Pitch Anything Book Review

Oren Klaff

Pitch to the “Croc Brain” and Win the Deal

Pitch Anything Book Review: This is the sales book that deconstructs other sales books. Pitching is really key to selling anything, and many of us pitch regularly in our careers and lives. Klaff’s work here opens up the pitching process to reveal the neuroscientific mechanics behind it and show you how anyone can learn how to craft a perfect pitch. By understanding the role our brains play in the process, you can determine a better approach for your own pitches and utilize basic principles of psychology to overcome your listeners’ objections and win any deal.

Klaff teaches what he calls the STRONG method of pitching:

• Setting the Frame
• Telling the Story
• Revealing the Intrigue
• Offering the Prize
• Nailing the Hookpoint
• Getting a Decision

A Quick Overview of the Book

As it turns out, many of the strategies and language we’d usually call great salesmanship is, in reality, working against us. According to Klaff, the biggest mistake we make during pitches is making the assumption that listeners are using rational, logical thought processes to evaluate our offer. It’s completely false. Why? Because delivering a pitch and listening to someone else’s pitch are two different mental processes.

Essentially, you have to use your pitch to appeal to how human brains process new information. According to neuroscience, the brain is actually very primitive in how it interacts with its environment. Your pitch must appeal to, capture and convert on a more primitive level (it must appeal to the “crocodile brain”). To do that, you must gain and keep what Klaff calls “frame control” throughout the pitch. In the book, he discusses different types of approaches your listeners take during pitches (called “frames”) and provides effective responses and strategies you can use to keep frame control.

Our Brains, Pitching To Win And Keeping Control

Klaff talks in the book about how our brains really process information, and he uses the computer as an example of how the human brain DOESN’T function. A computer uses a program to create a document, then send it to a friend who uses the same program to open it. In both creating and receiving, the process is the same. Brains are different. Brains use a three-step process with all incoming information.

Let’s look at evolution for a moment. In the wild, a human being is actually a very weak animal. Plenty of predators can outrun us, and not many people would win face-to-face combat with a grizzly bear. So, our brains have evolved to be very sensitive to threats, and primarily aware of threats. This part of the brain, the croc brain, is very primal and basic because it’s designed to protect us.

As it turns out, all incoming information, from sounds in your environment to someone else’s pitch, is pushed through this croc brain first to see if it’s worth spending valuable mental energy on. High-level information, data and facts overwhelm the croc brain and cause your listener to shut down before you’ve finished your pitch–this information does exactly the opposite of what you want. Your pitch fails.

Klaff’s method is designed to get through the croc brain and move into the mid-brain and neocortex so your pitch can become much more effective as a sales tool.

To do this, a pitch needs to be:

• Free of anything scary.
• Intriguing and delightful
• In control at all times

From there, Klaff talks about how frames work to shape our (and others’) perceptions during the pitch. In fact, Klaff also shows how these frames direct every social interaction we have and allow us to either give up control of a situation or take control. Once you excel at this process, you can readily apply it to every area of your life.

How This Book Can Help
Change Your Life

Understanding frame control can transform your social interactions and change your pitching success rates. You’ll learn how to redirect your audience’s attention, persuade them, and ultimately win.

To borrow an illustration from Klaff, consider a typical sales interaction where a rep visits a customer’s office. The customer says, “Okay, you have 15 minutes. I don’t have all day.” The salesperson responds with, “Thanks. I’ll only take 5 minutes. I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to meet with me here.”

What just happened? Plenty of sales books would celebrate this super-polite response. But it’s wrong, because the salesperson has just established himself or herself as the customer’s social inferior. The customer won’t be interested in the actual deal anymore.

The customer tried (and succeeded) in establishing frame control. The salesperson gave it up without a fight, and probably will lose the sale in the process because he or she is failing to capture the customer’s attention and imagination. It doesn’t matter how good the deal is, it’ll be met with opposition throughout the pitch from the customer’s uncooperative croc brain.

Your social interactions have consequences. Klaff’s book teaches you how to hack the croc brain and overcome the objections, obstacles, and distractions keeping you from winning the deal.

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