A universal pitch method to win your audience over

SIMAC - How to pitch successfully ?

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SIMAC – a powerful pitch method

Where does it come from? The method originates from Procter and Gamble’s “persuasive selling format”.

What is SIMAC ? SIMAC is a pitching method that has proven very successful in commercial and business contexts.

How does it work? The method helps you create a pitch that contains five successive steps : 1. Summarize your Situation; 2. State your Idea;3. Explain the Mechanism of your idea, how it works;4. List the Advantages of your idea, its key benefits;5. Conclude your pitch and define clear next steps.

Who does it apply to? The method is universal and works in many situations : advertising, investors pitch, business presentations and even personal life.

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Situation

Idea

Mechanism

Advantage

Conclusion

SIMAC – Examples of pitches

Advertizing Personal lifeBusiness pitch

• Consumers care more and more about the environmental impact of the products they buy

• NGO find it hard to gather funds

Let’s create a market place thatwould only sell environment-friendlyproducts and distribute a % of sales to relevant NGOs.

The platform would work like all marketplaces for the end-consumer. There would be a screening process of the NGO. The economic model wouldbe revenue share.

• Marketplace is a proven model• Positive value should facilitate

media coverage and virality• Low investment

Let’s invest $k500 in creating a test platform

• Dirty sweaters• Demanding kids• Delicate fabrics

Find an excellent laundry powder that would clean the sweater perfectly without damaging the fabric.

The enzymes contained in the powder manage to remove the stains from the fabric, powerfully but gently

• a happy family • very clean clothes • sweaters that are still soft and as

good as new

Buy the powder from the neareststore.

• I’m tired from a day’s work• I don’t feel like cooking• But I’m still hungry

Go to a restaurant tonight instead of staying home.

• Nice food• No extra work

Let’s choose what kind of restaurant we want to go to.

• Choose a convenient time• Book a table

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SIMAC – The five steps in details

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SITUATION

This is the part where you state the key elements of context.

In order to convince your audience, these elements have to be indisputable facts or issues commonly raised.

What should I do here?

To state your situation, choose key elements that your audience cannot disagree on or discuss. E.g : reliable data, prior business analyses in your company etc.

Explain your hypothesis with clarity so that your entire presentation goes on with a strong foundation. Doing this part well ensure that you can move onto the next part of your analysis with the audience convinced of your credibility and agreeing with your statements.

To make it even more powerful, select your facts so that the idea you will expose in the next step is a natural response to the situation. Your audience should naturally be envisioning the idea as you state your facts.

How do I achieve this goal?

• Consumers care more and more about the environmental impact of the products they buy• NGO find it hard to gather funds

Can you give me an example?

www.eloquens.com

SIMAC – The five steps in details

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IDEA

This is where you give the solution the issue raised in the previous step.

State your idea in a synthetic way. Focus on the essential. Your idea be quickly comprehensible.

What should I do here?

You should be able to state your strategy and sum up your idea in one or two sentences. The simpler the sentence the better. Think of it as a sales pitch.

The idea should in itself provide an answer to the issues you have raised in the situation. You will be able to expand your idea in the ‘mechanism’ section.

How do I achieve this goal?

Let’s create a market place that would only sell environment-friendly products and distribute a percentage of sales to relevant NGOs.

Can you give me an example?

www.eloquens.com

SIMAC – The five steps in details

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MECHANISM

Explain how you will implement your idea.

Justify the feasibility and the credibility of your product / strategy

What should I do here?

Explain how you intend to achieve your objectives. If you already have an action plan, this is the place to state it. Otherwise, you should go into the details of how and with what means you intend to realize your idea.

Remember to be realistic in terms of feasibility; otherwise your whole idea will lack credibility.

We suggest using quantitative data here, like timing and resources needed, costs, that will give weight to your action plan and lend credibility to your work. It will also make it easier to act on your plan.

How do I achieve this goal?

• The platform would work like all marketplaces for the end-consumer.

• There would be a screening process of the NGO via an online application process and then a manual background check.

• The economic model would be revenue share (20% for NGOs)

Can you give me an example?

www.eloquens.com

SIMAC – The five steps in details

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ADVANTAGES

This is where you highlight all your customer benefits and the positive outcome of your idea.

Detail the positive impact your idea is going to have on the issues and facts stated in the first step ‘situation’ of the SIMAC.

What should I do here?

Here you will detail the impacts your idea will have on your customers or on your business depending on the aim of your strategy.

Some examples of advantages might be: bigger turnover, a better margin, gaining market share, lower production costs, gaining productivity, better customer satisfaction, higher average basket etc.

Here again, where possible, give quantitative data. Your advantages will seem much more cogent if they have been quantified. And once again it will also help decision making.

How do I achieve this goal?

• Marketplaces are proven successful models (Amazon, Ebay…)

• Positive value should facilitate media coverage and virality

• Low investment needed (<$k 700)

• Expected turnover of $m2,5 first year.

Can you give me an example?

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SIMAC – The five steps in details

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CONCLUSION

This is your call to action.

Define your next steps or define or clear and simple actions, so that your (now convinced) audience knows what to do to follow on.

What should I do here?

This is the conclusion of your presentation. You have now shared your hypotheses, stated your idea, explained its mechanism and evaluated its impacts. It’s time to ask for approval/decision from your audience (client, manager…).

Indicate clearly the type of response you are expecting from them: whether that is a go/no-go decision or an allocation of resources etc.

It is also a good idea to explain your next steps and timing to give them a medium-term view of your strategy deployment.

How do I achieve this goal?

Let’s invest $k500 in creating a test platform

Can you give me an example?

www.eloquens.com

This slideshow is part of Eloquens’ blog post on ‘SIMAC – how to pitch successfully’

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