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Pitch Perfect
How to Say it Right the First Time, Every Time
Pitch Perfect presents advice and principles that can help anyone to communicate more effectively. It teaches you how to present an argument or story with confidence, in a memorable way, and how to make your points with more precision. The author introduces seven principles that will help you to use exactly the right tone in both your professional and private life.
- Anyone who wants to improve their presentation skills
- Anyone who wants to communicate more effectively in their professional life
- Anyone who wishes to become a better conversationalist
Bill McGowan is CEO of Clarity Media Group and an Emmy Award-winning correspondent. He has conducted hundreds of interviews as a journalist and has coached celebrities – such as New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning and executives like Sheryl Sandberg – on their communication skills. Alisa Bowman is a journalist, blogger, book collaborator, and author and co-author of several books, including Project: Happily Ever After.
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Pitch Perfect
How to Say it Right the First Time, Every Time
- Read in 19 minutes
- Audio & text available
- Contains 12 key ideas
Synopsis
Pitch Perfect presents advice and principles that can help anyone to communicate more effectively. It teaches you how to present an argument or story with confidence, in a memorable way, and how to make your points with more precision. The author introduces seven principles that will help you to use exactly the right tone in both your professional and private life.
Key idea 1 of 12
In many situations, you have just one chance to deliver the right message.
Whether in your professional or home life, there are moments when you need to be pitch perfect: to use the right tone to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time.
At work, for instance, having effective communication skills and knowing when to use them means that you’re more likely to be promoted. There are only a few moments in your career which determine whether or not you impress your superiors and thus climb the corporate ladder.
For example, imagine your boss asks for your opinion regarding any internal obstacles to the company’s growth.
On the one hand, if you’re hesitant to express your opinion, and you avoid direct eye contact, you’ll lose your chance to demonstrate your knowledge. On the other hand, if you speak bluntly and reveal that the weak structure of the business itself is threatening its growth, then you could offend your boss. Either way, you can kiss that promotion goodbye! Indeed, one study found that a main obstacle to promotion is poor communication skills. This includes racist comments, offensive jokes, crying, cursing, avoiding eye contact, and other mishaps.
But if you make your communication pitch perfect on the very first attempt, you’ll experience fewer misunderstandings and requests for clarification, and you’ll have more time to focus on executing the idea itself.
For example, say you want your child to finish his homework, but you cannot convince him on your first attempt. Each new attempt costs both you and your child time that could be spent in far better ways.
Pitch-perfect communication is fundamental to getting the results you want. Approximately two thirds of proposed ideas are rejected – not because they’re innately bad ideas, but simply because they are expressed poorly.
For example, if you’ve invented some new website technology that you’d like to be used in the next big project at your company, it’s best you don’t talk about how you came up with the idea but instead tell people how the company will benefit from using it.
Key ideas in this title
- In many situations, you have just one chance to deliver the right message.
- Start with a concise, compelling statement to make listeners want to know more.
- Use visual images to illustrate a story and keep listeners hanging on every detail.
- Boil down your argument to its key message to make it as rich and brief as possible.
- Slow down when you’re uncertain about your next sentence.
- With good posture and the right wardrobe you appear more assertive.
- Earn trust by displaying great interest in your listeners.
- Make sure that the focus of discussion plays to your strengths.
- Try to avoid being spontaneous, and make sure you prepare.
- Get to the venue ahead of time to socialize with your listeners, and take a deep breath before speaking.
- Be empathetic and avoid being inappropriate.
- Final Summary
