Lessons from The Traitors - how NOT to influence your audience

If you are a fully invested Traitors fan like me, you will have seen a stellar performance from Linda on Friday.

The Traitors is a game show hosted by the camp, dripping in sarcasm and heavy eye-liner wonder that is Claudia Winkleman. A group of contestants stay in a stunning castle in the Scottish Highlands, competing in team challenges to add money to a prize pot while trying to work out who amongst them is a Traitor.

Traitors must secretly ‘murder’ other team players, known as Faithfuls, without getting caught. There’s lying, there’s arguments, there’s a lot of tears, but it’s also a fascinating study in herd mentality and the psychology of game play (as I said, you MUST!).

On Friday night’s episode, Linda, aka the oldest Traitor ever, retired opera-singer, purple-haired team member, gave an unbelievable performance at the breakfast table.

Her intention was to fool the Faithfuls into thinking she was devastated that Livvi had been murdered by bursting into tears. The problem was she over-performed and her delivery raised immediate suspicions.

I think Linda is great. But her theatrics let her down, leaving her and her fellow Traitor, Minah (who’s playing a blinding game, but that’s another topic for another time), vulnerable to the suspicions of the Faithfuls.

There’s a lot to learn from Linda on what NOT to do if you want to build a trusting relationship with your audience, whether that’s to keep you safe in the castle or to pitch your services to them.

So where did Linda go wrong, and what can you learn from her so you can avoid making the same mistakes in your own pitch?

Faking it doesn’t always mean making it.

As soon as it was clear Livvi would not be joining for breakfast, Linda started to sob. Not a subtle tear, a wipe of the cheek or a sullen stare into her coffee. We’re talking an AUDIBLE SOB on Frankie’s shoulder. This immediately got people’s attention for all the wrong reasons. Whispers went round the table. “Why is Linda reacting like that?!”. Linda went in hard on the tears thinking this would be more convincing, but instead she had the opposite effect.

Lesson:

We all know you’re meant to, ‘fake it till you make it’, but only if you’re ‘faking’ doesn’t become obvious. If pitching your business to an audience of over 1 person makes you nervous, trying to ‘pretend’ you’re really confident could do you a disservice. You might find yourself speaking louder or faster than normal, perhaps wildly gesticulating as you go.

Instead focus on techniques that will help you relax. Deep breathing or a brisk walk before your pitch will help to ease your nerves so you can speak calmly.

Inconsistency = confusion.

As Linda sobbed, Jake observed that her performance didn’t match her personality. The day before Linda had claimed, “I am an emotionless person” at the Round Table. Oh dear. The inconsistency in who the players knew her to be versus her emotional outburst did not match up, leading to more suspicion.

Lesson:

People can sniff inauthenticity a mile off. Staying consistent with who you are and how people see you is vital when you pitch. If you’re a mindfulness coach known for your calming influence, spicing up your pitch with a tongue-in-cheek pun then dropping the f-bomb will undoubtedly get people’s attention, but for all the wrong reasons.

Try something that’s in keeping with your brand, like asking a reflective question or inviting your audience to close their eyes as you speak. The consistency with your brand will strengthen people’s impression of your business which will increase the likeliness of them investing in you.

Doing something you love doesn’t work if your audience doesn’t love it too

“It is 100% theatre and that’s what I love”. This was Linda’s explanation in the diary room about why she’d gone knee-deep in drama. From a gal who’s big into amateur dramatics, normally I’m here for it. However, Linda made a serious error. She put her passion for performance above the needs of her audience and her audience did not like it.

Lesson:

“I think I’ll talk about how my experience of how burnout led to me quitting my job and starting my business because it’s really important to me to share my story.” <First name>, I say this with love. While your story is interesting, perhaps even inspiring or touching, if you are delivering a pitch to generate more leads, your audience Do. Not. Care. about your story.

That is not because you are pitching to a group of heartless souls. It is because humans are always, at some level, thinking, “what’s in it for me?”. When you write your next pitch, flip your focus from what YOU want to talk about to what your audience NEED to hear to make answering that question as easy as possible for them. You’ll hook people in and get better results.

If you are a serial networker and you want to grow your business this year, don’t be like Linda.

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