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.