50,000 ft., 500 ft. rule
This is a 6 part series on Effective Techniques in Pitching for BD & Sales. Read the other parts here:
1). I want to be a founder but:
2). 50,000 ft., 500 ft. rule
3). It’s not Product-Market fit, it’s PMT(e)
4). 8 Rules for Founders Who Pitch
5). 3 Effective Traits of All Good BD People
6). The Difference Between BD & Sales
Whenever you are pitching someone (sales lead, investor, mentor, your mom), you have to keep in mind *their* level of understanding on the topic. These levels of understanding are either “high level, aka 50K ft.” or “details level, aka 500 ft”…and the different stages in between.
#1. DON’T START A FIRST MEETING AT 500 FT. → So often people start a pitch with details at the 500 ft. level (example: they pitch detailed features) before the other person even knows what problem you’re trying to solve. Even if you know the other person is an expert in your field, you still want to start a 1st meeting at 50K ft. Most of the time, the other person is not an expert in your field so it’s even more important you lean into the convo at 50K ft.
#2. DON’T LEVEL JUMP → The other thing I see a lot is people bounce around from 50K ft to 500 ft. and back up to 50K. I call this “level jumping”. Often it goes like =
“I want to solve climate change in Taiwan because it’s important to the environment and is going to be a leading industry. That’s why we introduced flexible pricing which is tiered based on your use of our SaaS APIs, also available as open source which is a current trend. But, the most basic pricing tier can also be refunded to you given that you apply for this tax subsidy that the Govt. of Ministry has set up to help SMBs/SMEs in Taiwan. The refund is processed same day back to your bank account. That saves on even mailing costs, which further impacts our mission of saving the environment.”
…HUH? (that’s level jumping from 50K ft. to 500 ft. back to 50K ft).
#3. LET THEM LEAD YOU BETWEEN LEVELS → If you’re talking about a 50K ft. concept “Why is climate change important to Taiwan’s future”, stay there. Talk about the research, the data, the broad macro trends. If THEY ask a 500 ft. question like “what’s the cost savings year over year of businesses who go green”, then you answer it with details. And stay at 500 ft. for a while; talk about regulations, subsidies, case studies. And if they interrupt you or follow up with a 50K ft. question like “well, how is US or rest of the world thinking about this?”, then you go up with them to 50K ft. Talk about global trends, quotes from environmental leaders, overall market opportunity. This will position you as a “thought leader” in the space and someone they can trust* instead of someone who’s rambling and confusing to talk to.
(*side note: one of these days, I’ll write a post on why “trust” and “thought leadership” will win you more deals than pricing).
[UPDATE: Added a mandarin Chinese translation to the post by Ariel Lin. Thank you Ariel for your wonderful contribution! 謝謝Ariel的中文翻譯!]
// 5萬英呎與500英呎的層次理論 //
當你向某人pitch的時候（不管是業務總監、投資者、職場導師，甚至你的媽媽），你必須注意他們對你談的主題的理解程度在哪裡。我將理解程度主要分為兩個層次：「高度層次」（也叫做「5萬英呎」）以及「細節層次」（或作500英呎），當然這中間還有其他不同的層次，我先就這兩個層次來解釋。
#1 千萬不要在第一次會議就從「細節層次」開始談起
很多人在一開始pitch的時候就講了太多細節，其實講了那麼多，對方根本不知道你到底要解決什麼問題。所以，即使你知道對方是該產業的專家，你還是需要在初次會議時從5萬英呎的「高度層次」開始講起。
#2 「層次跳躍」 — 不要在高低層次之間跳來跳去
我發現另外一個問題是，很多人都會在5萬英呎與500英呎之間的層次跳來跳去，最後才回到5萬英呎的話題，我稱之為「層次跳躍」。舉例來說，我常會聽到以下的談話內容：「我想要在台灣解決氣候變遷的問題， 因為這對環境很重要，而且這會是一個領先產業。這是為什麼我們談到彈性定價策略，你用多少API就付多少，這也是現在開源軟體服務的趨勢。另外，如果你有向政府申請中小企業補助經費的話，每月的最低收費也會退還給你，而且還會直接退還至你的銀行帳戶，省掉郵件寄送成本，更符合我們對環境維護的使命。」
聽完是不是真的很令人問號？？這就是在高度與細節層次之間跳躍的表達方式。
#3 讓對方引導你層次之間的轉換
如果你談的是5萬英呎層次的話題，就繼續待在這個層次。例如：「為什麼氣候變遷對台灣的未來這麼重要？」你可以將話題帶到研究、數據、趨勢這些高度層次的內容。如果對方問到500英呎的問題：「這些綠色企業每年的節省成本有多少？」這時候你再回答相關的細節，並持續待在這500英呎的層次，你可以談談法令規章、政府補助、成功案例。如果對方再接著問你5萬英呎的問題：「美國或是其他國家如何看待這個問題？」那你再跟著他們談論這個高層次的問題，回答可以是全球趨勢走向、引述環保專家的說法、或是整體市場的機會。這樣的方法可以讓你成為在相關領域最具前瞻性看法的權威角色，比起發言不著邊際與層次的人，更加令人信服。
（順帶一提，之後我會再跟大家分享關於為什麼「誠信」與「思維領導力」會比一個產品的「定價策略」為你帶來更多訂單）
