Practise the Pitch Before It Counts

Before my very first sales demos, the nerves were definitely there. And even years later, every time I joined a new company or pitched a new product, that pre-call tension came right back. I'm sure every commercial person recognises this.

Practice that managers can't schedule

It would have been incredibly helpful to practise with someone until I had completely nailed it, with immediate feedback so I got better every single time. But managers and peers are busy, and scheduling endless mock calls just isn't realistic.

If I'd had access to the AI avatars we're building at Meta-Skills back then, I would have practised those pitches until the avatar begged for mercy. A safe space to test things out, try different angles and find my rhythm, without feeling like I was wasting my boss's time or exposing myself, would have made a big difference.

Not only for sales

I would have used it before bringing up tough topics with leadership, or before giving tricky feedback to a coworker. Confidence builds with practice; it's as simple as that.

Practising what we preach

We use our own roleplays when onboarding commercial team members. Timothy Paulissen, our CCO, shared shortly after I joined that, after practising with our avatars, I secured a follow-up meeting in every one of our most demanding pitch formats: 20-minute one-to-one conversations with C-level executives. That isn't luck. It's the result of practising in a safe space before the stakes are real.