I was at a recent event where several budding startups pitched to a guest panel. They were mostly looking for feedback. After listening to about 8 pitches, I talked to the presenters and made some suggestions. I started thinking about the event and felt that I should write down a few things about pitching. Please note that these are very subjective. I am writing them to generate a conversation and most of these are just my opinions. Take them with a pinch of salt.
Ten Suggestions for Pitching.
- Know why you are pitching
- Know your audience
- What is your one minute pitch?
- Focus on your business (not just the product or service).
- Know your market and show it
- Talk about your (potential) customers and their problems
- Start with a story. Make sure that the story is relevant to your business.
- Tell more stories about your research, your assumptions, your conversations with prospects and your discoveries
- Show you understand your business – market, revenues, customer segments and what takes to get the business going
- Ask your questions and elicit feedback and help.
I will expand on these points in future posts. But your pitch may be very different depends on whom you are pitching to and why you are pitching.