4. What is pitching? “A (sales) pitch is a planned (verbal) presentation of a product/service/concept/idea designed to initiate and close a sale of the same.” Pitching is presenting your business plan and business case… …to investors, FFFs, new recruits, client prospects, partner candidates, support organizations etc.
5. Different Types of Pitches Two line summary / tag line ”Facebook for corporations” Elevator pitch 9 floors to get the job done Short Presentation 5-10 slides with main messages Use visuals & easy to read text Full Presentation Full slide show, 10-20 PPTs Have back-up materials/references 5-10 s 30-60 s 5-10 min 20-30 min
7. ”Top 10” pitchingtechniques Use visual aids Keep it short and sweet Use the rule of three Rehearse Tell stories Lose the bullet points Video yourself Know what slide is coming next Have a back-up plan Check out the presentation room www.presentationmagazine.com
8. ”Other Top 10” pitchingtechniques Rehearse Don’t repeat what is written on your slides Don’t overload your slides Make eye contact Know your audience Move around Don’t read the script Slow down Make ‘em laugh Be passionate and energetic thinkvitamin.com
9. Morepitchingtechniques Strongstart, strongerfinish (memorize!) Beconvincing, excitedaboutyour idea Logicalstructure, tell a story Limited number of slides (max 10-12) Steadypace in the presentation (~1/min) withpauses – donotrunthrough the slides Set of slidesdoesnotequal a goodpresentation
11. Whatcanyouaccomplish in 7 minutes? Investorshear a number of pitches in a day Savethemfrombadpitches, a goodfirst impression! Youcandeliver 2-4 main messages (argumentswithevidence) to show thatyourstart-up is interesting Make sure thatyouhavetime for feedback/questions Yourgoal is that theyrememberyourstart-up case youareinvited for a meeting to show rest of the slides youcanraisesense of urgency to act ifyoucangetseveralinvestorsinterested
12. Building the slide deck Plan the content and main messagesseparately ABC is interestinginvestment opportunity: Firstclients and sales (evidence of marketdemand) Experiencedteam, ability to execute Big playersareactive in acquisitions in thisfield Draftslides and contentundertopics Usevisuals (graphs, pictures, screenshots) Converttopics into messages Team -> A strongteamwith 40+ years of experience Addback-upslides for questions
13. How to make your pitch to stand out Attachyourstart-up to somethingeverybodyspeaks of orknows (that is in theirminds) Startwith a joke, show an article, ask a question Demonstrateifpossible Becompelling bepassionate of your opportunity and start-up externalvalidation is best for all of the facts
14. Common mistakes in pitching ”Yes, butwhatdoyoudo?” Youarenotable to explainwhatproblemyouaresolvingorwhatyouareoffering to yourclients Your position on the market / in the valuechain Slowstart and no story Toomuchtechnology (or jargon / abbreviations) Afraid of revealingfacts / homeworknotdone Leaving out allrelevantinformation: clients, pricing E.g. ”wehave no competition”, ”unique idea” Notrealisticfundingproposal, ”just trying out” Running out of time
20. Focus on the content (not on the order) Example 1 cover summary team problem solution technology marketing sales competition milestones conclusion financing Example 2 Problem / Challenge & Solution Market Potential / Customers Business model Company and the team Technology Implementation plan Financial plan and needs
21. Not Just Deck, Build Your Elevator Pitch Assume short buildings Put a tag on it (one sentence to remember) Solve a problem Lay out the benefits Conclude with a call to action Show Your Passion (Tips from a list of Bill Joos, Garage.com)
22. Last Pitching Tip Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse… Only practise makes a master
We have condensed all of the presentation techniques down to the most effective. Here are the Top 10 effective presentation techniques.1. Use visual aidsUsing pictures in your presentations instead of words can double the chances of meeting your objectives.2. Keep it short and sweet There is an old adage that said – “No one ever complained of a presentation being too short.” Nothing kills a presentation more than going on too long.There are some college professors who will penalise a short presentation (most lecturers see no problem in droning on) , but for most people a shorter presentation is better. Keep your presentation to under 22 minutes if you can.3. Use the rule of threeA simple technique is that people tend to only remember three things. Work out what the three messages that you want your audience to take away and structure your presentation around them. Use a maximum of three points on a slide.4. RehearsePractice makes for perfect performance. Many experts say that rehearsal is the biggest single thing that you can do to improve your performance. Perform your presentation out loud at least four times. One of these should be in front of a real scary audience. Family, friends or colleagues. Even the dog is better than nothing.5. Tell storiesAll presentations are a type of theatre. Tell stories and anecdotes to help illustrate points. It all helps to make your presentation more effective and memorable.6. Lose the bullet points – don’t put your speaker notes up on the screenBullet points are the kiss of death for most presentations. Most people use bullet points as a form of speaker notes. To make your presentation more effective put your speaker notes in your notes and not up on the screen.7. Video yourself Set up a video camera and video yourself presenting. You will see all sorts of mistakes that you are making, from how you are standing, if you are jangling keys, to how well your presentation is structured.8. Know what slide is coming nextYou should always know when presenting which slide is coming up next. It sounds very powerful when you say “On the next slide [Click] you will see…”, rather than than a period of confusion when the next slide appears.9. Have a back-up planMurphy’s law normally applies during a presentation. Technology not working, power cuts, projector blowing a bulb, spilling coffee on your front, not enough power leads, no loudspeakers, presentation displays strangely on the laptop – all of these are things that have happened in presentations that I have given.Have a back-up plan. Take with you the following items – a printed out set of slides – (you can hold these up to the audience if you need to), a CD or data stick of your presentation, a laptop with your slides on it. Just in case it goes wrong.Guess what? When you have back-ups – you seldom need to use them.10. Check out the presentation roomArrive early and check out the presentation room. If you can make sure that you see your slides loaded onto the PC and working on the screen. Work out where you will need to stand.Do you agree or disagree with any of these effective presentation techniques? Have you have any experiences like this? Add it in to the comments box below.
1: RehearseAgain and again and again. So you know every detail of your talk, all the slides and the order in which they appear. Practice in front of a mirror or even video yourself. This is the best way to find potential tripping points, inconsistencies, and also gives you a chance to weed out the crap jokes.But more importantly, it will make you so comfortable with the content that you won’t need notes or prompts and you’ll appear conversational but knowledgeable.2: Don’t repeat what is written on your slidesIt’s painful when a speaker reads verbatim what is written on each slide. Give your audience some credit, they’re going to be pretty good readers so you don’t need to help them out. Your job is to give context and detail to the one or two lines (at the most) on a slide. Or in some instances, vice versa; I often use slides to add a quick parenthetical note to something I’m saying to the audience.3: Don’t overload your slidesFurther to the last bullet, nothing is uglier or less appealing than a slide with 15 bullet points and a graph. It’s confusing, cluttered, hard to understand and of no value to anyone as a presentation aid. In my recent keynotes, over 80% of my slides only have one line OR graphic/chart on them.Sure it’s more clicking for me but this isn’t about me, it’s about the audience, and simple slides help you guide the narrative in a clear, concise way.4: Make eye contactThis may sound like a no brainer but so many speakers spend their time looking at their feet, at their slides, at their notes – anywhere but the audience. If you don’t make eye contact with the people you’re talking to you end up looking like you’re talking to yourself, just like the guy you avoid sitting next to on public transport.5: Know your audienceI spoke at a two-day tech conference recently and was scheduled to speak on the second day. This turned out to be a huge advantage for me because I spent the whole first day following the (substantial) Twitter traffic surrounding the event and I noticed some interesting trends in the audience reactions to speakers and their content.As a result, I spent several hours that night retooling my presentation to better suit the audience – I like to think my keynote went down well the next day.6: Move aroundAs a speaker, I loathe standing behind a podium when I speak – it feels like I’m preaching down from the pulpit and as far as I’m concerned public speaking is about conversation not lecturing. Also, a podium is physical barrier between you and the audience making it much harder to connect with them psychologically.So wherever possible get out from behind that podium or lectern, get out on stage, move around, gesticulate and really CONNECT with your audience.7: Don’t read the scriptReading word for word from a prepared script is the fastest way to put your audience to sleep. It’s also lazy. Don’t do it. It’s perfectly ok to have some notes jotted down which you glance at from time to time but anything beyond that is a disservice to your audience and to you as a speaker.8: Slow downIt’s really easy to rush through your content and speak very quickly, especially if you’re nervous. It’s much easier for an audience to engage with your content if your delivery falls into a natural rhythm. Try to pace yourself and remember to punctuate your speech with pauses to emphasise key points.9: Make ‘em laughHumor is my most powerful tool when I’m giving a presentation. I almost always try to get a laugh within the first 60 seconds of a talk. It relieves the collective tension in the room almost immediately and helps ease the transition into the bulk of the content.*10: Be passionate and energeticI learned this from the best, Mr. Gary Vaynerchuk, whose energy on stage is completely captivating. Look, chances are if you’re standing up in front of people giving a talk, you know what you’re on about – and if you know what you’re on about, you’re probably passionate about the subject.So make sure you project that passion during your presentation! Raise your voice when it makes sense, be effusive, throw your hands up in the air when you’re making a point! That type of energy is totally infectious and your audience will appreciate the effort.