his pitch & evaluation. So all those technical & creative things that people on WF would love to see... they take most that stuff out. I'm sure it helps for ratings. But it makes the Sharks seem a lot dumber than they really are. Along with the people pitching their products.

I remember back in like Season 2 or 3, when those fresh lobster guys pitched their mobile lobster truck. Then Barbara gave them some great advice on how they could change their design & copy. And that was one of my favorite episodes. Even though the business concept was far from perfect, I loved the fact that the Sharks were freely giving out all these great ideas.

These days I see much less of that type of creative collaboration. Its all about numbers and jokes. But they have gotten better at screening out bad business ideas. So I can't really complain.

-RS

What I mean is more like this. I just happened to grab one episode of out the search results and fast forwarded through it to get to a point where the moment of decision comes.

And here's what I see:

From 9:41 to 10:26:

Herjavec makes an offer and then attempts to close the entrepreneur by saying:

"What do you say?"

Huh???? That's something a newbie salesperson says.

But let's continue...

The entrepreneur rejects his deal. How does Herjavec maneuver from that point to bring the guy around? What does he say to the guy to persuade him?

He takes it personally and loses his cool. Then he rejects the guy, even though the guy already rejected him first.

Huh???

By 10:26 O'Leary's not getting the deal he wants either as it seems to be going to Mark Cuban. Out of frustration or impatience he tells the entrepreneur what he wishes the entrepreneur would do. He says to the guy:

"Why don't you counter me with less of a royalty?"

That's like a sales person not getting a sale and saying to the prospect, "Why don't you offer me less? Then maybe I'll take your offer."

Just terrible.

Are there any similarities you notice between how these guys pitch their ideas/products to written mediums used for sales copy?

I always wonder how many of the contestants are blathering idiots...

And how many were simply edited into blathering idiots

Also... I imagine the creators get together in a little room and go "OK, this week, we need a:

1X Heartwarming single mom "engine that could" that brings 2 judges to the verge of tears
2X Delusional optimists that get about 20% of their target funding
1X Cringe-worthy contestant Kevin can smack around like a pinata
1X Contestant that smacks judges around like a pinata

Voila, drama
"

You should also watch "Bar Rescue" with Jon Taffer.

And "the Pitch".

I love Shark Tank, but haven't seen the Pitch.

But one that I like even more than the shark tank is The Profit.

The Profit

Where Shark Tank is about buying the businesses, The Profit is about how to maximize the revenue of an existing one.

You can pick up on a lot of tips on how run a really successful business.

Sure these are brick and mortar, but you can still get a lot out of it.