SIMAC: what is it?

SIMAC is a pitching method that has proven particularly effective in commercial and business contexts. The technique is taken from the book “Persuasive selling format” by Procter and Gamble.

The method helps you create an argument through five successive steps:

1. Summarize your situation;
2. Present your idea;
3. Explain the mechanism of your idea, how it works;
4. List the advantages of your idea, its main benefits;
5. Conclude your presentation and clearly define the next steps.

This method has the advantage of being universal . It works in many situations : advertising, investor presentations, business presentations and even in personal life.

How does this work in practice? 

Situation: summarize the context

This is the part where you state the key elements of the context. To convince your audience, these elements must be indisputable facts or commonly raised questions .

Choose key elements that your audience cannot disagree or discuss. You can use, for example, reliable data, previous analyzes in your company, etc. Explain your hypothesis clearly so that your entire presentation is built on a solid foundation. If you do this part well, you can move on to the next part with an audience that is convinced of your credibility and agrees with your statements.

Idea: present your strategy and share your vision

It is in this step that you provide the solution to the problem raised previously. State your idea concisely. Focus on the essentials. Your idea must be quickly understandable .

You should be able to state your strategy and summarize your idea in one or two sentences . The simpler the sentence, the better.

Mechanism: explain how it works

Explain how you will implement your idea. Justify the feasibility and credibility of your product /strategy.

Explain how you plan to achieve your goals. If you already have an action plan , it's time to present it. Otherwise, you must explain in detail how and with what means you intend to realize your idea. Remember to be realistic in terms of feasibility, otherwise your entire idea will lack credibility. You can use quantitative data here, like timeline and resources needed, costs, etc. The idea is to give weight to your action plan .

Advantages: cite the benefits that the customer will gain

At this stage, you need to highlight all the benefits for your customers and the positive outcome of your idea .

Here you will detail the positive impacts that your idea will have on your customers or on your business , depending on the objective of your strategy. This can be a higher turnover, a better margin, a gain in market share, lower production costs, a gain in productivity, better customer satisfaction , a higher average basket, etc. Again, if possible, provide quantitative data . Your benefits will be much more compelling if they are quantified.

Conclusion: clearly show the next steps

Here you need to make your call to action . Define next steps or actions clear and simple, so your (now convinced) audience knows what they need to do to move forward .

You have now shared your hypotheses, stated your idea, explained its mechanism and evaluated its impacts. It’s time to ask for approval/decision from your audience (client, manager, etc.). Clearly indicate the type of response you expect from them: whether it is an acceptance or refusal decision, an allocation of resources, etc. It is also wise to outline your timeline to give them a medium-term view of the deployment of your strategy.