Any good pitch needs a touch of theatre. This is as true of the informal cross-table discussion as it is of the larger set piece and while the theatre might be created by staging, or props or, hopefully, an idea, its success will depend on one thing. Did it make an emotional connection?

Given that the Greeks gave us theatre in the first place,  given the setting and given the 2,800 years of history, it was very sad that the torch lighting ceremony in Olympia was so lacking in emotion. It was not because the flame went out and had to be re-lit. Nor because the grass was worn or that the ‘virgins’ looked disinterested.

 What was lacking, and who can blame the Greeks, was dynamism, energy and the theatrical drama so evident in Athens.  For them this must be a bitter reminder of what was and is no longer. It was a pitch lacking emotion and this came across in the coverage.

Fortunately for London this lowkey start will be long forgotten by the time 8,000 inspirational torchbearers have carried the flame through over 1,000 cities, towns and villages. A whole lot of emotion will be going on!

In the Observer Review a week ago there was a profile interview with the ‘legendary’ French rock star Johnny Hallyday on the occasion of his 70th birthday. While a huge star in France he is one of many French singers who do not cut la moutarde outside that country.

In discussing his success he credited advice received from an even more legendary French legend, Maurice (’thank evan for leetle gerls..’) Chevalier. He said: “Look I don’t know if you’re going to be a great singer or not but you must always be careful with your entrance on stage and your exit. In the middle you do what you can. You try to sing.”

Pitch teams should note this advice. Most are so concerned with the content, the singing bit in the middle, that they overlook the first impression and the last, entering the stage and leaving it. Both these legends knew how to make an entrance and Chevalier, in particular, worried little about the singing and let his charm carry the day. Another useful French lesson.

In the latest episode of Mad Men the bumbling Englishman, Lane Pryce, is nervous about making his first ever pitch to a prospect over dinner.

 He seeks advice from Roger Sterling, who has all the best lines and clients eating, (drinking and smoking) out of his hands.

“It’s kind of  like being on a date”

“Flattery, I suppose?”.

“Within reason but I find it’s better to smile, sit there like you got no place to go and just let him talk. Somewhere in the middle of the entree they’ll throw in something revealing and you want to wait to dessert to pounce on it and let him know you’ve got the same problem he has. And then you’re in a conspiracy, the basis of, quote, friendship.Then you whip out the form.” (Client questionnaire)

“What if I don’t have  the same problem, if he is more reserved?”

“Just reverse it. Feed him your own personal. That’s it. Get your answer. Be nice to the waiter Don’t let him do the cheque…….and find out everything you can about him before you get there.”

 Susan Cain’s book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, has been a US bestseller since it was published.

It has featured on the cover of Time and whether you are extrovert or introvert ( nearly one half of us) it should be read. For the student of pitching  there are many insights but two stand out. Ever since the ‘cult of character’ in the nineteenth century (Abraham Lincoln and the like) was replaced by the ‘cult of personality’ (How to Win Friends …..) emphasis has been on the extrovert, the ’saleman’ .

In casting a pitch team it is not surprising that extroverts tend to be selected first, after all a pitch is a sell. However the ’sell’ is usually more about a team and their attitude than it is about a specific product or solution. The balance of the team is all important. A crowd of extroverts or a  contemplation of introverts would be equally unappealing. “‘The most effective teams are a mix of the two types”.

When it comes to leadership quiet passion can be as persuasive as exuberant enthusiasm.  And if you want to see how well an introvert can present check out Susan Cain’s brilliant talk   TED2012: Susan Cain: The power of introverts

Also relevant to the pitch, or rather its preparation, is her plea to “stop the madness for constant group work”. She does not argue against teams working together. She does make a powerful case that the best ideas are not the result of “group think”, something pitch teams overly rely on. The best ideas tend to come from individuals- often the introvert- “working in solitude, a crucial ingredient of creativity.”

A lot has been written about the ’shock’ result in Bradford.  How Labour were complacent and misjudged their supposedly strong backing. How they were taken by surprise by the levels of on-line activity.  They cited the make-up of the ethnic grouping that responded so strongly to Galloway’s views, particularly women and the young.

In short they were looking for the political explanation for failure.

Few were prepared simply to credit Galloway for being so very good at pitching!

 What he said was spot on for this audience, if not the wider one, but it was the way he said it that made the huge difference. As Helen Pidd in the Indie, giving him a five star rating for ‘personality’, said:

“The Respect party didn’t win a 10,000 majority, George Galloway did; his easy charm, peerless way with words and genius ability to play to his own strengths while exploiting others’ weaknesses (and hiding his own).”

The same journalist writing in the Guardian gr about the way he spoke to Muslim women directly quoted one of them :”He made the women feel important. He made youngsters feel important and that’s a lesson for the other parties to learn.” Like him or not, he knows how to make the emotional connection vital in any pitch.

Last week the Duchess of Cambridge gave her first public speech. She was not just pitching to an adoring live audience but to countless viewing critics on television and You Tube. Any gaffe would be replayed endlessly. And the focus would not be on what she said, but how she said it.(Kate Middleton’s first pitch. )

 She said it well.

She looked poised, she looked confident, she looked up and she smiled. Yes, she used notes but she has already almost mastered the knack of referring to them without reading and speaking at the same time. This irritating habit, adopted by a surprising number of politicians, makes listening almost impossible.

The knack is surprisingly simple but takes practice. In essence, you look at your notes, take in a few words, then look up and deliver them, then (after finishing them) look down and take in more words, then look up and say them, then… The pause to refer is seen more as a pause for thought than an interruption. Looking up at the audience means you are communicating! 

Kate is not the only member of her family who is a pitching natural. One of the highlights of the wedding was the performance of her brother James.( A Lesson in reading. )The same coach perhaps.

This week the Duchess of Cambridge gives her first set-piece public speech since the wedding and, no doubt, advisers will have worked long and hard to craft  words suitable for the occasion.  Sad to say much of this effort will in vain.

Why? As a veteran royal correspondent, reported in the Sunday Times, said: “There is huge interest not so much in the content of what she says but in how she says it.” 

It’s the same for most pitches. While the prospect will never admit it. and may well have score sheets for specific content elements, the assessment they make will biased by their emotional reaction to ‘how’, more than their rational assessment of  ‘what’.

Luckily for Kate she is a natural on the how - as are most who pitch when not pitching! They need to bring their natural selves to the party, and not allow undue focus on content to spoil it.

The entertainingly bizarre Republican presidential race provides easy pickings for commentators. It is hard to imagine a group of individuals who so consistently get it wrong when pitching their cause. The presentation/gesture/body-language /voice coaches,  thick on the political ground in America, must be having a field day.

Mitt ‘robot theory’ Romney is no pitch role model but his campaign does serve as a vivid reminder that, when it comes to winning hearts and minds, being the biggest is not what matters. He should be leading by a mile, he has much more money, a formidable ‘machine’  and unelectable opponents. And yet, as Gary Younge wrote in the Guardian:

“There are some things even in American politics that money can’t buy. It can get you an organisation, ads and attention. But it can’t make you engaging, compelling or authentic. In short, it can’t buy you love.” 

These three words capture as well as any what you must be if you are to win.

One of the great films of the late fifties, starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis at their best, The Sweet Smell of Success was a gritty drama about  getting to the top.

In any pitch this sweet smell is an essential  ingredient. Clients want to be associated with success  because that is what they want for themselves! Since they cannot easily assess this on actual performance, they assess instinctively. They sense success from all the people they meet  -in reception, in lifts, on the phone, on line  - responding to all the non-verbal clues that translate to a ‘corporate body language’. Do they like what they ’smell’?

They sense it from the media where the power of a strong ’public’ news headline works more emotively than ‘private’ online stories. In its heyday, Saatchi & Saatchi created an astonishing aura of success by getting every win, every story, however insignificant, as a headline in Campaign magazine and from there into national titles. It was seen as successful way ahead of performance- which followed as night follows day.

The ’smell of success’ gets you on to short lists and gives you an edge in the pitch itself.  But it needs to permeate the entire company. not just the front line troops in the pitch team!

The superb Skolia choir, out of Notting Hill, are driven to astonishing levels of  performance by a musical director for whom the best is never enough. ( She would make a great pitch coach.) Her latest exhortation to her singers faced with the intricacies of Benjamin Britten was a salutory reminder that, ” You are not singing a shopping list!”

The same sentiment applies to many presenters. You are not pitching a shopping list!

In an article this week Simon Jenkins was looking forward with misgiving to the Oscar acceptance speeches.  He anticipated that their lists would be long with a gaggle of folk we’ve not heard of being thanked, endlessly. He then made some observations on general levels of speechmaking, many of which are valid in the pitch.

“When eventually the speech ends, no audience ever shouts, “More!” No audience complains that a speech was too short.”… Research shows that most audiences can recall little beyond the first five minutes of any talk.The brain simply shuts up shop..”

“The adjective rhetorical has become a mild term of abuse. Few speakers distinguish between uttering “the living sentence of the working mind” and reading out a text. The cadence of their normal speaking voice is lost in a reading drone.” (Rhetoric: the art of using speech and writing to persuade and influence.)

“The rhythm of words well-deployed is not just music to the ear, it is power projected. To be able to address others with confidence is a fundamental skill. To be inarticulate is to be handicapped.”