Sunday, August 10, 2008

Draw Circles with James Rice


James Rice of Ascentium shared advice about pitching ideas with the COLABORATORY teams.

1. Don’t waste time in biography introductions. Instead, tell me your time and title.

2. Focus on the future, not the past. Clients don’t care what you did yesterday for some other brand. Instead, they want to know what you will do for them and their brand in the future.

3. Strive for “Cowgirl in the sand” and avoid “Every Rose has a thorn.” Don’t state the obvious, instead share information with purpose. There’s a reason the cowgirl is in the sand, not dirt or mud.

4. Draw circles. Don’t just tell the client your idea; show it. Draw circle charts explaining your logic then point to them when you’re talking.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love your posts.

And yes, female mullets are totally acceptable. ;)

Don Park said...

1. your 'time and title'? If this is not a typo, can you elaborate? Also, I want to know if the person speaking has background in what they are talking about. A little introduction can go a long way. If someone says 'im a grad student', thats a lot different than 'i invented the segway transporter'.

3. what is obvious to one person is not obvious to another. a person working on a pitch for a week knows every detail and doesnt necessarily know what will be new and interesting to the client.