I recently read a story about a sales pitch that, using an unusual method, was a success. Hans Geisler, the founder of Japhy Surf Co. told about a time in the early stages of his business he needed to present to investors in a Shark Tank style presentation in the hope of winning them over and receiving investment money. The presentation was taking place in New York City, and the temperature when he arrived was negative 5 degrees. Prior to the presentation, Geisler put on his usual suit and tie, then headed to the studio where he would be pitching his business. When he arrived at the studio however, he said everyone was dressed just like him in a professional suit and tie. He then made an unusual decision for his pitch. He stated \u201cSo, I decided to throw a Hail Mary.\u00a0I stripped down, threw on a pair of my trunks, lost my shirt and tie, and got down to bare feet.\u201d His outfit of only his swim trunks got a strong reaction from the investors. \u201cWhen I walked onto the set, the producers immediately lost it laughing–‘What are you thinking rolling around in swim trunks? It’s snowing outside, you lunatic!’\u201d Geisler gave his entire pitch, and it was a success. \u201cThe investors were either completely sold, or\u00a0just\u00a0took pity on the clown standing in front of them, but they all decided to invest!”<\/p>\n
Geisler used an unusual method to make his presentation stand out. In class we\u2019ve talked about making those you are selling to feel at ease and comfortable with you, and I\u2019d imagine in situations where you must present in professional environments, this can be difficult. By throwing in a fun curveball, Geisler was able to make those he was selling to laugh and create a more comfortable environment. Judging by how things played out, it seems the comfortable environment he created played a strong part in the success of his pitch, and the investors being sold on his idea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I recently read a story about a sales pitch that, using an unusual method, was a success. Hans Geisler, the founder of Japhy Surf Co. told about a time in the early stages of his business he needed to present to investors in a Shark Tank style presentation in the hope of winning them over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":837,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,166],"tags":[258,9,89,21,64],"class_list":["post-8880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-perspectives-on-sales","category-sales-experience","tag-improv","tag-sales","tag-salespeople","tag-techniques","tag-the-pitch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/837"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8881,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8880\/revisions\/8881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}