Women & Success - Identifying Prospects

Excerpted from
Pitch Like a Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succeed
By Ronna Lichtenberg

Once your vision is in focus, one immediate goal should be clear: You need to find people who can help advance your dream and support you in getting what you want. Identifying and cultivating these prospects is the next step in becoming an effective pitcher.

Understand this from the get-go: You are going to have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince-or, in this case, the many princes and princesses who can help you along your way. This very useful analogy comes from my friend Janet Clarke, a high-powered entrepreneur who has done a whole lot of frog kissing in her professional life, with the commensurate career successes to show for it. Among other things, Janet was an executive vice president at Young & Rubicam, the giant ad agency, and now sits on the board of directors for four companies, including Cox Communications, a Fortune 500 company, and Forbes.com. My corollary to Janet's rule: A lot of frogs are going to pee on you before you're done, too. But finding the royalty who can help make your vision a reality is worth having to take a few extra showers from time to time.

Of course, tons of people already pass through your life and your work on a daily basis. You don't have a choice about many of these interactions, especially if you work in a big company. What matters most, though, are the people choices you make in the pan of your day that's volitional-whom you choose to call, to e-mail, to engage in conversation, arrange a meeting or just share a cup of coffee with. How consciously and purposefully you make those choices is a key factor in your ultimate success. Making those choices wisely is the difference between being a powerful pitcher and a powerless one.

Whom Are You Looking For, Anyway?

Like lip gloss, lipsticks, and lip creams, prospects come in many varieties. Smart pitchers try to cultivate relationships with all different kinds, to varying degrees, at different times in their lives.

The direct prospect is the easiest to recognize and represents a straight path from where you are now to what you want. She's the person in charge of hiring if you're looking for a new job, or the well-heeled venture capitalist who specializes in your field if you're looking for backing for a new business venture. He's the potential buyer for your sale, the key decision-maker on your deal, the one who says yes or no, and that's final.

Then there are the indirect prospects, who aren't always as obvious but can be every bit as important. They may be people who can provide political support for you within an organization-they might be willing to put in a good word for you with people you want on your side, and their word matters. Or they may be in a position to provide intellectual capital-they can either give you information that's vital to your success or know how and where to get it. A classic example: When you're new in a job, a key prospect might be a senior manager's administrative assistant, who's been around for thirty years and knows not just how everything and everyone in the place works, but the "dish" that's deeper than a Chicago-style pizza. People who can help you gain access to decision-makers are key prospects too. Because in any pitching situation there is always someone in a position to ultimately say yes or no, and often it takes a little maneuvering to get to that person. You don't always have a straight shot.

One of my favorite pitching stories, for example, has to do with writer-director Sofia Coppola's determined efforts to nab comedian Bill Murray for the lead role in her film Lost In Translation. Coppola had written the part expressly with the notoriously elusive Murray in mind, but could not get the actor to speak with her, let alone commit to do the movie. Calls to his 800 number-Murray is known in Hollywood as brilliant but somewhat of an odd duck went unreturned for months, as did more routine methods of connecting, such as calling his agent. Coppola ditched her attempts at the direct approach and spent the next five months convincing anyone she knew who knew Murray - and she happened to know a few of his closest screenwriter and director friends-to convince the actor to read her script and take the part-or at least to consider meeting with her. As Coppola told the New York Times Magazine in an interview last year, "Stalking Bill became my life's work."

Eventually the effort paid off - and paid off big. Murray agreed to a dinner, then to the movie itself. The result was a runaway indie hit, with Oscar nominations for Murray as best actor, Coppola for direction and original screenplay (which she won), and a Best Picture nod too. But without cultivating those indirect prospects-the mutual friends and friends of friends who helped Coppola land that first meeting with Murray-none of it would have happened.

Not For Business Only

Most women I know already practice cultivating different kinds of prospects in their personal lives. And if you don't, you should.

Smart moms, for example, make it their business to get to know their child's teacher on a more personal basis, putting some time and effort into understanding who she really is and what she needs, making small talk, and offering assistance. In my book, that constitutes courting a direct prospect-that is, cultivating a relationship with the person who can help you achieve the goal of having your child succeed in school. In a bid for intellectual capital, those same moms also seek out parents with older kids, so they learn how the school system works and who the best teachers are. And if they're really smart, they'll make sure to chat up the secretary in the school office, so they get inside information about the place and easier access to the principal, if problems arise. That's a twofer: gaining intellectual capital and cultivating a gatekeeper at the same time.

Another great demonstration of how cultivating a gatekeeper can benefit you in your personal life Is fictional, but nonetheless powerful. Fans of Sex and the City will no doubt recall the time when Samantha, a high-powered publicist who underwent treatment for breast cancer during the show's final season, attempted to book a chemotherapy appointment with one of New York's top oncologists. Told by the doctor's receptionist that she'd have to wait six months for an opening, Samantha, in inimitable Samantha style, asked bluntly, "Just who do you have to f to get an appointment around here?"

In the end, she didn't offer herself on a platter to anyone. As it turned out, the gatekeeper receptionist was a huge fan of Samantha's oh-so-hot young actor-model boyfriend. Upon learning this, Samantha promptly promised the receptionist a personal introduction to said heartthrob, who she promised would pay a visit to the doctor's office at his earliest opportunity. The receptionist rechecked her appointment book and found an early opening for Samantha the very next day. Pressing her advantage, Samantha then managed to secure an appointment as well for a nun she'd befriended in the waiting room.

Now that's what I call power pitching.