As I was raising financing for my start-up, I was introduced to a tool that is widely accepted as the single best way to make a Business Case ever invented.
I can tell you from pounding the scrappy streets of pitch-city, that it absolutely is.
This tool works for any situation where you need an answer in real-time, by convincing someone of the brilliance of your plan. If you need a decision maker to crack out a “YES” so you can go dancing, read on.
WINK - Everyone Has A Good Idea. Very few have a plan.
Super-Skill: Storytelling & Doing.
Clear communicators don’t load their pitches with jargon and bunches of word-flowers to sound more smart or professional. They know that to beat all the other ideas competing for resources, they need to meet two fundamental needs of the decision maker:
(1) That the decision makers time & resources are limited & valuable commodities.
(2) That the decision maker will understand the relevance & importance of what they just heard, so they can actually make a decision.
Every business is stacked to the gills with good ideas with no plan. The one’s that fly are the one’s that deliver on these two core points.
NUDGE - You Can’t Talk Clearly With A Mouthful Of Marbles.
Super-Skill: Storytelling & Doing.
Before we dive into the tool itself, there are ground rules. Think of these rules as your corporate BS & mouth-marble detectors, ready to give you a kick-in-the-pitch-pants when it detects you trying to be too clever.
Brevity. Being long winded is easy. You don’t need to think or prepare to talk the hind legs off a donkey. Brevity, however, takes time, skill & patience. The more you cut information and still retain or improve the clarity of your case, the better. Be ruthless. The beauty of brevity when done right, is that’s it’s very compelling. As Mark Twain said, “I didn’t have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one”.
Emotion. Just because it’s short and to the point, it doesn’t mean you don’t need to appeal to emotion. Decisions are based on emotion (and usually for strikingly irrational reasons). Make sure you have emotion weaved into your case. If your case says you can make the world a happier place, hammer it home with conviction.
Story. We did a whole Jolt about story. If you read our FastClass on How To Make a Killer Presentation, this pitch tool can fit neatly as the body for Act 2. It’s also a clever way to force you to read that Jolt again 😇. And if you don’t have time to do that, trust us when we say this tool tells a great story all by itself.
Big Words. It’s easy to hide behind business speak. Business speak was invented as the cheats umbrella. Under it we hide all the complex theories and assumptions we want people to think we know, as a substitute for having to think hard about what we’re actually saying. If you find yourself saying you’re going to create an “immersive digital ecosystem”, it’s time to flush your pitch down the loo, and you with it.
JOLT - The 10 Slide Pitch Tool
Super-Skill: Story-telling & Doing
Here it is Jolters. 10 slides to rule them all:
Print it out, pin it to your t-shirt and bellow it from the roof tops.
But before you get arrested for disturbing the peace, let’s take you through how it works, slide by slide:
Why you are meeting today. This is one sentence only (and an accompanying image if it supports the point effectively). For example, “We have found a way to make $10m in incremental revenue”, or, “This is a new process that will cut the number of sign-off’s needed from 15 to 2”. Whatever it is, encapsulate it into as few, clear words as possible.
The problem you are solving. What is the root problem you are solving with your idea? For example, “People are not buying our new product X because of Y”, or, “Insights have told us that consumers hate doing X and will do Y to avoid it”, or, “Our contracts are too complicated for our partners so they’re not renewing deals”. Is the problem rooted in time? Money? Culture? Emotion? Brand? Ease of use? Remember, the person you are pitching has not yet seen your idea - identifying the root of the problem that your idea will solve, first, is vital for them to understand the context of what you are about to pitch.
The solution your are proposing. As succinct as you were with the problem, this is where you set up the solution. For example, if the problem is “People are not buying our new product X because of Y”, your solution may read something like “Making B change to product X will prevent Y from happening, create more A and deliver far better C”. Whatever it is, be succinct - and as compelling as you can. Heads should be nodding in agreement now.
Why your idea needs to be implemented now. This is where you focus on the implications for inaction. For example, If you’re proposing a new way for teams to work, you need to spell out what will happen if you don’t make these changes. Generally, inaction means things will get much worse, money will be lost, opportunities will be missed and the entire boat will sink with all onboard. You need to show what the gravestone of inaction will look like.
What your idea will do for the business. Now is the moment to double-down on what action will do. Once again, frame it in the benefits e.g., increased revenue, efficiency, brand building, speed, communication, culture, ease of use etc. If your benefits are intangible (e.g., culture), find a way to put a tangible metric against them. If your benefits are tangible (e.g., revenue) find a way to put an intangible metric against them (e.g., employee satisfaction). You need to show all the bottles of champagne that will be popped by putting your idea into action.
What your competitors are doing (or not). Nothing scares us business folk more than a competitor eating our lunch because they’re doing it better, faster or cheaper. And nothing makes us feel as good as when we steal some market thunder. It’s critical you show the context of the market or situation you are in. One way is to say your No.1 competitor will acquire you and then fire the leadership team if you don’t make the idea happen, but we don’t recommend it.
Further supporting details for your solution. People make the mistake of serving up all the courses of a pitch at the same time on slide one. It’s impossible to digest. By giving supporting details only after you’ve set the context, this slide will enable you to have a meaningful conversation on additional details behind your case.
How it will be implemented. Do you need a new process? A new system? A quick change to an existing way of working? A new product? An agreed time-line? An agency? Whatever the HOW is, spell it out. HOW is one of the most over-looked execution steps we see.
Who will implement it. If it’s just you doing everything, great. If it’s a team, spell it out. If you need additional resources, ask for them. It’s amazing how we sometimes forget that someone has to do the actual work. You could also say that Dave in Sales has volunteered to do it all over the weekend for free, but we don’t recommend that either.
Any supporting financials. In our experience, if it’s a big action, most decision makers will likely need to run it past someone with finance in their title. Even if not, it’s always good to have assumptions built - what it will cost and what it will deliver. Even if you’re idea is of an intangible nature, finding a way to equate what you want to have implemented with a cost / benefit analysis is important.
There it is. The 10 slide Super-Power. It’s a fantastic tool to help you shape a very compelling case.
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At The Jolt, our vision is short and simple; creating valuable, practical and insightful content, to help people build exceptional careers.
With Love & Total Business Case Clarity,
The Jolt.
PS if you’d like to get involved or have suggestions, get in touch!