Pitch Perfectly With Jessy Grossman Of WIIM (@jessygrossman)

[00:00:00] Jessy: Hi everyone, and welcome to the WIIM Podcast. Women In Influencer Marketing is a first of its kind exclusive networking group made up of inspirational women. This podcast is where we explore influencer marketing and get real about women in business. Find us wherever you download podcasts, and of course, you can always find us iamwiim.com. That’s iamwiim.com.

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Women In Influencer Marketing Podcast. My name is Jesse Grossman, I’m your host for today, and also the founder of this incredible community. I always tell you this guys, like, of course I’m biased, but like I do think it’s the most incredible community that you’ll ever find.

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And, without further ado, I hope you enjoy this episode. It’s all about pitching, which can be applicable to so many different circumstances, of course, in the work that you do, but even in your home life, even in, you know, with your coworkers trying to pitch them on a new project a new, a new something. So anyways, I hope you enjoy this episode. It’s all about pitching. I will see you guys around and, enjoy.

We’re gonna have a mini episode, and it’s about a specific topic that we recently covered in a community connect event. So the topic is what makes a perfect pitch, and I started the talk by saying, click bait, because I actually don’t really believe in a perfect pitch, I don’t really believe in perfection. So, caveat it’s really what makes a great pitch. And I have a few ideas that I wanted to share with you guys. So before we get into what it is, and the ideas, you might be wondering, you’re like, well, is this episode even for me? I’m not necessarily in a role where I pitch all the time, um, or I pitch at all, so maybe I can shut this episode off.

What I will tell you is the following, I get pitched all the time by people in all different capacities, and I’m pitching people all the time. I’m pitching my seven year old, I’m pitching my best friend on where we should host our baby shower. I’m pitching people from professionals to, you know, friends to kids on a regular basis.

So the ideas that I’m presenting to you as today for consideration, it really applies whether you do this professionally or not so the last thing I’ll mention on that is like you’re pitching your coworkers on ideas all the time anyway, you’re pitching your boss on giving you a raise, you’re pitching your superior, you’re manager for giving you a bigger budget. So I will push back on that notion. I actually think most if not all of us are pitching professionally all the time. So with all that being said, let’s get into it. So what makes, not a perfect, but a great pitch, cuz I don’t believe in perfection.

Concept number one, know what the person wants. So this might sound pretty basic, but I’m gonna get into it because I don’t think enough people ask thought-provoking questions before they even make a proposal, which, and then, in turn makes the proposal seem super generic and like it’s for everybody and it shouldn’t be. It should be very specific.

So when I’m getting pitched, I love when people ask me some really thoughtful questions to really dig into the core of not only necessarily what I want, but what I need. And once you have all of those answers, then you can go ahead and put some really good ideas, thoughts, and suggestions in your pitch. But you’ll hear me say this time and time again in a lot of different capacities.

Certainly when I coach my clients, I’ll talk to them about how it’s always, always beneficial to put a little bit up more upfront work into what you’re doing because it will give you so much more in the long run. This is a perfect example, taking a little bit of extra time in that, you know, initial call or that initial conversation with them.

So you’ll hear me talk about this with a lot of people that I mentor, people that I coach, and it’s the following. I think it’s so important to do even just a little bit more work on the upfront, and that will give you 10 times more in the long run. So again, in this instance of creating a pitch, you’re gonna have some sort of conversation with the person that you’re pitching beforehand. Take it off email, either hopefully have it in person, have it through video. Last case is, you know, just voice, but do not put this in an email and ask them some really thoughtful questions.

First of all, they’re gonna get a sense of kind of how you work. It’s gonna be like a little working session, a little mini working session, and they’re gonna get to experience what it would be like to work with you. So, really understand also that your pitch is happening before you even present like a proposal. Your pitch is starting from the second. You have the first interaction with this person, and if you’re having a little mini working session with them and you’re asking them really interesting questions that get them thinking, they’re already gonna associate you with that style of working, which is like, huh, this person’s really making me think about things I didn’t even necessarily think about before. I need this person. So asking thoughtful questions before you even make the proposal to be able to get a sense of what they want.

Next, you’ll hear me talk about this all the time in so many different capacities. Y’all need to figure out how you are unique. I get pitched for stuff all the time, and no one’s telling me how they’re unique at all whatsoever. People are telling me the services that they provide and how much they charge. I can find a million people that do SEO. I can find a million people that do community management and charge about what you charge.

Why am I hiring you? Why am I going with you? I wanna know how you’re unique unlike nobody else. What is that for you? Maybe it’s the results you’ve gotten, or maybe it’s the approach you take, or maybe it’s the level of attention that you give your clients. Whatever that is for you. Whatever is your like truly, truly unique quality. Emphasize that. Emphasize it so much.

Also, I want you guys to think a little more outside the box in terms of how you’re pitching. I’ve seen some really interesting pitches that might seem a little quirky to some people. They might seem a little too outside the box, but I’ll tell you what was smart, it left me with an impression. It was memorable. And we all work in branding in one form or another, so I just want to reiterate that for the sake of branding yourself and thinking outside the box, it could be really beneficial because what it will do is make you memorable.

All right, Next point I wanna drive home, I want you to be not only specific about why we should hire you, but also why should we hire you now. So let’s talk about a scenario in which case you’re maybe a talent manager who’s listening to this conversation, if you’re a talent manager, you’re pitching all the time, you are pitching your clients left and right for all sorts of opportunities. You’ll usually get some sort of a spec. They’re looking for, you know, people on Instagram with this level of engagement, with this many followers who meet X, Y, Z criteria. You can easily just say like, I have two people that fit that here they are. However, I think the most dynamic pitches, the most successful pitches, not only share why this person, but why now?

So I’ll make up an example. Let’s say it’s a home brand. Let’s say it’s Home Depot, that is looking to work with influencers. And so maybe part of the pitch says, you know, here’s their Instagram, you’re looking specifically for Instagrammers. But why now? Maybe it’s, ugh, this client just moved into a house a month ago and they’re actively building a nursery for their first born kid and, you know, they just moved into the house and it’s less than a mile from the nearest Home Depot. So they’re in and outta there all the time. They organically, you know, talked about them in their stories already, and people just know, they’re like a natural fan of Home Depot. Plus, their YouTube channel, has really been blowing up lately. They’ve been putting a lot more focus into that, and they’re looking to build more interesting content. And have sort of like a room reveal for this nursery. So Home Depot would be not just the perfect fit for this influencer, but it would be the perfect fit now. That’s an example.

If you’re an agency trying to pitch a brand, you know, maybe it could be like a, we just came off of three other partnerships with a similar vision as yours. So we have, we feel really primed to, you know, really hit this out of the park for you. There’s a number of different things, but the point that I wanna drive home is not just why you, but why now? And I think that that really helps to have the pitch land in a little bit more of a personal way.

The last tip that I wanna give to you guys, maybe this is just a preference that I have, but I love options, like if somebody presents me with anything, I’m salivating if they give me more than one option. I don’t know why, like I don’t know why I can’t even explain it, and it’s not even worth getting into. So if you are making a proposal to someone, if you’re pitching them your services, I would provide perhaps maybe like a more economical option or like a standard option, and then like a home run option where like it’s all the bells and whistles. It could be economically based, or maybe it’s your manager, talent manager and you’re like, okay, so here is what we could provide you based on what you’re asking for.

Cause I want you guys to really communicate that you’ve heard the person that you’re pitching. So here’s, here’s a proposal based on everything you asked for, but what I also heard you say is that you’re really focused on impressions, and my client, this client in particular, happens to have a very new YouTube channel, but that’s like blowing up. So I would also love to present you just like a soft good option in case you’re interested in opt in, in taking advantage of that. Let’s throw in a YouTube video and I only charge you an extra X dollars. So I like different options because it’s showing the type of partner that you are. And I haven’t even pulled the trigger yet.

So I don’t know if I could impart like a couple final thoughts of like things that I really hope you take from this conversation. It’s two things, one, it’s the idea of doing a little bit more upfront work will help you tremendously in the end. So just asking a few other questions, getting a little bit and more information, spending a little bit more time on the pitch to like manage the expectations of your client will actually help you infinitely more once they end up hiring you, so keep that in mind.

And the second thing that I really wanna emphasize with you guys today is to utilize the pitching process to your advantage, because in the way that you pitch, in the way that you’re communicating with this potential client, you’re already starting the pitch process and they are already learning how it would be to work with you.

So just being cognizant of that I think will help you tenfold. So I appreciate you guys so much for tuning into this week’s episode. Again, this was all about not what makes a perfect pitch, but what makes a great pitch. In my humble opinion.

So thank you guys again so much for tuning in. If you are not a member of WIIM, definitely check it out. It’s iamwiim.com, we talk about all this kind of stuff, but everything more in influencer marketing and plus you get to do it amongst hundreds of other women in the industry. Take care and we’ll see you guys next week.

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