The Perfect Pitch: How to Nail Your Next Presentation + Template
Whether you’re giving an elevator pitch, developing a pitch deck or simply working on your speaking skills in general, you want to make sure your pitch will get the response you want from your audience. Nailing the perfect pitch takes practice and often involves writing several iterations of your message before you land on the right one that resonates with the audience and gets them to take action. Before we dive into some examples of great pitches, let’s take a look at what makes an effective pitch.
Set your SMART goals
Setting smart goals will help you focus and prioritize. You need to know what you want before you can get it, so take a little time now to write down your goals. What do you want from this presentation? What is the goal of your pitch? The more specific and realistic your goals are, the better prepared you'll be for success. Once you know what you want, create SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based). For example: I want to present my new product idea for XYZ company at the next meeting on Monday; my goal is to convince them that we would be a good fit for their needs with our new product line.
Make it interactive
Pitching is difficult. It's a high-pressure situation where you only have a few minutes to convey your idea, get people excited about it, and convince them that they should invest time and money into your project. An interactive presentation is the best way to get your audience engaged and excited. With Sendsteps it is possible to make your presentation interactive by asking your audience an open ended or multiple choice question, such as:
Would you like to invest?
What is your opinion about this idea?
If your investor says no to investing, you could ask for feedback with these questions:
What could I change in my approach to be the right fit for your investment?
What would you do differently?
This will show that you are determined and still trying to convince your investor, which can lead into a yes for investing.
What to include in your pitch
A strong pitch is the key to succes, but how do you create a strong pitch? Follow these steps to create a strong and convincing pitch:
The Problem: Why are you pitching? Since this is one of the main reasons you are pitching, it deserves extra attention. At this point you could introduce the problem and how this is affecting your customers.
Introduction: One of the keys to a successful pitch is having a strong introduction, include infomation about your business, product and why your are pitching. The why should be told in one sentence, becasue you will come back to this later.
Solution: Explain your idea and how this will be implemented in the marketplace. Give details on why your idea is better for the issue and show your proof by referencing any customer reviews or financial reports. Also, explain what your sales and marketing strategies are and what your investment plan is.
Q&A: Finish your pitch with a Q&A section. Your audience will definitely be curious about your presentation, so give your audience the time to ask you question, with a live Q&A session.
Feedback: After the pitch you could ask for feedback by using the open-ended questions from the alinea above.
Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse
The last key to succes is to reherse your pitch. According to Jerry Weissman, research has shown that 94% of all business presentations are for the purpose of making an actual sale. So, any time you're pitching something, your goal should be to make a sale. Weissman recommends to find other successful pitches on YouTube to see how you should present during a pitch. There are tons of presentations on there and some great ones too!
Practice your pitch in front of real people
I'm sure you've heard this before, but it's true. Practice makes perfect. The most successful public speakers practice their pitch as if they're presenting in front of real people. It helps them make any necessary edits and ensures that the words flow effortlessly from their mouth instead of stumbling through a memorized script. It is recommend practicing your pitch in front of real people at least three times before delivering it for the first time. This will help you gain confidence and find the right tone for your message while also getting feedback on what works and what doesn't work so well in the speech. What can also help is to record yourself so you can see what you could do differently to make your pitch better. If you are struggling with how you should present, watch this TED-Talk video.
If you follow these tips and follow these steps, you will be able to deliver your pitch confidently. Sendsteps enables you to engage with your audience during your presentation. You could make your annual meeting more interactive by adding a word cloud. Active listeners lead to more succes, so start using Sendsteps today.
Roksanna van Dam
Roksanna works as an intern and mainly focuses on making content and the company's socials. Roksanna loves to teach herself and her audience new discoveries and has a creative mindset, which she combines with her work to create unique, fun, relevant blogs and templates.