This almost failed pitch showed me how selling really works

An important pitch, and in the middle of it all, this founder has to secretly rewrite the presentation live. Sounds like a disaster? It wasn't.

Jason Modemann is the founder and managing director of the social media agency Mawave Marketing. At 27, he manages 150 employees. Mawave's clients include Red Bull, Nike, and Lidl.

Recently, we had a big pitch coming up – an important client, a large group, high expectations. And this particular pitch didn't go smoothly at first: We had put together the slides at short notice, and the brilliant idea for the appropriate content didn't come until the evening before.

While we were sitting in the conference room, our team in Munich was still working on post-production of the videos. Time was tight, but we hoped the footage would be ready just in time. My colleague shared the slides during the presentation, and as soon as I received the final content, I quickly incorporated it—live while the presentation was running.

At the same time, I slid my phone with the Notes app over to him under the table. It said: "Just updated the slides again. Restart the presentation." He played along, pretending PowerPoint had crashed, closed the file, and then restarted it. The best part: Nobody noticed a thing in the end. On the contrary: The client was thrilled—and we won the pitch.

What did I learn from this? Good slides are nice. But ultimately, it's how you deliver a pitch that counts. These perspectives are crucial for me – and can be applied to both sales pitches and investor meetings.

There's hardly a setting as well-orchestrated as a classic pitch: ten minutes of small talk, two hours of slides, followed by a separate Q&A. One party sends – the other listens. And that's precisely where the real opportunity lies. Because if you ask smart questions, show genuine interest, and truly want to understand what drives the other person, you immediately elevate the conversation to a whole new level. Whether it's a customer or an investor – both want to be not just impressed, but understood.

This sounds counterintuitive at first. After all, during a pitch, you often feel like you have to deliver. But the exact opposite often leads to success. Taking the time to understand the people, their goals, and their internal dynamics lays the foundation for a good match.

That's why we often don't present in a traditional way in the first 30 minutes. We start off very relaxed, asking questions and listening. We want to understand what people need and what they want – both in terms of content and on a corporate policy level. Ideally, we already know these topics beforehand. If not, we get them live.

A question we almost always ask is: "Where do you see yourselves in twelve months?" This question zooms in. It shows where the journey is headed – and often also who is involved in the decision-making behind the scenes. After all, almost every person in a pitch is bound by their own expectations, structures, and KPIs. Those who consider this don't provide a solution from the outside – they develop a shared one. And this is precisely what changes the psychology in the room: Those who are allowed to contribute identify with it. The pitch becomes co-creation. An idea becomes a shared project – and this creates real commitment.

Many pitches fail not because of the idea, but because of the connection. We overestimate how rational decisions are made – and underestimate how much attitude, trust, and personality count. The people sitting in the room don't just want to know what you can do – they want to know who you are. That doesn't mean that numbers are unimportant. But the other person often asks a much simpler question than expected: "Can I imagine working with this person? Even if it gets stressful?" This also explains why some founders raise millions without a finished product – because they know what they stand for. The best pitch therefore needs not just pure content – it needs character.

My tip: Don't approach your next pitch with the goal of providing all the answers—instead, ask the right questions. If you understand what really matters on the other side, you'll have to explain much less. Because the most convincing people are those who don't have to convince.