Six Ways to Pitch to a Teenager

Imagine this: a corner office, 40 floors up with iconic views of the Hudson River, the Rockefeller Center peeping out from behind a skyscraper, and Times Square lurking around the corner. As you walk in to pitch for your life you are not met with a senior ‘stakeholder’,  but a 14-year-old boy. That would completely change your pitch.

It did for my clients. They immediately sat down, eyes on Nate, leaned in and were very deliberate in how they described what they did. They didn’t pretend to be important or look serious, they knew they had to grab his attention.

I know Nate is a great listener, but they didn’t know that. They saw a teenager and panicked. It sent them out of their comfort zone of slightly boring, jargon-filled sentences and caused them to bring energy and attention. It made them amazing at pitching.

Below are six things I saw my clients do to engage Nate. These six things you can do anytime, anywhere. And you don’t need a teenager in front of you to do this.

01. Start with the Outer Layer

30 seconds to 1 minute

When Nate walked in the room I said to each company: ‘Tell my son what you do in 30 seconds.’ And they all did it. There were no objections. There were no excuses like, ‘It’s too complicated.’ They had to win my son’s attention.

I call this pitching the outer layer. Other people call it the elevator pitch. To help you do this, grab a chair, place an imaginary teenager in it and present for 30 seconds. Time yourself. Could you do it? Practise makes permanent—so do it again, as many times as you need to!

02. Go to the Inner Layer (The actual problem is how you solve it)

90 seconds

We can’t ever assume our audiences are actually listening. They need reminding of what they have to tune in to. After the outer layer moment, I asked Nate to leave the room and return 30 minutes later when he would hear the whole pitch. His job was to say what was sticky during that whole pitch.

Interestingly the first 30 seconds were pretty much the same—the outer layer. And then came the inner layer, where step by step my clients told the problem their customers faced. As a story. For one minute. I wouldn’t let them go near the solution until they had taken Nate step-by-step through the problem.

Painting the inner layer—going into the story of the problem—will keep your audience engaged. Grab that chair back, time yourself, hit ‘record’ on an audio note and give it a go. You will be surprised what that chair can do.

03. Give it a Sprinkle of PHD (Picture, Headline, Detail)

Chip and Dan Heath wrote a book called Made to Stick. In it they talk about what you need to include to make a presentation unforgettable. Here are three letters you need to include in every presentation that came from that book—see it as sprinkling salt and pepper over your presentation. 

P: Picture

Just enough picture will get your audience’s brain following you. A metaphor is good for this. 

H: Headlines

Fill your presentation with short sentences—headlines. 

D: Details

Nate remembered that one product (hydrogen) reduced carbon by 17%. The detail matters.

04. Force Yourself to Speak in Short Sentences

When I coached Microsoft back in June they asked us: what are the key ingredients to a successful presentation? I said: short sentences. Every time. Because that is the audience’s first point of contact with you. That is how you deliver all your information, all your PHD. This is how the companies delivered their information to Nate and it is what kept him interested.

05. Imagine That You Could Lose Your Audience at Any Moment

When you have a teenager in front of you, the stakes are high. Because we all remember being a teenager and how hard it is to keep their attention. So make the stakes high for your presentation and imagine, like my clients did, that at any point your audience could get bored and switch off.

Don’t assume they will follow you to the end and don’t be fooled by their work clothes or professional faces—imagine they have their coat on and are just about to walk out of the room. It will increase your energy massively.

06. End Well with a Clear Full Stop

Maybe they were determined to not lose Nate’s attention but the end of my clients’ presentations were very clear. Like running a 100m race, I knew and they knew and Nate knew they had crossed the finishing line.

The truth is that Nate’s brain can only cope with a story that ends well. It may be five minutes, it may be 20, it maybe a full three-hour Hollywood epic movie. But he needs an end. So do we all. So make sure you define and rehearse your end well.