Pitching: The Art Of Convincing — and Giving Your Thinking Away For Free. Why It Hurts You As An Indie Consulting Brand. 8 Reasons To Quit It.

You have to pitch. Convince your prospects. Get them to Yes. Need to level up your elevator pitch.

Why doing any of this — as an indie consulting brand — hurts you in ways you didn’t think of.

8 reasons why to pitch is a bitch.

1. You’re in presentation mode. It’s all about you and how you can “solve” their problem (that they might not even consider a problem).
2. You’re there to educate them. You’re on a higher ground looking AND talking down on them. Isn’t this condescending?
3. You’re in convince mode. You’re looking for holes in their arguments to “lead” them into closing the deal. It doesn’t matter if it truly helps them -as long as you sell…
4. You’re not listening. You’re waiting for a question or objection ONLY to think about what to say back. Instead of probing and digging in, you phase out and organize your ideas while the other talks.
5. You know what they need. So you have to move them towards that decision. You know better. They’re just idiots. You’re thinking how to change their mind and bend your offering to what “they need” so you get the gig.
6. You’re scripted. You know what to say and when to say it -but with no interruptions. You just keep talking. And talking… and talking…
7. The best way to show your competence is to work on what they think is the problem and come back with “solutions”. Work on assumptions of a self-diagnose. What could go wrong?
8. You reek of desperation. “Can you hire me? pretty, pretty please? I’ll follow your instructions.”

You could stop all that.

Because you’re customized. You’re the expert. Because you’re not scalable — and that’s a good thing. Because we need to get out of that narrative of “Pitch, pitch, pitch. Someone will fall for it.”

Imagine a world without pitching… If only there was a book about it…

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