Steve Yastrow

I was having lunch with my friend Hoh Kim, a PR professional from Korea who specializes in crisis management.

As we were talking about ditching the pitch, we started to explore the question of “talking points” …  in order to Ditch the Pitch, do business people needed to abandon the concept of talking points, whether they are executives dealing with crisis management, sales people selling a product, or anyone else who needs to communicate a message?

The answer is a clear “no.” As I wrote in this newsletter, Tear Up Your Elevator Pitch, you don’t need to throw away every part of your story, you just need to avoid delivering it as pre-scripted monologue that it not adapted to the specific nuances of the conversation you are in.  The trick with talking points, as with all the little pieces of your elevator pitch once you’ve torn it up, is to weave them into the conversation at appropriate times and in appropriate ways.

Improvising actors call this “hitting the beats.”  They may have certain ideas they want to put into a scene, but they have to do it in a way where the timing and delivery seem spontaneous and extemporaneous.  A perfect place to see this idea in action is HBO’s show Curb Your Enthusiasm, which is largely improvised.  The cast agrees on certain events, lines or turning points in the scene, and they improvise their words, actions and emotions to hit those “beats.”  In one classic scene, Larry David and Rosie O’Donnell have decided that they will argue over a check in a restaurant.  Watch how beautifully they improvise on this “talking point,” making it seem like “it just happened.”

Crisis managers and sales people, of course, don’t want to get beat up by Rosie O’Donnell on the floor of a restaurant!  What they want to do is bring their talking points into a conversation without seeming forced, pre-scripted or insensitive to the conversation they are participating in at that moment.