When I lived in Hollywood I used to attend courses at the Sherwood Oaks Experimental College. I just ran into a blog post on Gideon's Screenwriting Tips in which the College's founder, Gary Shusett, shares some tips for pitching. The one that I think is perhaps most important--and least intuitive:
"The goal is to have the person you are pitching to ask questions and do most of the talking after your first 20-second to 2-minute pitch."
I say this is not intuitive because usually you think that a pitch is about you selling someone on your idea. In fact, the goal is to make them believe it's now not your idea but yours AND theirs. Usually you will be pitching to someone who has to, in turn, sell the idea to someone else. This is true for producers, editors, and others. Only when they have bought into it will they get excited about it and promote it.
If they offer a suggestion of an element to incorporate into your project, don't reject it even if your brain is screaming 'no, no, no!" (Well, not unless it's TOTALLY insane, which does sometimes happen.)
Instead, embrace it if you like it, embrace it if it's neutral (makes the story neither better nor worse), and if you think it probably won't work, say "that's an interesting alternative." Don't panic. Between this first discussion and the finished project so many things will change that this early suggestion probably will fall by the wayside anyway.
In my title I said this is good advice for life as well. I used to think it's all about impressing other people with your talent or your achievements. The older I get, the more I realize it's about collaboration--not necessarily formal, but in terms of paying attention to and linking with what people want and what they feel, and finding common ground when possible. That requires listening as well as talking.
(PS: that's why your comments are always welcome.)
