Pitch Like Hollywood: What You Can Learn from the High-Stakes Film Industry

PERSUASION BOOT CAMP

We begin this chapter by briefly talking about what not to do if you want to persuade your audience. Jim Press is the former senior managing director and chief operating officer of Toyota. He brought in an advertising agency to make a presentation to Toyota’s 60 dealerships from Brazil to Baltimore.

The advertising executive running the meeting started the presentation by telling the dealers they were setting a price on their vehicles that was too low to be true just to drive traffic. He claimed that these dealers were damaging the Toyota brand with their dishonesty. They needed to be stopped.

“Asserting that all car dealers ...