Many moons ago I pitched for an important mandate in Helsinki. Believing he had some brilliant ideas, my boss jumped right in, rewrote the pitch book, and took charge of the client meeting.
On the other side of the table sat the clients: two broad shouldered, taciturn Finns. They sat quiet and expressionless as my boss elaborated uninterrupted for 20 minutes (it seemed longer) on his ideas.
“What do you think?” he said once he had delivered his soliloquy.
“Hmm, OK,” mumbled one of the Finns, shrugging. “Is there anything else you want to tell us?”
I knew then and there we had lost the pitch. I closed my eyes and hoped the ground would swallow me up.
But afterwards, my boss was buoyant: “We smashed it, didn’t we?”
My reply was even shorter and quieter than that of the Finns’.
Like every investment banker, I endured pitches ranging from dazzling to desultory to those where a stray comment led to disastrous derailments.
Many — too many — were solid but mediocre. Investment banking presentations are often full of good, even excellent analysis but they do not land.
Why can’t these clients see the brilliance? Why do some fly while others flop, even after a ton of effort has gone into crafting them?
Greeks: helping manage your risk
It helps to turn again to Aristotle and his timeless wisdom on rhetoric. When I say rhetoric, I’m not talking about fancy words or pompous speech. I’m talking about the art of persuasion — getting your audience to see things your way and to act accordingly.
Aristotle broke it down into three key elements: logos (logic and content), ethos (credibility and trustworthiness), and pathos (emotional appeal). All of them are essential elements of the art of persuasion. And even though Aristotle laid these ideas out nearly 2,400 years ago, they still apply today.
At the core of the problem is that bankers are often long on logos and ethos but forget about pathos.
As much as we may like to believe otherwise, to clients most banks look the same on paper. They offer similar analysis; numbers are numbers. So, trying to stand out with your content is tough to do.
Moreover, clients often aren’t seeking advice on what to do — they already know. They want guidance on how to do it — and that your shop has the right people to handle it
So, sure, your ideas need to be solid and well thought out. The content must be bulletproof, or you’re sunk before you start. However, logos is necessary but not sufficient.
For a banker to nail the logic and analysis is a matter of basic competence. The client won’t be laughing about you once you leave the room; well done.
Ethos is a bit trickier. Credibility is key, which is why banks need to emphasize their deal experience. No one wants to trust their finances to amateurs. Clients are looking for seasoned pros, not rookies.
But guess what, to clients most banks still look to clients the same paper. They all boast a similar looking array of credentials, concocting whatever league table they want to make themselves appear top dog.
Clients’ eyes glaze over when your present pages of deal tombstones and rankings. Number one house for southern European corporate bonds for companies beginning with ‘B’ that priced on a Tuesday? How to distinguish between you and the bank that dominates that scene for Wednesday execution?
Again, your competence is to some extent assumed. You’re in the room with them after all, and you’ve probably been bombarding them with market updates on the regular for years.
If you’re still with me, it’s because I am doing the thing that will help you pitch. I’m telling you a story. I’m bringing experience to life. Don’t tell your client you’re the best — how dull — show them!
Watch them lean in as you bring your experience to life through the struggle of some of the deals you did. Make your client live through the highs and lows of a company you brought to market and the problems you overcame. Give them pathos.
Slides away
Too many pitches are just data dumps with corporate artwork. Bankers are so eager to prove their expertise that they end up talking at the client, not with them.
It becomes a lecture, even a sermon, and nobody likes being lectured to. That’s a huge miss because, despite all the hard work put into the presentation, it won’t resonate.
This stems in part from the culture of investment banking. Capital markets and corporate finance are more of an art than a science, but bankers, often drawn from analytical and mathematical backgrounds, pride themselves on their rigour, discipline, Excel mastery and ability to wrangle an HP11c.
Appealing to emotions seems downright crass and unprofessional, even weak.
But pathos is the secret sauce that will you apart in a cutthroat pitch environment. Tell a story; make it personal.
Be like a storyteller around a campfire. Use emotion to draw in your audience and turn your presentation into a dialogue, not a monologue. Engage with your listeners, use gestures, humour (tastefully) and irony, vary your tone, paint a picture with your words.
Have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
Your client may be about to take an important financial step but they are also picking who they can bear to spend long hours working with. They will forget the numbers on the 16th slide in your deck, no matter how perfect you lined them up next to their logo. They won’t forget how you made them feel.