Episode 156: Ditch the Pitch. Now What? | Story Snacks Series
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"Ditch the pitch" is easy to say.
But it's hard to do when you're staring at a calendar invite and realizing you've been leading with the deck for years.
And you start thinking, “Okay, if I'm not presenting, what am I actually doing in there? Am I just… winging it?”
Nope. In this Story Snack, Stacy’s breaking down what your meetings will actually look like once you put the deck aside and why ditching the pitch is probably a lot easier to pull off than you think.
Listen in to learn:
How the typical pitch backfires in meetings
Why the allocator should always be the hero of the meeting
The meeting structure that works from a behavioral science standpoint
How that structure actually removes the pressure to perform
This is Story Snacks, a bite-sized, jam-packed series for fund managers who are ready to master strategic storytelling in under 20 minutes a week.
TRANSCRIPT
Below is an AI-generated transcript and therefore it may contain errors.
[00:00:00] Stacy Havener: Craving more knowledge, but don't always have time to sit down for a five-course meal? Take a quick snack break with Story Snacks, bite-sized content to feed your funnel. Each short episode features Stacey digging into one question. This series has her talking stories, sales, and so much more. Oh, yeah. It's time for Story Snacks
[00:00:26] Wouldn't it be cool if you could diversify your investor base and add some non-US investors? Europe could be fun, or Latin America, maybe Antarctica. Hey, icebergs aren't really my jam, but you never know. You've only got one problem: how the heck do you do that? Fair question, but maybe this is a who not how thing.
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[00:01:17] Want to find out if your investment firm is ready to go global? Visit
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[00:01:57] So you've talked about how to get [00:02:00] meetings, but now you have the meeting. Your whole thing is ditching the pitch. So what actually happens in the room when the pitch deck comes down? Ooh. I mean, a lot of greatness happens when the pitch deck is not the star of the show. Ditch the pitch is probably my favorite framework if I'm-- I mean, I'm a story gal, and I love all-- Our story selling framework is amazing.
[00:02:23] Our, and our whole story sales mantra is amazing to me. But ditch the pitch is just so tangible, and it, and it has such an immediate impact. I mean, we have seen this work for clients in, like, weeks, not years. So I'm gonna give you one part of ditch the pitch that I think really captures what happens in a meeting when you put the pitch deck aside.
[00:02:49] But before I do, I have a question which is a little bit weird since this is a podcast and there's no audience. But it's important for us to remember what the goal of the [00:03:00] meeting is. So if it's a first meeting, let's just use a first meeting as an example, 'cause we've used get more better meetings to get the meeting, now we're in the meeting, and let's pretend it's a first meeting.
[00:03:10] The goal of the first meeting is quite simply to get a second meeting. It is not to close a deal. It is not to cover every single thing we could possibly cover. It has one job: get the second meeting. Ditch the pitch Does something foundational in the meeting structure itself, which is it changes who the hero of the meeting is.
[00:03:36] So the word pitch in and of itself means if I'm the asset manager or the person doing the selling, I am throwing something at you and you are going to catch that thing. It is a very one-directional word. And if it's a pitch, that means the star of the show or the hero in this meeting [00:04:00] story arc that we have going on, the hero of that story is the fund manager, and that is very much what it feels like in a typical pitch.
[00:04:09] We've all been in those meetings. Ditch the pitch changes who the hero is, and what it says is the hero of this meeting is not the fund manager. The hero of this meeting is the allocator who is trying to go from where they are to where they want to be and needs a guide on that journey to solve a specific problem or harness a specific opportunity.
[00:04:36] And if they are the hero, then what that allows us to do is change the whole vibe. This is not, "I am going to talk at you." This is, "I am going to talk with you. I am not going to stand and deliver. I am going to sit and have a conversation, not a presentation." And so that dynamic, that [00:05:00] shift of giving the allocator permission to own the meeting, it's their meeting, letting them go first, getting them on the board of talk time, because behavioral science tells us that people think a meeting is a good meeting when they speak 70% of the time, and that's human nature.
[00:05:25] We care about ourselves. That's what we care about. So in an hour meeting, that's 42 minutes. I've never been in a meeting where the prospect talked for 42 minutes, so let's just say that that's probably not realistic, and let's just go for 50/50. The easiest way to get that hero, that allocator on the board, is to have them go first To ask them questions, have them go first, listen to the answers.
[00:05:50] Don't just, like, stare at your watch. Do people wear watches anymore? I don't know. Stare at your watch, worse your phone, and say, "Okay, 15 minutes. Good job you. Uh, my [00:06:00] turn." Right? That's not it. That's not a conversation. It's really to hear them, to see them, to understand where they're coming from, so that you can figure out if you are the right guide for them and if the strategy you have is a good fit for them.
[00:06:14] It is a chance to get to know each other as people, because of course, people do business with people in every industry, even the investment industry, and I think it's very easy in the typical pitch to forget that. So they're the hero. We're the guide. They deserve space and grace to talk, to ask questions, to not be talked at, but to be invited into the conversation as the person that the meeting is for, because the reality is that's true.
[00:06:48] So I hope that helps. Let's be real. No one wakes up and says, "I can't wait to build some operational infrastructure today." You're here to manage money, to build something that [00:07:00] lights you up, not chase down reports across five systems and 15 service providers. That's where Ultimus Fund Solutions comes in.
[00:07:09] They're your ops dream team, consolidating all your middle and back office chaos into one clean, scalable setup. Registered funds, private funds, SMAs, all integrated. One team, one tech platform, one rock solid source of data. But here's the real differentiator: service. I know that fund in a box sounds convenient.
[00:07:35] It's also a box. Know what you can't put in a box? A human who picks up the phone when you call and need help, real life people who know your name and your fund, and they care about getting it right. Ultimus was built on people doing business with people. You get institutional strength combined with boutique-level service without getting stuck in a phone [00:08:00] tree of doom.
[00:08:01] If you're ready to simplify, scale, and start working with a team that feels like an extension of yours, check out billiondollarbackstory.com/ultimus. That's U-L-T-I-M-U-S. You've got the investment strategy, the vision, the track record. Now it's time to upgrade the engine behind it all with Ultimus This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.
[00:08:33] The information is not an offer, solicitation, or recommendation of any of the funds, services, or products, or to adopt any investment strategy. Investment values may fluctuate, and past performance is not a guide to future performance. All opinions expressed by guests on the show are solely their own opinion and do not necessarily reflect those at their firm.
[00:08:52] Managers' appearance on the show does not constitute an endorsement by Stacy Havener or Havener Capital [00:09:00] Partners
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