A buyer sitting across the table from you is rarely thinking about your product. They’re thinking about their category plan, their own targets, and whether backing you helps or risks both. Understanding that shift changes how you should walk into the room.
They’re not evaluating your product, they’re evaluating your plan
By the time you’re in the room, most buyers have already accepted the product is good enough — otherwise you wouldn’t have got the meeting. What they’re actually assessing is whether your forecast is realistic, whether your marketing support is real money or a slide, and whether ranging you creates a problem somewhere else in their category.
The three questions behind every buyer’s silence
- Will this cannibalise a line I already rely on, or genuinely grow the category?
- If this underperforms, how exposed am I, and how fast can I unwind it?
- Is this brand going to still be showing up in six months, or will I be chasing them for support that was promised in the pitch?
A quiet buyer isn’t a disinterested one. They’re usually running one of these three questions in the background while you’re still talking about features.
What separates a funded pitch from a politely declined one
Answer those three questions before they’re asked. Show the cannibalisation math even if it’s imperfect — a buyer trusts an honest estimate far more than a claim of zero impact. Put a real number and a real date against your marketing support, not a description of activity. And bring evidence of consistency, even if it’s a small case study from a smaller account, rather than promises about what you’ll do differently this time.
Got a pitch coming up and want a buyer’s-eye view on it first?
Steven Woodgate, Founder, Emmer Green — former Head of Category (Technology), John Lewis & Partners; former senior commercial leadership roles at Samsung, Dell Technologies and Microsoft.
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