Linda McMahon chats with Kevin Harrington backstage at Women’s Leadership LIVE.
In music, “perfect pitch” might land a singer a spotlight at Carnegie Hall.
In baseball, “perfect pitch” might deliver a baseball player a no-hitter.
In business, “perfect pitch” might earn an entrepreneur new clients, customers or investors. And Kevin Harrington, creator of the infomercial and an original “Shark” on the ABC-TV show “Shark Tank,” is an expert on the perfect business pitch.
“I call it the tease, the please, and the seize,” he said of the three steps for the perfect pitch.
Harrington shared his wisdom with the 200 participants here at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City for this week’s Women’s Leadership LIVE experience. WLL calls it “The DIFFERENT Conference” © because it offers unparalleled access to experts like Harrington and proven strategies for success. Many of the WLL participants are entrepreneurs with products to pitch, and some participated in WLL’s own “Shark Tank”-style business pitch competition.
Harrington says women are well suited to launching their own businesses. He said he and fellow “Shark” Kevin O’Leary have done some research: “Women entrepreneurs are better investments on ‘Shark Tank’ than men. They are better team builders, set more realistic goals, and return more capital to the Sharks.”
Among the proven strategies for success that Harrington gave at WLL’s The DIFFERENT Conference – how to sell a product by crafting the perfect pitch:
- Tease: Grab the audience’s attention with a problem.
- Please: Show the solutions to the problem with magical transformations. Ease the pain, and gather testimonials and documentation to support your product. Most importantly, show your product is unique – no other product solves the problem you ae addressing.
- Seize: Create an irresistible offer.
“If you can do that, you’ve hit a home run,” he said.
Kate Sauls used these strategies in the final round of the WLL “Shark Tank” when she pitched her product – a flexible therapeutic wrap for soothing sore muscles and joints – that she has trademarked with the name “ThermaStretch.”
“There’s a lot of other microwaveable therapy heat packs on the market, but what makes mine different is that it stretches,” Sauls said. “The reason this was developed is I needed a heating pad to put on my knee. I had one, but when my husband gets in bed and pulls the covers, it falls off. My dog jumps on the bed, it falls off. I needed a heating pad that would stay on my knee and allow me to move around.”
The stretchable knee pack was just the beginning; she created a larger size to fit the back, hips, neck or any other aching body part.
“I haven’t found anybody to outstretch it yet.”
The judges were impressed by her “perfect pitch.” Sauls bested three other finalists and walked away with $50,000 worth of prizes – $10,000 in cash plus business consultations with Kevin Harrington, the Women’s Leadership LIVE founders, and others; business development software from Microsoft; and media opportunities.
Sauls was thrilled when her name was announced as the winner.
“You can want and you can hope and you can think, but then it happens, and it’s exciting and you’re shaking and it’s amazing.”