How To Use Current Events In Your Pitch

What’s going on in the world is often a rich source of material for your networking pitch. Why is this? Well, open the paper or turn on the news and virtually every story you encounter is a problem of some sort.

What do our products and services do? They solve our customers’ problems.



I’m not suggesting that your range of natural skin care products is going to solve the national deficit – but you can use current events as a springboard to discuss the benefits of what you offer. Here are some examples:



A business coach might take a cutting of a newspaper with a headline such as ‘Survey reveals that 67% of employees suffer from work-related stress’. This is the lead in to discuss her latest course in reducing stress at work.



In August 2010 the Prime Minister’s wife went into labour 3 weeks early whilst on holiday. Anyone who offers a service where time is of the essence – such as a courier – could use a picture of David Cameron with his newborn to illustrate how they excel at delivering precious packages on time. (This one is a bit corny, but far more memorable than a boring spiel reeling off the same old features of a company).



If your business in any way supports the local community, then a story about yet another British manufacturing plant relocating to the Far East can be the springboard to highlighting the benefits your company brings to the local area. It doesn’t matter if you specialise in an intangible such as marketing, as long as there is some link to the original news story.



These are just 3 quick examples – the more you keep up with the news and try to come up with similar ideas, the better and more creative you will become. Using current events also sends a subtle message that your business keeps up with the times, and can evolve along with your customers’ changing needs