Pitch Anything

I know exactly what you mean. Sometimes a fancy new shiny technique can act as a placebo more than anything.

This is an understandable question. So I will answer with YES, unequivocally, Oren's approach works...for certain situations.

I'm involved with pitch coaching for angel investment and venture capital, so I've seen dozens and dozens of pitches and helped many, many companies with their pitch decks. The companies who get the funding are using techniques similar to Oren's.

Here is the thing...what Oren teaches is by no means new, in the investments pitching world. These techniques are what works and many people teach and use them. What Oren did was take those techniques and bring them to the everyday sales person or business owner. They seem revolutionary to people outside the VC circle. In Silicon Valley and other innovation hotbeds, this style has been used by many.

Yes, there absolutely ARE some really great nuggets that will work for any type of sale because they deal with the human psyche. I absolutely recommend it for anyone selling anything.

However, as Claude and Ginny say, some of it will backfire if you use it incorrectly. The approach isn't really for selling a $500 service. It is for a large, enterprise type sale. Even if you are making smaller sales, you could still gain something from this book that will double your sales. I know because I've seen it happen, even before this book came out. When I teach some of these ideas to people, they are blown away and when they use them, it works.

So, read it. Apply what fits.

First; I'm a doubter too. And I've read a ton (I think literally) of sales books.

Pitch Anything offers an approach. I use parts of it in my selling, and it makes a difference. But the single sales book I've read that makes the most difference is Spin Selling. It actually outlined what I was partly already doing, explained why parts of what I was doing actually worked. It also added a few steps to strengthen the sale.

Kanigan's course on cold calling made a measurable difference in the number of speaking gigs I got by cold calling trade associations.

Some techniques depend on the salesperson. In other words, they are personality driven. But some do not.

Most salespeople don't know the difference between a sales method that is personality driven (like being an authority figure) and a structurally sound method that follows proven principles...that will help nearly everyone.

The biggest thing I got out of Pitch Anything is the way we are received in the prospect's brain. It explains why answering objections doesn't work. It also shows why arguing never makes sales (or convinces anyone). And it show why being the alpha dog in the room really helps make more sales. I know it's true. I don't want it to be true....but it is.

This information wasn't unique to the book. It's actually decades old science. But it's the first time I saw it applied to sales.

Yes, and what maybe you're overlooking is that you absorbed the techniques and it became part of your inner game, became part of who you are.

I noticed years ago that dating successfully ran similar to business, especially because my market is young women. That's one of the things that intrigued me about his book.

So a lot of the things that happen in dating also happen in business. But you wouldn't know to do it if you weren't shown those techniques because most of us have didn't have the best role models to learn from in either dating or business. And that's what he's done. He's opened up some eyes and imparted that knowledge.

Dang Jason, are you not getting enough likes lately?:confused:

I dont see how someone reading a book from some outside guy causes you to draw those kind of conclusions here.

I think people do value the good advice given by the experts here or they wouldnt keep showing up. Im just not seeing this contempt you are talking about?

Jason,

The only thing I've ever seen on this forum is people, myself included, lavishing praise on the experts you mentioned on this forum. But I admit, I don't read all the posts.

I'm a sponge for knowledge though and I've heard so many good things about this book, I had to get it.

There were many, but my biggest takeaway from the book was how to use frames to raise your social status to alpha. I think its brilliant and something I've never heard, at least not in depth.

Interesting discussion.

I have nothing to sell here... No books, no trainings, no WSO's... Ever. So I'm going to let it fly.

Go to your local university, library, or Google and find academic research as to how humans make decisions. Don't even search look for how they make "buying decisions" start with how they make general decisions then work your way towards how they make buying decisions. It's something I'm studying religiously as I am trying to get better by constantly analyzing where I fail in certain situations. One of my most recent posts is emblematic of this, and Aaron Doud pointed me in the direction of what I think was the problem, the guy made a decision based on his ego being bruised... I didn't make him feel like he was king... Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff was the start of that journey.

Here's an adhoc example. Studies have shown that you will convert more customers for a special / sale by offering a freebie as opposed to X% off. We can see the "free desert." We can remember what our favorite desert tasted / felt like. We can't see or feel 25% off.

Keeping up with the Jones... Another fact of life is that folks tend to buy / behave like the folks around them. The whole notion of "keeping up with the Jones" is not a myth. Is it a coincidence that in a well-to-do area, you can hit a cul-de-sac and bam! everyone is driving the same cars? This is pervasive in our country as instead of buying practical things, people plunged themselves into debt by buying stuff they couldn't afford. What part of their brain activated the decision to buy things they couldn't feasibly afford? Was it the rational / calculating side? Or did they buy based on some sort of emotion...

This is what Pitch Anything shows you... It's a primer, nothing more. Take a psych class online for free with MIT or something.

Additionally, FEAR OF LOSS activates buying decisions. You'll find it much easier to get someone to spend $1,000 to keep $10,000, rather than spending $1,000 to make $10,000.

We make decisions based on what we see, what we can feel. I used to sell meat door to door during college. I was mediocre until I started literally handing people the food. My pitch; "I got some extras... here check it out..." I was taught one trick that worked instantly. Put the food in the persons' hand. Sales went up.

Finally, go to the WSO section. What activates those buying decisions? What prompts people to buy WSO's? Why do copywriters get paid so much for these product launches? The sales copy activates all sorts of emotions, whips you into a frenzy and prompts us to click the buy button more times than we'd like.

Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff should be read and followed up with study on the material. I've done creative work for clients and have found it far easier to say; "here check out what I did for your competitor" (making it visual)... "it's working well for them" (they're eating your lunch), "I might be able to whip up something special for you."

My two cents...

That's interesting. I wonder how someone would really do, if they used his methods in front of that group. I personally think it would spark an "I'm the Alpha Male" exchange that would lead nowhere. But I'm perfectly willing to be wrong.

But it sure would be interesting to watch.

I did see a sales trainer asking for financing (on Shark Tank), and he used a few similar techniques...and they fell flat.

But I've seen great contestants (If that's what they are called), make brilliant pitches, and then have the Sharks fight over them.

Oren on frame control:

http://youtu.be/wcDOl1WRxz8

Maybe I should simplify.

That's huge. To tell the truth, I don't think I've ever used that exact rationale in selling, but it sure is a powerful one. Thanks for the reminder.


I think the Hopkins book is more technique oriented, and would be one of the first books I would read. I read it when it first came out (In 1982 or so), and it made a huge difference in how I sold, and how well it paid.

But I still think Spin Selling, Influence, The Feldman Method, Pitch Anything, Anatomy Of A Salesman are all must reads for anyone in sales.

While there are certainly great posters here that leave a trail of great posts on sales, a book can build an entire cohesive story where great information is in one place and one piece. Reading books takes nothing away from the wealth of information here, but it adds to it.