The Art of Persuasion – Initial Post

Scenario: You are a budding entrepreneur with a great idea and you want to pitch it on the TV show, “Shark Tank.” Your product or service should be something the Sharks want to sink their teeth into. Draft a 1-2 minute pitch of your idea, using one of the techniques described in the Weekly Materials. Your pitch should contain a brief non-confidential description of your business product or service, explain any differentiating advantages, and end with a call to action. Then discuss the persuasive technique(s) you used and why you chose them.

If you are not familiar with Shark Tank you can check these out to get a sense of how a pitch goes in this venue:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq3fwHwgB9g

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3PY_p_M-8w&t=5s

I would like to offer you some items that you should consider including in your response:

• who you are (be personable when you introduce yourself; engage)
• include your name, the name of your company and the name of the product
• why you are here
• tell me my problem that you want to solve
• introduce your hook
• tell a story: empathy, get me interested
• describe your product or service
• mention its differentiating advantages
• use a pitch as described in this week’s reading material
• makeup data and statistics: is the product in production; is the service being offered; how many have you already sold; costs, profits, revenue, where (city, states, countries); how is it being used; consumer excitement, etc.
• tell me what you will do with the money you get from me, i.e. build the item or App, more marketing, build a factory, speed up production, hire more people, etc.
• describe your persuasive technique and why you chose it (from the reading)
• do not forget the ask or call to action how much money you want and what percentage of the business you are offering them

Part A – PLEASE RESPOND TO CLASSMATE DISCUSSION WHETHER YOU AGREE OR NOT & A DETAILED WHY:

The scenario: I am Renata and living in Berlin and I will share with you a solution for the problem we all are facing. Every one of us, at least a few times in the year is ordering cakes for different occasions. What is happening often in this kind of situations? We are forgetting to do it in advance and on the last moment, we are trying to order some cake, running from one bakery to another or buy one in the supermarket. But is it the cake we actually wanted? It is not the favorite cake of our kids, husband, wife or family. Till now there was no solution for this problem.

Now image there is app you can download on your phone or tablet on which you can order cake without going out from home, anywhere you want and anytime you want. You would never again be too late with ordering perfect cake, pick it up or destroy it on the way. In one app you will find all bakeries from your city. This app will let you compare price, choose perfect forms, the cake flavor you would like, decoration and what most important the date and place it should be delivered so you would not have to worry if you gone make it on time to pick it up. It will allow you to design your dream cake, the perfect cake for birthday with all details you image. You would be able to order cake way in advance and do not need to worry you will be too late.

This app will be free for end users which will be ordering different cake, cookies. The bakeries will need to pay monthly fee to show on this app and 5% from every order customer will make.

I would like to ask $175K of your investment to develop the app and marketing with a 10% share in my company.

In my pitch I focused on emotion, telling the story with which a lot of people could see themselves and the 4P’s method.

Part B – PLEASE RESPOND TO CLASSMATE DISCUSSION WHETHER YOU AGREE OR NOT & A DETAILED WHY:

Setting up the Scenario:

Sharks: Mr. John, Mr. Jack, and Ms. Suzy

Me: Product Owner for “StitchIt”

My 2 min. starts now:

Hi Mr. John, Jack and Ms. Suzy,(2)

While people do research or try to monitor a service they go to 10 different report pages, tools and monitoring agents to collect data. I can “StitchIt” all of it together. 1 product, one service that can save 5 min. for every 10 different websites, tools, services you go to to get relevant information. Here is a web page for you. (showing a “StitchIt” landing page). Add the data sources you want to look at side-by-side or compare with each other. Just Copy from your source and Paste. It can be used at any age group, profession, industry. It has shown tremendous improvement in the quality of the projects students carry out in high schools and colleges. (showing matrix from last 6 months) (3, Proof). I am offering it for FREE for the first month and no obligation to continue (2).

I already have advertisements space to sell on this page and that revenue is guaranteed. I want to take this to the next level where I can sell it in the corporate world with more secure and company-specific.

I would like to ask $50K of your investment with a 10% share in my company (3, Pitch).

I am showing my passion for the product and soul in it while trying to tell a story(1). I am using their names to start the pitch as a study has proven that when you call someone with their name it becomes personalized (2). Then the 4 P’s method, to the point, with proof and asking for the investment.