Pitching is beyond public speaking… if you want to win.
How to improve pitching: Essentials for those delivering a startup business pitch
A while back, one of my clients urgently engaged me in Singapore to help them with an upcoming pitch. They were preparing to go on a tour of to deliver their investment pitch to potential business partners. This client was developing a groundbreaking technology that would potentially disrupt the market they would be a part of. All they needed to do as the next step is to acquire the funding to make this dream into reality. The founders I was working with were technically savy – in fact, they have been quoted in industry papers and were established in their previous corporate roles. Over their careers, many of them even attended public speaking training in Singapore. One of them had worked with a communication coach on an individual basis. So where was the issue? What they had before was presentation skills training. This is Pitching.
When we are presenting a pitch, we have moments to connect, inspire and compel the audience towards action. Sometimes, it’s less than 5 minutes. What are some Do’s and Don’ts when pitching?
DO: Speak Human
Technical jargon and too many acronyms can lose audiences who are unfamiliar with your offering. Give examples of what you do, how you do it and where the change is for others. Storytelling in business presentations can make business topics more engaging. Pitch presentation skills challenge individuals to uplift from story-telling to story-selling. Bring audiences to relate to the character of the situations you are presenting, so that emotional bonds can be built between the audience and you. Make audiences feel the importance of that story and potentially how that story can become reality. People don’t remember words/data/facts as much as they remember emotion. Put it this way – you don’t remember all of the words of the last pitch you thought was great, right? But I am sure you remember how that pitch made you feel!
DON’T: Script a Speech
Pitching requires more than public speaking. Nervousness has no place during a pitch and reading PowerPoint slides as if you are doing your project data presentation will quickly lose your audience’s attention. With that said, audiences today want to feel who you are as a person. When we script ourselves, we tend to try and memorize our content. This usually results in more stress when we are speaking. To make it worse – if while delivering your pitch, you forget some of the content you had prepared, that would increase your stress levels. The truth is this – No one knows what content you had prepared, but yourself.
Instead of trying to script yourself, put together a flow that allows you to share your ideas with a beginning, middle and an end. What does that feel like? Are you able to tell the story of “The 3 Little Pigs” without reading a script? Yes, right? That’s because there’s a flow and it has a beginning, middle and an end. That’s what a flow feels like, and that’s how you should craft your pitch.
DO: Use Body Language
Your body speaks lounder than your words. It would be a shame if you had the best offering and just because your delivery of your pitch was weak, people ignore you. Non-verbals include your: eye contact, posture, gestures and your engaging smile. Use your non-verbals appropriately with the message you are delivering. For example, if you are talking about something which is very severe, drastic or maybe sensitive – don’t over extend your non-verbals to be overly expressive. No one wants to see a speaker talk about laying off people with a big smile on their face. And vice-versa: If you have an offering that is revolutionary, share it with enthusiasm! Even mind the vocal tone to match your body language to excite the audience!
DON’T: Walk around the stage too much
You’re not Steve Jobs. Unless you invented the iPod, try to stay more steady on stage so that it does not distract the audience too much. I’ve met entrepreneurs who say that by walking, they can think more clearly when they’re speaking. How about this – put together a flow of your pitch so that it’s more logical in your head and even if you lose your place during speaking, you can improvise to pick up the next thing you can say.
When speaking, try to stay within a vicinity of an area on stage. Movement is allowed, just do not over-do it. When moving, move with a purpose, especially when you want to direct a message to certain audience members.
After preparing my client and their team for their pitching roadshow, they were able to acquire funding and also began sharing their experiences with other startup entrepreneurs. Their key message to other founders is this: “Pitching is beyond public speaking”.
