From the course: Communication Foundations

Tool kit: Pitching your ideas

From the course: Communication Foundations

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Tool kit: Pitching your ideas

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- Quick, look around your space. Pick three items, literally three items, like a pen or a pack of sticky notes, or even a coffee mug. Three items. Now, think of the audience. Think of someone in the service industry, for example, that you interact with. Maybe it's the barista at your regular coffee shop. If they don't have sticky notes and you want to suggest that they buy them, could you craft a what, why, how message for them? What questions would you ask them to better understand their needs? What problem could this item solve? When would you present this to them? Would it be on an in-person call? Would you be on camera? Would you make a phone call? Think through some of this and write it down. Now, for your message, you're selling a physical item, and you can make up any price that you want. Your focus should be on the reasoning for this. Why do they need this item? What problem does it solve? And has it solved a similar problem for an audience like them? Finally, what do they have to do to get this item? This exercise may seem silly at first, but it gets you to think of your audience, your message, and the context, putting the communication building blocks we've discussed into action. Now, take this to a different level. Pitch more of an idea versus an item. For example, your registration and travel expenses to a national conference, or an interactive team building activity. How would you influence your boss to approve any of this? Keep running through these scenarios to train your pitching muscle and to increase your effectiveness every time you promote a new idea.

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