Any pitch will be more effective if the recipient can instantly put it in context. But you cannot supply that context within the pitch. No, a context must be established already. That means known facts, recognizable terminology, tacitly accepted assumptions.

The more unfamiliar a topic, the easier for someone to round down, to err on the side of inertia, to oversimplify for the sake of convenience ... and say "No".

As much as I hate buzzwords and cliches, they're effective in marketing because they reinforce familiar associations. They prompt a reflex. People already believe "the cloud" is the future. They already think "green" is good. And so forth.

Why? How? Because those industries have put energy into establishing public awareness, creating a context for pitching opportunities later on.

Since I work mainly in the domain industry – which is typically ignored, misunderstood, or maligned – every single day I'm reminded how important it is to work at creating a public context for ideas. A day after I purchased a domain for $2,100, someone approached me with an offer of $1.99! Such gaps in awareness cannot be handled 1 person at a time.

So if you encounter the same insurmountable chasms of awareness in pitch after pitch, stop! Consider how best to first establish a context for discourse and public awareness. Talk to everybody at once in advance.

Until the notions in your pitch are already familiar and half-accepted, the chance of success in particular transactions is almost nil.