Tikissä

Many times, people focus a lot of their time crafting the business idea. Sometimes people can spend too much time on the logo and the branding of the company as a distraction from the real work of building a business. One of the things that happens quite a lot is that people forget to work on how they will tell people about their idea (or concept or business). What is a Pitch? Pitching is a form of public speaking. A person can pitch to an individual, a small group or to a giant audience. It is a form of condensed public speaking where you are expected to convey your message in a soundbite lasting from the 30-seconds Elevator pitch through to the longer form pitch that is 6+ minutes. The pitch itself is a combination of marketing and personal performance. When Do We Need Pitching? Pitching is needed in many more places than you think. Pitching is done by entrepreneurs and by employees alike. This means that pitching can happen to internal audiences and to external audiences. For the most part, pitching is mainly seen as an external activity but when we approach colleagues and bosses about new ideas, new industries, or new potential markets, we are also pitching to them. Pitching Internally Good employees are usually looking for ideas to help their company improve; to become more profitable, more sustainable, more efficient, more impactful, etc. They may have initial ideas of how this can be done but if you want others to buy-in to your idea, you need to do your research and have a solid plan in place to make it happen. You will need to figure out which departments and which personnel should be involved, how many hours it will take, what the cost structure is, what the business model should be, etc. This requires a lot of people to buy-in to your idea. Pitching your idea to all levels involved is usually necessary. This isn’t even necessarily limited to your professional life. If you want your family to go on a certain holiday or buy a certain car, you may be motivated enough to figure out how to pitch them these ideas to be successful. Daniel Pink discusses pitching using anecdotes, studies, and insights in his 2013 book To Sell Is Human. He explores how we are all ‘working in sales’ in every part of our lives. He also has some useful templates for creating different kinds of pitches. Pitching Externally Many people are also pitching externally. Most notably, we see entrepreneurs and soon-to-be entrepreneurs as the quintessential pitchers. Entrepreneurs are pitching to investors to get funding or mentorship, to individuals to attract employees, or when they are looking for a co-founder. Sales people and company leaders are also engaged in external pitching on a daily basis. Essentially, you need to make your offer interesting enough for someone not connected to your company to give you money, access, or influence. Pitching is an often-overlooked skill at any level of an organsation. 4 Key Ingredients for Successful Pitching So what are the elements that will help your pitch go smoothly and set you up for success? 1)    Knowing Your Idea Inside and Out You should be able to tell someone the real problem that you are solving almost in one line. This deep understanding comes from the customer research that you have done. Although you will not include all the information directly into your pitch, you will know, from the customer’s perspective, what problem they are having, how they are currently solving it, and what is most important to them. In addition to this, you will also understand how your specific solution will solve their specific problem and why they would choose your product over someone else’s. You will have also tested the idea through customer interviews and/or prototyping. You should know the problem, the solution, the customer, the market and how you fit in it inside out. 2)    An Impactful Story Doing good initial customer research allows you tap into the struggles that people are facing. These struggles will allow you to humanise the impact your solution will have on their lives; whether this is saving them money, time, mental stress, or something else. From this you can craft an impactful story to tell to the listener. A great example of this is the micro-finance organisation Kiva. Their co-founder, Jessica Jackley, has spoken many times about the importance of an impactful story on different aspects of the organisation. She can be heard speaking about this topic on the Inside Influence podcast in episode 123. 3)    The Pitch Deck When doing a 30-second pitch (a.k.a the elevator pitch), you will never have any “supporting materials” such as a slide deck (a PowerPoint presentation or the like). If it is from 2 mins onwards, your will probably have the opportunity to use a slide deck. The less time you have, the more concise you will need to be with your slides. The slides should not be stuffed full of content but have very little (but relevant) text and/or visuals. For a balanced pitch, you need to have at least these 8 slides: Problem - explains clearly the problem you are solving Solution - shows how you plan to solve it Value proposition - tells why customers would choose you to solve their problem Business model - examines how your business plans to make money Landscape - recognises your competition with and that you understand the market Team - represents who builds this with you Current & future status - chronicles your process of discovery and what you plan to do next Ask/call to action - describes what you need next from the audience Once you have slides that are clear, visually appealing, and informative, you will begin to work on your pitch script and delivery. 4)    Delivering The Pitch The actual delivery of the pitch can be divided into two parts: the creation of the pitch script (what you will say) and your stage presence (what you do with your hands, your voice projections, etc). Both parts are essential to practice. The Pitch Script The very first time you create the words that you want to use, you can either just talk and see how long it takes and then begin to refine it from there, or you can create a written script for each of the slides and then see how long it takes to get through this. You can record (or not) this first attempt. You can see where you stumble, where the words don’t seem to work or where you are spending too much time. Each time you go through your pitch, refine the words, maybe even what is on the slide. If it is taking too long, you will need to think about how you might say it more briefly. You can also make very brief notes for each slide with key words to help in case you stumble or go blank. You may also want to craft some answers to follow-up questions that you have not addressed in your slides in case they are asked. The Pitch Delivery The delivery is the public speaking portion of the pitch. Public speaking (even if it is just to one person) is a skill that needs practicing. How your pitch is received will be down to how much you practice. Actors in a play do not get up on stage the first day that they get the script, they generally practice for weeks before they are required to perform for an audience. Your pitch delivery, make no mistake, is a performance. Luckily, it is a short one. But it still requires you to practice. You need to make sure that: You can do it in the time allotted You can do it in a smooth manner You are clear Your voice is appropriately loud (find out if you will get a microphone or not) You can give it without looking directly at your slides Don’t turn your back to the audience You cover all the necessary points Practice, Practice, Practice Practicing with a stopwatch and a camera will help you to see where you need improvement. These might be where you put your hands, how much hand movement you have, where your words are not clear, where you are not changing the slides to keep up with your talking, etc. Sometimes, with so little time, you need to speed up the way you speak and this can be difficult for some. But you also need to make sure that you are not speaking too quickly that you are hard to understand. The tendency to rush when we are speaking to an audience is real and to control this, it is best to make sure that when you are pitching, it isn’t the first time you are doing it. It is also important to practice doing all of this with your slides. This adds another level of complexity to the whole operation. Making sure that you are changing your slides at the appropriate times when you are talking in front of an audience, is just as important to practice as the speaking. Pitching ideas, whether internally or externally, can be difficult and people will ask you questions that you either didn’t anticipate about or do not have immediate answers for. This is normal. You can try to anticipate what these might be by watching other pitching events and see what information they present and seeing what questions they are asked. This will help you to shape your answers or even change what you present in the first place. Author Pamela Spokes works as a Service Designer in Metropolia’s RDI team. Originally from Canada, Pamela has years of experience in university admin focusing on international recruitment, marketing, and the international student/staff experience. With a Bachelor’s from Canada, a Master’s degree from Sweden, an MBA in Service Innovation & Design from Laurea, and her AmO from Haaga-Helia, she is interested in purposefully designed experiences that are centred around the user. Don’t be surprised if she knocks on your door to talk about learning co-creation methods through intensive learning experiences.