ceetv.net continues with the series of interviews with some of the most interesting speakers taking part in the first ever MIP Academy DO, organized by Reed MIDEM. The event will take place in Moscow on May 12-13, 2013.

Paul Boross is a corporate strategist, psychologist, writer, neuro-linguistic programming expert and recognized authority in the areas of communication, presentation and persuasion. He began his career as a stand-up comedian and TV host, before founding Big Sky and working there as the managing director of educational program organization. His clients include BBC, Google, Financial Times, MTV and the National Bank of Scotland.

Paul’s 25 years of experience in helping high profile business and media professionals to create and deliver winning business pitches has earned him the title ‘The Pitch Doctor’. Boross has three bestselling books, The Pitching Bible, recently hit the number one spot on Amazon and continues to receive outstanding reviews.

At MIPAcademy Moscow, Boross will try to help the audience get right inside the minds of the most outstanding presenters in order to be able to better get their message across, influencing their decisions and really seeing the expected results.

He will also be sharing all of The Pitch Doctor secrets and tips and techniques from all his books, TV shows and seminars: the really powerful ways of building a solid connection with the audience, ways of influencing the audience ‘before they even know you're influencing them, ways of packaging your message so that it's firmly planted in the audience's mind and ways of making sure that your words, your message, your passion echo in their minds, long after the pitch has ended’.

CEETV’s Maria Ruban did a quick Q&A with Paul Boross ahead of the event:

ceetv: What does one definitely need to be successful in TV industry?

PB: Talent helps. A good idea helps. However, it is not always the best idea that gets on to TV, it is very often the best pitched. The TV industry is hungry for ideas but it generally takes the ideas from those who they are confident can deliver. So, confidence is also one of the prime requisites of a successful TV person. When you're pitching to International markets, there are many points that you have to get across. You have to convince the audience that you've got global credibility. You have to make sure they understand the return on investment. And you have to make sure that you really stand out from the crowd and make an impact.

It doesn't matter what you say during your pitch about your credibility and capability to delivery; what the audience will believe is what they can see with their own eyes. When you arrive on time, prepared and well organised, the audience will assume that you'll deliver in a business relationship too. How you behave in the pitch sets the buyer's expectations for the service you'll deliver.

It's also important to understand that any art form is entirely subjective, and so your idea or format just won't appeal to everyone, no matter how good your pitch is. Therefore you must not try to make your pitch appeal to everyone, you should make your pitch true to yourself and your format and accept that you might have to deliver a lot of pitches before you find the right buyer.

ceetv: Please, name three must-haves to pitch your idea to a channel or product?

PB: Passion, Persistence and the ability to Persuade.

ceetv: What is it that really matters in negotiations (the idea itself, appearance of presenter, personal relationship, the materials, etc.)?

PB: It really is a combination of all these things but at the root of it is the relationship. For a sale to happen, the first thing you need is trust. The best negotiators are the ones who can build trust and the relationship quickly. Trust that they can deliver a quality product and a reliable working partnership. The relationship and the appearance of the presenter create the buyer's expectations, and the idea and materials have to live up to that expectation, so everything has to work together.

ceetv: How do you work with majors like BBC or MTV?

PB: I work with all my clients in different ways but there are similar themes. I will sometimes be called in to work with a team on a specific pitch and then I will work on every aspect of the pitch from the brief to the psychology of the presenters to an analysis of the people receiving the pitch and then the mechanics of the actual presentation. I will also train different levels of companies from CEO and executive boards to the sales forces and marketing teams in the art and science of getting their message across.

I think that the most important thing to remember about the large players is that they're run by people who are just like you and me. Often, you might feel more afraid of dealing with a household name, but often it's the smaller distributors and channels who have more to lose from the wrong deal, so the buyers in the big media players have a different perception of risk. So don't treat them any differently just because they're big, treat all of your contacts differently because they're unique, with their own needs, interests, business models and personalities.