Pitch Perfect

Your success – in business and in life – often depends on one crucial moment: the pitch. Seal the deal and develop a winning mindset with author Justin Cohen’s battle-tested advice

- Justin Cohen

You’re thinking about pitching wrong. It’s not just something that happens in a stuffy boardroom, or on screen when two bright-eyed entrepreneurs stumble into the Dragon’s Den. In fact, you’re pitching every day. Whether it’s sharing an idea during the morning meeting or firing off another witty opener on Tinder, you’re trying to sell someone else on your concept, and indirectly, on you.

“Knowing how to pitch is one of the most important skills you can learn,” says Justin Cohen, an author and international speaker. Many years ago, Cohen was stuck in a rut.

“I’d go in, have a great conversation with a potential client, feel sure I had it in the bag – then lose the business to a competitor, often someone offering less value at a higher price,” he says. Finally, after missing out on a five-figure deal, he had an epiphany.

“For real business success, it’s not good enough to be great at what you do. You have to be great at pitching what you do. In fact, you have to be even better at pitching what you do than doing what you do,” says Cohen.

He started developing a magic formula, a way to hedge the odds back in his favour. Ultimately, he reversed that cycle of rejection. Instead of an inbox filled with ominous emails leading with lines such as “We regret to inform you…”, he was closing on the spot. In his book Pitch to Win he dives into each step of the six pillars that prop up his new-fangled approach to the pitch. Here, he shares quick tricks to power up your next big pitch right now.

1. BECOME A POWER LISTENER

“It may sound harsh, but the businesses you pitch to don’t really care about you,” says Cohen. “They care about themselves. They care about their needs, their desires and their pain.”