Pitch Meeting Structure Used By Hollywood Pros Stage 1 by Stephanie Palmer

Pitch Meetings Structure Stage I: Build rapport and warm up the room

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Pitch Meeting Stage 1: Rapport

The Goal: to connect in a personal way

Stage 1 is the small-talk phase that is the beginning of just about every meeting you will ever have. It’s important because decision-makers want to work with people they like and trust. If you’re prepared, the small-talk will hopefully turn into a deeper conversation about your common perspectives and interests.

The Trap: pitching too soon

If you “get down to business” and start pitching too early, the decision-maker won’t feel connected to you as a person and won’t be listening to your pitch.  You want to build rapport so that when the time comes to pitch, you have the decision-maker’s attention.

Key Tactic: prepare questions to find common ground

Before the meeting, design a couple “rapport-building” questions to encourage the decision-maker to share their thoughts, feelings, and experiences about things they feel positively about.

• Perhaps you know someone in common, and can design a question around that, e.g.: “How did you first meet (friend in common)?”
• Perhaps you have a hobby or avocation in common. If so, you could design a question around that, e.g.: “I noticed from (print interview) that you like (hobby). What’s your favorite (aspect of hobby)?”
• If you can’t find anything out at all, you can use some of the tried and true conversation starters, e.g.: “How was your weekend?”

The point is to get to know the decision-maker as a person. PROCEED to STAGE 2

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Pitch Meetings Happen In Five Stages

• In Stage 1, you build rapport and warm up the room.
• In Stage 2, you ask questions and listen to show respect.
• In Stage 3, you deliver the prepared component of your pitch.
• In Stage 4, you deliver the “improvised” component of your pitch.
• In Stage 5, you ask for one thing if necessary and leave on a good note.

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