Crafting the right balance for your pitch can be challenging. One extreme is pure facts People on this extreme pitch like they're in court, trying to make their argument watertight, fearing any gap will damage their credibility. The downside? This approach demands a lot from the listener, who must catch up with all the details. More importantly, it overlooks the core issue: value. Value isn’t directly inferred from facts. I could give you thousands of facts about a chair, and you still might not see its value to you. The other extreme is selling a dream Focusing entirely on value, often at the cost of accuracy. This approach comes off as 'salesy' and lacks credibility because you can't know everyone's dream. Furthermore, value is not communicated directly; it is inferred. If a random caller said they had the product of your dreams, you'd hang up. So, is there a middle ground? Think of your pitch as sharing your vision—communicate the future AS YOU SEE IT, with both clear and uncertain aspects. This vision, however incomplete, is what drives YOU to keep investing your finite time and energy. It’s the purest source of truth for whatever value is worth communicating. Compared to that, anything else is guesswork. Yours, Sagi |
I explore this question in my short, mostly visual emails, crafted through my lens as a B2B communication consultant. Join me for insights on effective communication, marketing, psychology, and the philosophy of value.
18th century Switzerland: A customer comes into a master watchmaker's shop asking to clean a watch he had bought. As the watchmaker takes the fabulous watch apart, the customer notices an engraving on the back side of one of the balance wheels "Why did you put something there that no one will ever see?" the costumer asks. The watchmaker turns around and says, "God can see it." How did that last line make you feel? What do you think about the quality of the watchmaker's work? The value of his...
"This picture is beautiful." "She’s such a beautiful person." "This was the most beautiful goal of the season!" "This piece of code is truly beautiful." "This is a beautiful solution to a complex heart failure problem." These things seem unrelated, yet they all share the descriptor 'beautiful.' Why? "Pretty" is surface-level—something that looks good but lacks substance. When we call something beautiful, we recognize excellence in context. A beautiful goal isn’t just about looks; it’s about...
You’ve been immersed in your venture for years, fine-tuning every detail until it’s a vivid HD image in your mind. But for investors, your pitch is just one of many. They can only allocate a handful of pixels to it before making a decision. What’s your move? What’s the optimal compression mechanism to convey the essence of your venture in a one-hour meeting? The rational instinct might say: "Pick the most relevant facts, present them objectively, and the value will be obvious." The problem?...