Pitching Strategy #1 – Presenting a Pitch that audiences can easily relate with
Presenting a pitch that audiences can connect with and inspire them to take action afterwards.
Often times, entrepreneurs, executives or innovators are challenged with pitching ideas to an audience to gain their buy-in. Yet, they have limited time. With a lot of information to share and concepts which may be new to your audience – it’s more important to captivate them from the beginning and bring them to be with you when you end your pitch. We recognize that all audiences are different, and everyone pitching would have varying ideas to share. But one rule will always remain the same about any pitch – “It’s about the audience, not our ourselves.”
Beginning Your Pitch
Most people make the mistake of beginning their pitch with a long-winded introduction about who they are, their company founding or where the roots of their company stem from. For the audience – what they would prefer to understand in the initial moments is how does what you will present relate to them? Here are a few ways you can consider, and of course, there are other ways to begin your pitch beyond these examples:
Creative Opening
Using short stories (and I mean short…) that audiences can easily relate with at the beginning of your pitch is a quick way to engage people. These stories would be about events or situations which your audience would be familiar with, and are related to your offering. How short are these stories? Aim to finish sharing it in less than 1 minute. The idea is to get the audience to be in the right frame of mind to listen to the rest of your pitch.
Factual Opening
Shocking facts which are related to your offering/industry/problem can be a way to grasp audience’s attention from the beginning of your pitch. For example, sharing a fact which highlights the severity of a situation or a data figure which audiences would not have been able to imagine is a way to bring audiences to crave more of what you can share in the remainder of your pitch.
Humorous Opening
Jokes. We all like them, but they have to be the right joke at the right place. If you decide to begin with some humor, share humor which is related to your pitch. For example, a humorous situation which you experienced that led up to the birth of the idea which you are about to pitch. Or perhaps a common situation which many people often encounter and can laugh at. Often, humor about ourselves is a safer route to go. The point is – humor is supposed to relax people and bring people ready to continue to engage. By the way, if you tell a joke, try to make sure the joke is funny.
Enhancing Your Pitch
The middle of your pitch is where you can showcase your offering, idea or innovation. Most people make the mistake of talking too much about what they do, or how their offering works. Sometime, this loses the engagement and interest of the audience – especially when they talk too technically. Rather than going into too much detail when you have limited time, try to get your audience to relate to what you can make different / better / cheaper / faster / safer / etc. How can you change a familiar problem in an unfamiliar way?
The middle of your pitch can involve showcasing an innovative technology, a new procedure, or introducing an alternative solution. More importantly, present how the impact and results of your offering would make the lives of others different. If you can share an image of the outcomes, that would make things more vivid to your audience. Even better, if you can share a scenario of the benefits you can bring to your target stakeholders – that can shorten the time it takes for others to decide on the action they will take after your pitch.
To strengthen your offering, share some evidence of the outcome you can create. Do you have statistics on how you have made a change to situations previously? Perhaps a mini-case reference or testimonial from the past? If you know who will be in the audience that you are trying to connect with, try to select evidence which that audience would be more willing to accept. After all, evidence accepted is considered proof.
Should you use videos in the middle of your pitch? I will leave this decision to you. At the same time, I do want you to think about the potential risks of the video not displaying properly, or last minute technical challenges. From what I’ve seen, audiences would rather listen to the person pitching speak, because the video could be viewed from their smartphones wherever.
The middle of your pitch is where you share the most information, it is also where you have the most opportunity to excite audiences. Most of the time of your pitch delivery will be spent in the middle of your pitch – but also, don’t try to over-deliver. Information overload only leads to confusion and lack of action.
Ending Your Pitch
When you began this pitch, you had an idea of who you wanted to connect with and engage with your pitch. The question is – what would you want those stakeholders to do after your pitch? The classic “call-to-action” is how one can end a pitch and bring others towards a decision after listening to you.
But no one does anything without a reason. If by the end of your pitch, if you have not given your stakeholders strong enough of a reason to take action, then this would be your final chance. For those who wish to summarize – this would be the perfect place and time to do so. Summaries can be in the form of a few short sentences that highlight the benefits you can bring to others. Are there any benefits of taking action… now? What could you offer them after this pitch to enhance the collaborative relationship? Is there a larger cause that audiences would be a part of, should they move ahead to work with you?
Finally, for those who are looking for the perfect words to end your pitch with – if you run out of ideas, the safest and most classic would be 2 words that are universal – “Thank You”. This can be used beyond a pitch – whether you are doing public speaking in Singapore or speaking at a industry conference in Abu Dhabi. Everyone would get the feeling that the pitch is completed then, and that’s when you can be ready to take questions if the format allows.
