1. Pitch to Stick: The “Dil”Logical
Way
@sdaas

2. QUESTIONS
• Why is it that so many innovation ideas stall in
mid-flight ?
• Why is it so hard for engineers to successfully
pitch an idea ?
• What can we do to change this ?

3. Pitch This …

4. • A medium tub of popcorn contains 37 grams
of saturated fat
• For reference, the USDA recommendation is
20 grams per day
• How do you pitch this to the movie going
public ?

5. A medium-sized popcorn contains more fat than
Bacon + Eggs for breakfast
A Big Mac + fries for Lunch
Steak for Dinner
COMBINED

6. SIMPLE – THE CORE
• Find out THE SINGLE most important thing
– Not 10 points, just ONE.
– “The Single Customer benefit”
• TurboTax – “Get your Biggest Tax Refund,
Guaranteed” …
– Everything ladders up to this CORE statement

7. UNEXPECTEDNESS
• The Unexpected Gets Attention
– What is more likely to kill you – shark ? Or deer?
– Break the pattern your audience is expecting
• Incremental vs. dramatic vision of the future
– “Man walking on the Moon”
• Mysteries and Teasers
– Use their natural curiosity to advantage

8. CONCRETENESS
• Abstract Truths vs. Concrete Language
• “Put a man on the moon by the end of the
decade …”
Vs.
• “Our mission is to become the international
leader in aerospace by leveraging innovation
and strategic initiatives …”

9. CREDIBILITY
• The Power of Details
– “Small Business Owner” vs. “Sriram Shanker,
sitting in his small pharmacy in Bellandur, poring
over the books with a blue dot-pen”
• Using well-understood relationships
– The ball-bearing experiment ….
• Drop 1 ball-bearing. The noise represents Hiroshima
• Now pour out a bucketful of ball bearings ..
• That noise represents our global nuclear arsenal …

10. EMOTIONS
• Statistics vs. Real Person
– D4D calls for us to walk in the customer shoes
– Real World Training has Cathy
• Make people care by appealing to the things
that matter to them
– But do this is subtle ways, please
– Not the same as “selfish self-interest”
– Where is the person in “Maslow’s Pyramid” ?

11. STORIES
• Stories help us connect and visualize
• Every slide in this presentations is taking the
help of a story to pitch an idea to you …

12. SIX PRINCIPLES
• SIMPLE ( CORE )
• UNEXPECTED
• CONCRETE
• CREDIBLE
• EMOTIONAL
• STORIES

13. References…
• Made to Stick – Chip Heath and Dan Heath
• http://www.engineerguy.com/white-papers/made-
to-stick.htm
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_em
bedded&v=qt3flXhuURE#!