LYING TO PITCH

Lying to Pitch

Over the last five years I’ve organised, judged and participated in countless pitch competitions. Last week as Vice Chair of the Institute of Director’s YDF London Committee I led YDF Den, a Dragons Den style investment event at 116 Pall Mall. The competition led me to a valuable insight for anyone looking to raise investment.

Hidden Gems

As with many things in life the most interesting interactions often take place where you least expect them. For example, when I gave a TedX talk the speech was not the most rewarding part, it was the discussions with fellow speakers at the after party.

The YDF Den was no different. As is traditional with these events after the pitches the investors (or judges) will speak with the unsuccessful entrepreneurs to explain their decisions. Often, the investors find the entrepreneur’s proposition far more attractive when communicated in conversation compared to the pitch.

As is tradition with YDF Den after the event the organizing committee invited the panel of investors to dinner. This year I again heard the same message from investors; the entrepreneurs in conversation were far more convincing than in their pitch.

One reason for this could be that entrepreneurs find conversations more natural than formal pitches, helping to reduce anxiety and increase lucidity.

Another explanation is we lie in a formal pitch and investors respond positively to the honesty shown in conversation.

Lying

“Humankind can not bear very much reality.” T.S. Elliot

I’m not suggesting we lie just to our audience when we pitch. I’m suggesting we also lie to ourselves.

Take a look at these two questions below:

• Why hasn’t this been done before?
• Couldn’t a bigger company simply do what you propose and do it better? (Google is commonly referenced).

These are possibly the most obvious questions to answer in any pitch. The Queen is as likely to ask these questions as James Caan. However, of all the competitions I’ve been involved with these questions are hardly ever addressed during a pitch.

The entrepreneur does not set out to deliberately avoid these questions in a pitch, their intention is not to mislead. The entrepreneur has simply discarded and classified this information as irrelevant. This is the entrepreneur lying to herself.

Why We Lie

After decades of struggle psychologists have managed to convince society at large that we as humans sometimes make imperfect, illogical decisions. One driver for these imperfect decisions is what’s known as ‘confirmation bias’.

Deanna Kuhn describes how confirmation bias works in action:

“Here is some evidence I can point to as supporting my theory, and therefore the theory is right.”

We ignore all the information that does not comply with our existing theory.

Imagine a person holds the belief that blonde-haired people are stronger than dark haired people. Whenever this person encounters a person that is both blonde and sporty they place greater importance on this “evidence” that supports what they already believe. This individual might try to find proof that supports this belief while ignoring examples that don’t support the idea.

As humans we are not impartial rational agents looking to hoover up information to get to the truth. We only onboard information that complies with our existing thoughts.

When it comes to pitching we tend to only talk about that which conforms to our idea.

Pitching Beaches

In the past I have worked with Dr Simon Moore of Innovation Bubble. He uses a picture of a beautiful sun drenched beach to illustrate how differently people see the same thing. Here is an image similar to the one he uses:

If you were a tour operator and using this photo to sell a holiday, what accompanying narrative would you use? Bear in mind tour operators typically promote escapism, relaxation and rest.

Most tour operators would focus their message around the warm water and endless sandy beaches.

But what about the area under the cliff face? Is it safe? Does anything unwelcome lurk within it? There are a large proportion of people that would not find this image attractive until the area under the cliff face was addressed.

Investors tend to want to know about the sand, the sea and the what lies beneath the cliff.

Vision

“Predictions are difficult, particularly about the future.”  Niels Bohr

One way to address confirmation bias is to make decisions as part of a well balanced, diverse team. In the case of a pitch competition the team would determine what to include in a pitch.

Unfortunately, the entrepreneur that pitches is usually the founder and the founder usually holds the vision of the enterprise. Visions are tricky to argue against.

This leaves entrepreneurs with the freedom to present to investors what they like, which is information that supports their theory.

Insight

The investor’s interests are typically long-term and directly aligned with your business success, honesty is therefore at a premium. I once heard Paul Daniels, YDF Den investor and IoD member say the number one thing he looks for in an entrepreneur is integrity.

To counter confirmation bias next time you pitch, ask people you respect to assess your pitch. Ask them to not only note the sea and sand but also what they think may lurk beneath the cliff face. Investors will see you as more credible if you do and, you’re more likely to win your next pitch competition.

Interested in speaking about speaking?

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