The role of humanity in business is threatened existentially.
Once not too long ago, humans conducted business with humans. We called each other. We wrote and signed contracts. We delivered products. We knocked on doors. We drove to clients. And most importantly, we sold. We had men and women in the field talking to customers trying to sell. Now business is conducted in a far different manner with technology at the core of every interaction. When we called out customers, they now use eCommerce. When we knocked on doors, marketing teams now send emails and buy ads. When we once signed contracts, we now use DocuSign. When before we drove to clients, we now hide behind a Zoom with $250 webcams. Everything is digital and automated for us.
The psychological impact of this shift is apparent. Across the board, people care less about doing good work and care more about keeping up appearances. Studies by Harvard Business Review have demonstrated that while digital communication tools like email and video conferencing increase efficiency, they often fail to foster the depth and empathy in interactions that are crucial for building and sustaining effective long-term business relationships. The digitization and automation of our lives, along with the inherent lack of anonymity that comes with it, has introduced a new level of fragility that workers today have never felt before. Why take a risk when an error could result in your job going to someone else or to a computer? Why call out issues when it will cause angst with the customer? Why try and problem solve when the boss says it’s fine? Why try to build a genuine connection with a customer when you can just send marketing content? The proliferation of technology in our personal and professional lives is resulting in broad stroke declines in the things that make us human: curiosity, risk tolerance, empathy, emotional intelligence, problem solving, and most notably, storytelling.
Storytelling is a lost art. And it’s the foundation of the most central aspect of commerce historically: pitching. Pitching was how companies sold, how entrepreneurs got funding, how politicians got elected, how people get jobs. But people don’t do it anymore. Perhaps because people are afraid it doesn’t work, they are afraid to do it, or most commonly they conflate pitching with the antics of desperate used car salesmen. In any case, the classic art of pitching is all but gone in modern business except for those who know how to do it. Experts like Simon Sinek argue that the art of persuasion is becoming more valuable as digital communication becomes more prevalent. Sinek suggests that the ability to connect on a human level cannot be replicated by technology, making personal pitching and storytelling skills more critical than ever. The best business people in the world are all wonderful pitchers, each with their own unique style but each sharing similar attributes: storytelling, passion, and charisma.
Pitching has helped businesses grow. It’s helped people get jobs. It’s helped consultants save projects and change companies. It’s helped entrepreneurs start businesses. It's simply more fun when done well. But still we look at pitching as a taboo practice that is too self-promoting, too far fetched, and too “salesy”. But in a world where technology is replacing every manual element of human life, being salesy is all we have left. All of us. All we have left as salespeople, consultants, customer success, marketing, finance is our ability to influence others through our own charisma. Let’s embrace our own unique charisma. Let’s bring back storytelling. Let’s bring back personal bravado. Let’s bring back pitching.