Who Is Pitch Rolling Your Prospect?

My fondness for spotting parallels between politicians selling us policies and our solution endeavours sparked again this week.

London’s Westminster Village is beside itself with the first intervention by PM Cameron in the Europe referendum debate.

He happens to say, ‘no land of milk and honey out of EU’. Referring to the ‘plight’ of Norway and Iceland whilst a guest at a Nordic Northern Future Forum summit in Reykjavik.

Commentators from the bubble describe this as “pitch rolling”;

laying the groundwork for a change in opinion or strategy.

Whatever your stance on the “brexit” plebiscite (though most observers voice surprise this utterance comes ahead of his much heralded Brussels “renegotiation”, perhaps rendering it at best irrelevant, at worst doomed) there is a serious point about how our potential clients react to perceived upheaval.

After all, many in our realm consider the selling of “change” to be the more important aspect above any actual “product” or “value” we may have in our bag.

I read that the construct emerged in UK corridors of power a couple of years ago. Specifically in the context of “preparing the ground for battle”.

So pitch rolling is not the pitch itself. It relates to the manoeuvres that allow the pitch to be made when most likely to be accepted.

There’s much to take into selling here.

The reminder it is the machinations that often trump the meaning.

The focus on what needs to happen before you even pitch.

The people most wary of or affected by change of any nature need attention.

The way you must organise and collaborate with prospect personalities to prepare on your behalf.

The audience sought from whom maximum impact may be gained.

How do you pitchroll yourself, and how does your forecast stack up on pitchrolling today?