Empirical strategies to do a captivating business pitch

Small talks to deeper conversations, we mark our presence. The world of business demands effective communication especially when it comes to selling. A person doesn’t have the world’s time. It’s even limited when it comes to business personnel.

A business pitch is a way of communication which a person or a group does to a potential investor to make them feel wanted to get money out of their pocket to invest on the pitched product or the service.

In the latest global arena, two types of pitches are known. The elevator pitches and presentations. Out of these two, elevator pitches insist on prowess as pitching needs to be done within 2–3 minutes. The next step of an elevator pitch will be again a formal discussion which is akin to a presentation.

As a matter of fact, let me share a promising template for an elevator pitch which I learned during my Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) training

Template:

For (Customer)

Who (Statement of need),

The (Product name) is a (product category)

That (key benefit, compelling reason to buy).

Unlike (primary competitor),

Our product (statement of primary differentiation)

Example #1:

For ( The Restaurants ),

who ( need more customers ),

the ( Zomato) is a ( Online Restaurant Promotion Service)

That ( introduces the individual customers to the

restaurants by reading the reviews and food pictures )

Unlike ( Yelp! ),

Our product ( as a service provider, offers order online & book table service )

Example #2:

For ( University Students ),

who ( need to improve their industrial knowledge ),

the ( LinkedIn Learning) is a ( Online learning platform)

That ( makes consists of 15 million industry targeted online courses )

Unlike ( Udemy ),

Our product ( as an online education provider, helps students to track their learning in a gamified learning environment)

(The above template can be used as a simple product description as well to inspire internal teams)

Well, with the learnings of an elevator pitch, let me expose you to some gnarly strategies to make your business pitch endearing and winning.

1. Make use of the statistics

High flying business people always rely on numbers. Numbers make them feel comfortable with their decisions and make them confident to take bold decisions. If you add statistics in your business pitch, that means precision and possibilities to the audience. Thus include charts, percentages and numbers into your presentation slide deck.

2. Humans are visual creatures. So make it graphical

No matter what you are speaking even in front of an effusive audience, they always do not listen to you. Humans are visual creatures. They always pay more attention to what they see and always listen to what they want to hear. Hence make a captivating and self explaining slide deck and leverage your voice as a tool to fill up what the audience is missing and to drive them to the perception you need them to be landed on.

3. Show your dazzling working product if you have one

Nothing speaks louder than a fully functioning working product. If you already have developed a prototype, show it to the client. That gesture proves that you are the business and poise to grab the opportunity. Not only that, as I said early, being visual creatures, humans always adore seeing things. Seeing something they haven’t come across before, will make them yearning. As a pro tip, name and label your prototype with information of your client. For example, if your client is a Bank, you can use the names of the bank’s products such as debit cards, credit cards etc. on your prototype. That makes the client feel familiar with the new product and think “Why I’m not buying this”.

4. Don’t beat around the bush. Clearly state what’s in it for the client

The audience craves to hear what’s in it for them. It’s simply the give and take theory. Why do clients invest in your product if he/she is not clear what’s in it for them. So be specific with that. Clearly define a future state and show and prove to them how your product or the service can elevate their business or the organization. Clear the impact, sooner you get the deal done.

5. Highlight 3 attributes of the product or the service

Humans can process only 3 things at a time in their short term memory. This fact has been used widely by the greatest presenters like Steve Jobs. So why don’t you give it a try. Find three high yielding features of your product or the service and present it to fortify your pitch. I’ve jotted down a few such feature statements below for your reference.

• Fresh, Environment friendly and support ethical campaigns
• User friendly, expandable and futuristic
• Stable, reliable and user friendly

Author Carmine Gallo has researched on this extensively, find his teachings here.

To wrap up, keep this in your mind that “Practice makes permanent”. Get more chances to pitch and be voluntarily uncomfortable to gain confidence. Keep pitching. Keep winning.