Knock their socks off- How to introduce yourself and create an impression
Pitching is a skill that has become essential for every small business owner. Whether you are networking, speaking to potential clients, directly selling a product or trying to gain funding for your business venture pitching is the key skill. You should develop a different pitch or variation for each situation or audience you come across.
What is pitching?
Pitching is the way you tell people about your business, product or service. It’s something that business owners do every day in order to:
- Sell a product or service (The sales pitch)
- Gain investment
- Network with other business owners and partners
Gain support of employees including to increase sales or introduce a product or service
Types of pitch
There are a number of different ways and times to use a pitch, being prepared for each situation can help the pitch be more successful.
- The business card swap- a 10 second headline pitch, a single sentence that explains what you do.
- The elevator pitch- one of my personal favourites, the elevator pitch goes for 2- 5 minutes and highlights what you do and how you are different. The elevator pitch is perfect for networking events, when you bump into a potential partner or lead or “get stuck in a lift”.
- 10-15 minute pitch- is ideal for more serious “pitchfests” or when you are meeting with potential customers or investors for your first meeting. The 10-15 minute pitch allows you to go into detail about your product/service offerings as well as your points of difference and how they help your client
- The serious pitch (45-120 minute pitch)- the 45-120 minute pitch is less frequently used but is largely for boardroom situations and investor meetings. The serious pitch should include explanations on financials, buyer personas, and detailed explanations of products/services and points of difference. This pitch may also include information about the value of each customer type to the business depending on the audience of the pitch.
Your pitch audience
One of the most important parts of any pitch is understanding your audience. Whether you are doing a business card swap or a serious 120 minute pitch you need to ask yourself:
- Who is your audience for the pitch? Include demographic details including their sex, interests and how they spend with their time.
- What does your audience want from you?
- Why are they attracted to your business?
- What makes you different?
- What are their problems and how can you solve them?
- How much time do you have?
Taking time to plan and practice your pitches for each audience will help you reduce nerves, develop your pitch and ensure it is easy to understand each and every time.
Key tip: Pitching is theatre, practice, practice, practice.
Theatre and pitching have a lot in common. What does an actor do before a live performance? They rehearse. They practice their lines over and over again. They work on tone, volume, content and perfect their lines.
The saying “preparation prevents poor performance” is true in many business situations including pitching. Preparing for a pitch ahead of time can help you to focus, not waste time and to appear confident. It is natural to feel nervous before a planned pitch or when you are put on the spot but if you have practiced your pitch you can feel certain that you will convey your message to reach your goal.
Pitching for business owners
Pitching is an important skill to develop as a business owner or leader. Successfully pitching your business takes preparation and understanding of your audience and their needs and desires. For more information on successful pitching keep an eye on our blog or contact us to book a one on one coaching session.
Being confident in your pitch will make it sound more natural and less like it has been rehearsed. If you feel relaxed when making your pitch it will make your audience more relaxed with you, building rapport and potentially driving sales
Feedback from everyone
Get feedback from mentors, colleagues or people you have pitched to before to continually improve your pitch.
Preparing for and practicing your pitch will help your business and personal confidence to grow. Be sure to let us know on social media how your pitch efforts have gone and any great tips that help you to prepare for and complete your pitch.
Any advice in this blog is general in nature and is intended for information purposes only. For personalised advice please contact your accountant.