The Top 10 Must Do's to Make a Killer Pitch

What does TED, DEMO,TechCrunch 50, or speaking to a Venture Capital all have in common?

Making a Pitch!

You either need to raise money, attract press, make a sale, or get people excited to join your team.

The Top 10 Must Do's to Make a Killer Pitch:

1.    Make a worthy presentation. In all circumstances, the audience views hundreds if not thousands of presentations, standing out makes all the difference. If you can grab your audience’s attention in the first 30 seconds to 1 minute, it will be there for the rest of the presentation. If you lose it, grab their attention by asking a direct question. Think of a unique way to kick it off and they will be hanging on your words to see what else you have to say.

2.    Duplicates of everything. This happens to everyone: their laptop doesn’t turn on, thumb drive files aren’t the updated ones, battery blows up, etc… Things will always go wrong, especially when it has to do with technology. Solution? Don’t just check everything while getting ready, bring two of each just in case. Your audience is not going to be as forgiving as the people at Dell.

3.    Be organized. Make sure you are aware of the following:

a.    Location of file/folder: a good rule is to save everything onto the desktop, its right there!
b.    Slide Sequence:  knowing your content will make life easier and allow you to focus on each slide rather than what is going to come next.
c.    Time: making your presentation in the allocated amount is crucial especially when your time is limited.

For a checklist of slide layout and content, check out my previous post: The 10/20/30 Rule

4.    Reduce your risk. Don’t assume anything; internet connection, outlet near your laptop, built in projector, etc…Make sure you have everything to make the presentation out on the street: a fully charged laptop, internet card (if internet access is needed), and a projector just in case the one being used mal-functions. Anticipate the worst, prepare for the best.

5.    Don’t waste time. Remember you have approximately a minute to grab your audience, once you do, get to work. Not everyone in the room needs to know how many years you’ve been in the industry or where you went to school, let the presentation do the talking. If you provide the reader with any handouts, don’t give away your full story. Let them listen to you rather than reading your slides or a piece of paper that was handed to them.

6.    The 1 minute rule. Instead of going out with the bang; start with the bang. Cannot stress this enough, captivate your audience from the beginning and keep the momentum going. A good presentation keeps the audience waiting for the next piece of the puzzle not the timepiece on their hand.

7.    The 19 leftover minutes. Once you caught them, make sure you reel them in. Illustrate how specifically you plan on achieving your draw dropping invention, idea, or concept. An educated audience will appreciate your technology even more when they know it’s a possibility and how much work has gone into it.

8.    Keep it simple. Do not use complicated words that your grandmother wouldn’t understand; this isn’t a physics class. Don’t try to explain how the backend of frontend of your site will work with one another to create a mind blowing user interface that utilizes the latest version of Drupal and PHP. Give the presentation to you parents, teacher, and dog (he won’t judge you), or another co-worker, classmate, etc… and ask them if they understood it. As the inventor, it is sometimes hard to take a step back since you already know how everything works; but keep in mind, your audience is a virgin to it all.

9.    Don’t answer question until the end. This might seem rude or counterintuitive; but don’t risk being derailed from what you are trying to convey to your audience. For many, it’s an ego booster or they believe that it will illustrate their ‘expertise’ of the technology/industry; but it just shows their lack of experience. Before you even begin, set the stage and state that you would highly appreciate it if the audience held their questions until the end. This will allow you to avoid focusing on a specific point and draining your time.

10.    End with a BANG! Remember how I said the first minute was important, so is the last. In fact, the note you leave on is the most important part of the presentation; the icing on the cake! Keep a trick in the bag and let it out at the end; this will create a call to action. They will either ask you a question, get your card, look up your website, etc… the goal is to make sure they think of you for next 3 to 5 minutes after your last point. Think of any presentation you remember, it is most likely the beginning and end.

As always, if you have any questions or comments feel free to post a comment or shoot me an email.

“A great salesman will sell his product before he even finishes making it”

Ashkan