Pitching is the new talking when it comes to start-ups. Always be pitching, have a pitch ready, elevator pitches even skydive pitching are the new normal phrases. This also leads to the challenge of being able to stand out from the crowd with your pitch, that is no doubt the best one. Following 5 tips how to get attention when pitching are more about the format and philosophy than the content of the pitch.
1. Opening line
Your opening line will determine if the audience playing with their phones will direct their attention to you or continue swiping on their screen. Thus it is important to say something impressive. The options can vary from statements about what you will achieve (e.g. we will decrease the cost of x by 20%, let me tell you how), to the scale of the problem in the world (e.g. did you know over ten million people get the flu every year) or even a short story on how someone is benefiting from using your product/missing out since they do not (e.g. imagine you have to go to the market and forgot your wallet…). Make it short and punchy and you will have them engaged for the rest of the pitch.
2. Appearance
How you look is a big part of first impressions. Of course clothing is important, but this is not a fashion blog, so we will leave that to you. What is mote important is the energy- some people are naturally high energy, but some are not. Luckily it is possible to learn- fake it ‘til you make it! Energy at the pitch indicates passion about your product, ability to motivate teams and lead with vision. All of these factors are what you want to display for your future investors. Speaking up, being relaxed after lots of pitch practice, making eye contact and using your whole body through hand gestures are all ways you can achieve that.
3. Humour
Humour does not mean telling jokes or acting goofy during a pitch. It means being open, humble and reacting to the audience. In a situation where someone laughs, comments or you lose their attention, it is always good to be able to react in a chill way with humour and not tense up.
4. Storytelling
The best pitches flow like stories, every next slide comes naturally after the previous and feels like having a conversation. This also is best achieved through practice and switching the order of the slides around to find the logic in the story.
5. Numbers
Numbers are what everyone is ultimately after, so no pitch should go without numbers. They can reflect market size, number of competitors’ customers, amount of revenue or similar. Make sure you know the correct figures and also their sources, since you never know who you are pitching to in front of large audiences and someone might be an expert.
We will talk about the content of pitching in another post, but these here are 5 tips how to get attention when pitching, how to engage people and make them remember you since pitching is always only about getting to the meeting.
Give us feedback, what are the tricks you have seen start-ups use when pitching?
