How to Sell a T-shirt with Emotion

CTC Background

If you are not one of the 630,000 subscribers to Cracking the Cryptic (CTC), let me give you a bit of background information, so you can understand the sales pitch.

CTC is the biggest sudoku channel on YouTube. Every day, the two hosts of the show, Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe, each do a live solve of a world-class, handmade puzzle.

The YouTube channel also has a webshop featuring merchandise. Not only with the CTC logo, but also with often used phrases such as “bobbins” (their family-friendly exclamation of disappointment), “let’s get cracking” (the sentence that starts their solves) and “knowledge bomb” (a very obvious statement of fact, such as 3+4=7).

One of the phrases that Simon is known for is his reveal of “The Secret of Sudoku”. With a mischievous look he always starts it with: “I only tell this to my favourite people. But as you’re still listening to this video, you’re one of my favourites”.

Someone suggested to him that they should sell a t-shirt with “I am one of Simon’s favourite people”. He offhandedly mentioned that on the channel, chuckling while saying “ I don’t think it would sell. But it is a nice idea”.  In the comments to that video, over 200 people said they would buy such a t-shirt.

Three weeks later, the sales pitch we will analyse was given during the introduction of a daily Sudoku solve.

Perfect Pitch Model

To analyse Simon’s sales pitch we will look at the four elements of the Perfect Pitch Model:

1. Who-am-I
2. Concept
3. Passion hook™
4. Call-to-action

Most pitches who don’t work, miss at least one of the four elements, and/or badly execute one or more of them.

Who-am-I

The first element of a perfect pitch is the introduction. You might notice that Simon doesn’t introduce himself. Is that a problem? No, not at all, because this is a fragment from a YouTube video where they have a standard intro that introduces the hosts.

Not just by name, but also with a picture and with what I call an ‘authority argument’. In Simon’s case: “ Former UK team member in world sudoku and world puzzle championships”.

If everyone in your audience knows who you are, you don’t have to mention your name in a pitch (note: this is rarely the case!).

Concept

The second element of a perfect pitch is the concept, its message. A good concept exists of two parts: the problem your audience has and the solution you have to offer them.

Simon gives a very clear concept in only three short sentences:

“Some of you asked, believe it or not, for a T-shirt saying that you’re one of my favourite people… (problem). There is now a T-shirt available. It’s available in different colours (solution).

Passion Hook™

The most important element to convince people is what I call a Passion Hook: the story that makes the abstract concept concrete and real. Stories and the emotions they evoke appeal to the part of your brain that is good at making quick and easy decisions. What Daniel Kahneman in his book “Thinking. Fast and Slow” calls ‘System 1’.

Simon tells the story of his audience asking for a specific t-shirt; why people would want this specific text on the t-shirt; and how his co-host Mark has taken up that challenge. That sounds like it could be a long story, but he tells it quickly in the short, unfinished sentences that are a feature of natural spoken language:

“Mark has been busy. Some of you asked, believe it or not, for a T-shirt saying that you’re one of my favourite people. Everybody who watches the channel is one of my favourite people. Occasionally, I’ve been known to share a secret on that basis.”

Emotions

And most importantly, he doesn’t shy away from the emotions that are attached to this story for him: he finds it embarrassing, unbelievable, and weird.

He not only literally says so:

“The first thing is a little bit embarrassing (…) Some of you asked, believe it or not, for a t-shirt (…). I know some of you have asked for it, [but] I feel strange about it being there.”

His body language is also completely congruent with his words: he raises his shoulders, chuckles, and looks away when he says that the t-shirt is now available. He shakes his head when he implies that probably no-one will be interested and throws up his hands when saying he feels strange.

This negativity is not a dismissal of the t-shirts itself, but of the notion that people would be interested in wearing a t-shirt that says that they like being valued by him.

It is totally in character for a modest and unassuming person: the personality traits that Simon consistently shows on the channel.

And that is what a perfect pitch is all about: being 100% yourself. If you’re a true introvert, you don’t need to deliver fiery sales pitches. That’s just not you. It wouldn’t feel right, and your body language would unconsciously reveal it. Simply be genuine, be yourself. That’s not strange, but charming.

Call-to-action

The last element of a perfect pitch is the call-to-action, the next action you want your audience to take.

The call-to-action is very clear in this pitch: if you want a Simon’s-favourite-t-shirt go to the link under the video.

It is put at the right place: at the end, after the message has been given, the Passion Hook has been told and the audience wants to know where to get it. And once again totally in character, he doesn’t push it, he doesn’t do a hard sell. He just offers the possibility, and leaves the audience the choice:

“I’ll put a link under the video, just in case anyone is interested. (…) it is there, if anyone wants to see it.”

Short

As a bonus: It is short, 46 seconds. The shorter the pitch, the better as it generally means that the message is drilled down to its core. Which means that it is easy to grasp and therefore simple to remember and take action on.

Conclusion

As De Pitchcoach I love this pitch. All four elements of the Perfect Pitch Model are well executed. It is short, concise, and 100% fits the personality of the speaker. And most importantly: there is a genuine emotion attached to this video. Not played, not acted. Real. Therefore this is absolutely a perfect sales pitch.

Full disclosure

Full disclosure: I am the proud owner of a Simon’s-favourite-t-shirt (that I paid for myself) and a paying Patreon of the Cracking the Cryptic channel.

A Dutch version of this analysis has been published on the Dutch marketing website Frankwatching.