What’s one of the best ways to convert potential clients into paying customers? Aside from pitch decks where you get to wow your audience, there’s another scenario where you can achieve the same results. Imagine it: You already have a prototype of the product you’re trying to market, and you’re looking for people who will gladly take your offer; you think an amazing deck won’t be enough, so you decide to take things up a notch and do a demo.
However, you don’t know the first thing about product demos. Sure, you’re a rock star when it comes to pitches and public speaking, but demonstrations can be different. For one, instead of handling two important elements—yourself and your deck—you add one more: your product. And balancing that act can be stressful, especially when you’ve got hundreds of eyes staring at you and you know that a lot is at stake. Another is that there’s a new dynamic in audience engagement, a level that places you closer to them—and them to you and your product.
Look at the bright side, though. If you do remarkably well, then you’re sure that your audience will take a good, long, hard look at your product. And when they like what they see, they might just want to have your offer. Then, you’re on your way to closing deals left and right. But that is if you do remarkably well.
So, how do you go from A to Z of a product demo? What can you expect from showing off your product in front of a live audience? Are there even benefits to doing so? How do you even begin preparing and how do you start off a demo? Let the following infographic tutor you on the basics of a product demo, and the dos and don’ts during the proverbial curveballs during your time onstage.
Kokemuller, Neil. “The Purpose & Benefits of a Product Demonstration.” Chron. n.d. www.smallbusiness.chron.com/purpose-benefits-product-demonstration-55113.html
Are you ready for your pitch? This pitch deck checklist will help you cover all the bases.
We often emphasize that the secret to a great pitch is sufficient preparation. As you know, the most compelling speakers won’t face an audience expecting they can “wing it”. What makes their pitches so memorable is the fact that they took the time to craft their message. Just take a look at Steve Jobs, who was known to have spent hours practicing and perfecting his keynotes.
“The reason I do a good job is because I prepare. I don’t believe in ‘winging it’.”
While it may take up much of your time, preparation is the best way to a successful outcome. It’s not enough to string together a bunch of slides. You need to dig deeper if you want to provide the audience with a complete and informative discussion. Here’s a pitch deck checklist to help with your preparation:
1. Identify the goal you want to achieve
Before you take on any other task, the first thing you need to do is identify the purpose of your pitch. What is the end goal? What would you consider a successful outcome? What’s the ultimate takeaway that you want your audience to remember? What is your core message? Answering these questions will give you a clear direction for your pitch deck.
2. Learn more about your audience
The audience is a crucial part of your pitch. This may seem pretty obvious, but some do tend to ignore the importance of their role. That’s why a lot of us have sat through pitches that seemed too long and tedious. If you want to give your audience an experience that’s totally different from the usual scenario, you need to learn more about where they’re coming from.
The people in your audience have the power to accept or dismiss the message you’re sharing. If you want to connect with them, you need to learn more about their point of view. Where are they coming from? What are their backgrounds? How much do they know about the topic you’re presenting? You can use this guide to make sure you answer all the important question about your audience.
Another thing you should consider is the event or conference you’re participating in. What type of event is it? Is it an industry event where you’re expected to address professionals? Is it a seminar for aspiring leaders looking for inspiration and motivation? By learning the culture of a particular event, you can better understand how to communicate with your audience.
3. Create an outline of your initial ideas
Having established context, you’ll find it easier to form some great ideas. Let your pitch deck take shape by using different brainstorming methods. Whatever you decide to use, make sure you keep writing down everything that comes to mind. Don’t attempt to edit anything out until you’ve exhausted all your ideas.
After brainstorming, you can take your initial ideas and turn them into a rough outline. Review what you’ve written and decide which points stand out the most. You can also rearrange what you’ve written to give your points a clear and logical flow. From there, you can eventually make a pitch deck storyboard.
4. Fine-tune your content
Once you have a rough outline for your pitch deck, it’s time to bolster your message with strong pitch content. You can’t just present your ideas through a series of bullet points. You need to present your message through content that tells a story.
As you write your content, always remember your core message. Make sure the goal you’ve established is clearly highlighted on all the points you make. Keep your content well-structured and make sure you don’t include an overwhelming amount of information. You’ll need to discern which of the information you have is the most important to your overall objective.
5. Design a compelling pitch deck
We’ve always emphasized how important visuals are to pitch decks. To keep your audience engaged, you’ll need to create a pitch deck that can emphasize your message while following the principles of design.
Generally, it’s important to keep pitch deck designs simple and concise. Use minimal text and high quality pictures. Everything in your design should cohere to the story you’re trying to tell. If you’re pitching sales prospects, make sure your brand is leveraged by your slides. If you really want the best of your story to stand out, consulting with a pitch deck expert will be a big help.
6. Plan your pitch wear
As we’ve written in the past, first impressions are crucial in pitching. The audience can quickly decide on your credibility based on how you present yourself. To avoid giving them a bad impression, you need to maintain a polished and professional look. A sloppy attire will make you lose the credibility you want to achieve.
Appropriate attire will depend on the context of your pitch deck, so take note of the information you have about the event. The easiest way to gauge what you should wear is by thinking about your audience. As a general rule, Forbes contributor Nick Morgan said that you should be dressed slightly better than your audience.
7. Internalize your entire pitch deck
With everything else prepared, it’s time to internalize every detail of your pitch deck. If you want to avoid committing mistakes, you need to rehearse your pitch as much as you can. Practice helps you become more familiar with your material. Review your speech, plan how you’ll incorporate your pitch deck, and think about how you’ll deliver everything on stage. Interruptions won’t phase you if you’re sure of what you need to do.
It’s important to prepare as much as you can for any pitch. If you want to deliver a message with noticeable impact, you can’t risk to miss any step. Use this pitch deck checklist as a guide to make sure you cover all the bases and accomplishing everything you need.
As we frequently point out, the success of your pitch is measured through the impact it makes on the audience. If you can move them to action and persuade them to consider new ideas, then you’ll know that you’ve done your job right. Whether you’re pitching to investors, selling a product, or sharing your thoughts as an expert in a conference, the main goal is to convince and connect with the audience. As the presenter, you need to show them that your viewpoint is valid and worth their interest. Delivering a persuasive pitch is the quickest route toward this outcome.
So what does it take to deliver a persuasive pitch? What do you need to do to enthrall and engage an audience? Here are 3 essential things you’ll need to keep in mind:
Start with a powerful hook
A persuasive pitch should always start with something that will capture the attention of your audience. According to some experts, presenters only have 60 seconds to make a positive impression on stage. If you can’t begin to engage the audience within that time, you might lose their attention quickly. That’s why it’s important to start with a hook. Whether or not you have longer than a few seconds, it’s important to begin with something that will make people sit up with curiosity.
The best way to do that is by creating a sense of familiarity and relatability. Try to approach your pitch from the point of view of the audience. Show them that your pitch deck is more than just a collection of facts and data. Let them see that your pitch is actually relevant to their experience.
This is where storytelling is particularly effective. A story is a great way to appeal to emotions. You can share something from your own experience or share a scenario that emphasizes the perspective of the audience. This is especially crucial if you’re delivering a sales pitch. Try to describe a vivid story that situates your audience as the protagonist, highlighting problems that you can solve.
Give your audience something to look forward to
At the heart of it, a persuasive pitch is all about being able to sell an idea. To do that, think about your own experience as a consumer. Why do you choose certain brands over others? Why are you compelled to try out new products? For both scenarios, it’s because you’re offered something you want or need. In other words, products make certain promises that interest you.
The same should be said about your pitch decks. In order to “sell” your own ideas, you have to make a promise that the audience can look forward to. Consider the 2007 Apple Keynote where Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone. There, he repeatedly mentioned that their new product was going to “reinvent the phone“. Looking forward to this promise, 700,000 units were bought by consumers within the first weekend of its release.
While it’s important to make powerful statements, you should also keep them grounded with supporting facts and data. In his keynote, Steve Jobs provided quick demos, stats, and visuals to strengthen his message. The only promises you should be making are the ones you are sure you can keep. Offer the audience evidence to bolster the validity of your message. Aside from research data, you can also share some testimonials or demonstrations. Let them determine that your pitch deck is both powerful and reliable.
End with a call to action
When you reach the end of your pitch, it’s not enough to say thank you and quietly ask for questions. First, you’ll need to reiterate your main points, making sure that the main takeaway is clear for the audience to see. Next, you’ll need to urge them to take positive action.
Tailor a Call to Action statement that’s specific to the outcome you’re aiming for. After you’ve shared your ideas, it’s time to give the audience a particular goal or objective they can act on. What do you want to happen as a result of your pitch? Your answer to this question should be echoed to the audience in a strong and straightforward voice.
As we’ve mentioned in an earlier blog post, you need to be brief and straight to the point. Avoid using phrases that sound like you’re beating around the bush. Statements such as “if it interests you, maybe you can consider…” make it sound like you’re hedging. You need to show confidence in your pitch. If you’re confident about your pitch, the audience will surely feel the same way. There are no shortcuts to a successful pitch, but the quickest route is through the art of persuasion. By delivering a persuasive pitch, you can move the audience to consider and affirm new ideas. Follow these 3 tips to drive your audience into action and achieve the outcome that you’re hoping for.
Pitch deck expert Nancy Duarte suggested a quick way to diagnose bad slides. To check your own work, step back and ask yourself, “will the audience get my point with just a quick glance?”
Nancy’s “glance test” likens pitch deck slides to billboard ads. Unless you want to hold up traffic, you can’t stop your car to examine every detail of the ad looming over you. A billboard should catch your attention and tell its story in seconds. Your slides should get to the point just as quickly.
An easy way to do that is to keep your designs simple.
Nancy offers many great design tips to make sure your slides pass the glance test. But apart from manipulating visuals, there’s another way to ensure that your slides immediately get to the point.
Just like a news article or a viral blog post, your slides need descriptive headlines.
The usual slide headlines
Instead of descriptive titles, most slides are headlined by a single word or a quick phrase. At first glance, the first thing an audience sees are words like “Objectives or “Goals and Accomplishments”. If you do the same thing for a blog posts or press release, do you think you’ll get as much readers?
These headlines can only share a small part about a particular slide. Pitch deck expert Gavin McMahon more accurately calls them “labels.”
Instead of urging the audience to think, “I want to know more about this,” they see text that they’ve likely seen before from other pitch decks. By changing labels to descriptive headlines, you can convey a complete and interesting idea. You can inadvertently tell the audience to listen closely to what you have to say.
Writing better headlines
In a study published by the Society for Technical Communication, a group of researchers examined how effective descriptive slide headlines are. The researchers presented two different versions of the same slide deck to several sections of 200 students. The first version had slides headlined with the usual short phrases. The other one made use of short descriptive sentences. Even if the study is focused on education, the results show how important it is to write better slide headlines.
When asked to recall the main assertions of slides, the students in the sections taught with the sentence-headline slides had significantly higher recall… For the 15 questions in the study, the average score for the students viewing the sentence-headline slides was 79% correct, while the average for the students viewing the traditional slides was only 69% correct.
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So if you want to make sure the audience remembers your message, you’ll need to start writing better headlines. Here are a few tips to help you out:
Highlight the main takeaway. Make sure the key takeaway is clear in your headline. Always ask yourself what you want the audience to remember from each slide you make.
Be specific. Try to be as specific as possible. While your headline doesn’t have to be long, it should accurately describe what’s tackled in your slide.
Feed their curiosity. Write headlines that say enough to urge the audience to ask, “what happens next?”
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There’s a lot at stake when delivering a sales pitch. After cold calls and endless follow-ups, you now have the opportunity to meet with prospects and have a worthwhile discussion with them. You get to showcase the service or product you’re offering and all the benefits attached to it.
In order to succeed, you can’t just throw a pitch deck together and deliver a haphazard pitch. Instead, you need to be mindful of the correct techniques, making use of your creativity to leave a lasting impression.
Here are 9 simple rules to make sure your pitch goes according to plan:
1.) Keep it short and simple
It’s easy to lose interest in a pitch that seems to go on forever. Even with an extremely engaging topic, most audiences have a hard time focusing their attention for more than a couple of minutes.
The first step to improving your sales pitch is by cutting down the content. Focus only on the points that are crucial to the message you’re delivering.
2.) Hook the audience with a story
There’s nothing more compelling than a good story. Instead of presenting your pitch in a traditional, matter-of-fact way, you can spin it into a narrative. Following the dramatic arc of ancient Greek plays, or use the AIDA method as a guide.
With a specific and structured narrative, you can easily determine which points are crucial to your message, and which ones feel excessive or unnecessary. This technique can also lead to a stronger connection between you and your audience.
3.) Create tension by identifying challenges
All the best stories are able to build tension for conflict and suspense. The same thing should be true for your sales pitch. Briefly show your prospects just how crucial your product or service is. Let them know that you’re aware of the problems they encounter. Describe a scenario that enumerates the challenges they face. Aside from making your pitch more compelling, this will let your prospects see how much you understand their current situation.
4.) Release tension by detailing your solution
Of course, you’ll need to do more than talk about the problems. Too much suspense can also kill engagement, so balance your story out by bringing attention to positive details as well. Delve into the features of your product or service, and focus on the opportunities it can give your prospects. Show them how your solution is the best way to overcome their challenges.
5.) Showcase your accomplishments, expertise, and experience
Another thing you can’t miss is to showcase the value of your brand and company. Build audience trust by enumerating your key accomplishments and relevant industry experience. Let your prospects understand the culture and logic behind your product or service, but don’t spend too much time blowing your own horn. Majority of your sales pitch should be spent on connecting with your prospect and showcasing the benefits of your offer.
6.) Emphasize your message with slides that incorporate your brand
Your brand encapsulates your entire company identity. By creating a pitch deck that mirrors your brand, you can help your pitch become more unique and distinguishable. The easiest way to go about this is by using a color palette that’s similar to your logo. You can also incorporate the overall theme of your product into your design. These examples can serve as inspiration.
7.) Prepare for the difficult questions
You can never tell how the audience will react to your pitches. Your prospect might ask you questions that are difficult to answer. They could also bring up points you weren’t made aware of in your previous conversations. For situations like this, it’s always better to be prepared. Get ready to improvise. It will also help if you list down and answer all the possible questions that your audience might ask. Consult your colleagues and other members of your team to expand your list.
8.) Close with a specific Call-to-Action
The Call-to-Action (CTA) is perhaps the most crucial part of your sales pitch. It summarizes the purpose of your pitch in a bold statement that urges your prospects to take positive action. In other words, the CTA puts the ball on their side of the court. To be effective, a CTA needs to be direct, precise, and straight to the point.
9.) Don’t forget to follow up
Your work doesn’t stop even after your sales pitch ends with positive feedback. You can’t assume that your prospects will immediately act on your pitch. The people in your audience, especially the key decision makers, often have busy schedules. To make sure the impact of your sales pitch doesn’t dwindle, send an email to your prospects and reiterate your points.
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A pitch deck that’s filled with facts and figures can easily stray into a monotonous lecture that slowly lulls the audience to sleep. But if you choose to tell a story, you can give your audience something personal, concrete, and relatable to listen to. You can elicit very strong emotions that allow them to participate and engage with what you’re sharing.
As Dr. Paul Zak of the Center for Neuroeconomic Studies found, narratives can trigger powerful responses when told the right way.
The science of effective storytelling
In this short film made for the Future of Storytelling Summit, Dr. Zak carefully explains how the human brain responds to effective storytelling:
After observing the neural activity of respondents who viewed the story of a terminally-ill two-year-old boy, Dr. Zak found that effective storytelling can evoke powerful feelings of empathy that come from the release of particular neurochemicals, including oxytocin and cortisol. Furthermore, these powerful responses often turn into concrete and positive action.
This, however, doesn’t happen by telling just any other story. In order to be effective, the narrative has to follow the dramatic arc outlined by German playwright Gustav Freytag: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Otherwise, as Dr. Zak concluded, listeners will have “little if any emotional or chemical response.”
What does this mean for pitches?
To elicit the same powerful emotions from your audience, craft a story that follows the solid structure Gustav Freytag first envisioned 150 years ago:
Exposition
In a literary story, this is where the author lays out some “ground work” by presenting the characters, setting, and basic conflict.
For your pitches, this is where you establish some context. Introduce the point of view you’re presenting, and share some background information. If the story focuses on an experience you had with a client, set the scene and introduce important details.
Rising Action
After presenting the context of your story, it’s time to build tension and increase conflict. This is where you identify obstacles that prevent your character from feeling fully satisfied or happy. If your story is from a target customer’s POV, tell your audience about the challenges they face.
Climax
As the turning point of your story, the climax is the part where your character comes face-to-face with their problem. This is where the conflict becomes fully-realized and a solution is seen on the horizon. For your pitch, the climax marks where you start driving home your core message.
Falling Action
Slowly, as a solution becomes clearer and clearer, your character takes a course of action towards the identified goal. In the traditional sense, this is where the protagonist battles the antagonist. For your pitch, this is where you continue explaining your core message, focusing on how it helps resolve the problems you introduced early on.
Conclusion/Resolution
Finally, describe how your character meets their goals. This is where you explain how you and a difficult client came to an agreement. In another example, the conclusion is the part that details how your target customer finally achieves full satisfaction.
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Powerful storytelling can change the outcome of your pitches. Share stories that engage your audience by following an age-old technique that has always been universally effective.
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There are no shortcuts to delivering great pitches. You need ample time to plan your goals and prepare the message you want to deliver. Organize your ideas into a logical narrative by making a pitch deck storyboard.
Storyboarding is an essential step in filmmaking, and has been around for quite some time. It involves creating rough sketches that plot how a certain story will progress. Similarly, creating a pitch deck storyboard will allow you to visualize the flow of your pitch. Think of it as a visual outline, giving you a chance to step back and see your pitch deck as a whole.
It’s the blueprint you’ll refer to when building your pitch deck. Here’s how to get started:
Ask yourself, “what do I want to say?”
Before you begin storyboarding, think of your core message first. What is the one thing you want your audience to take away from your pitch? If you were writing an essay for class, this would be your thesis statement.
Once decided, list all the key points surrounding your main message. Let your ideas flow organically and don’t try to edit yourself at this stage. Simply jot down everything that comes to mind. It’s better to do this away from your computer. Some believe that writing by hand helps the creative process.
Pitch Deck storyboard: Turning your ideas into a narrative
With your ideas on paper, you can now visualize and arrange them into a logical sequence. To start with your pitch deck storyboard, take a clean sheet of paper and start doodling. The general idea is to sketch your ideas into a series of panels. Each panel will serve as a single slide for your pitch deck. You can divide a clean page into several sections or use several sticky notes. Create as much storyboard panels as you need. For collaborations, this is a great time to work out each other’s ideas.
Some practical tips: If you’re sketching on a single sheet, it’s better to use a pencil. You don’t want to make anything permanent at this stage. The whole point of a pitch deck storyboard is that you get to see how your ideas flow. You should be able to make adjustments if something doesn’t feel right. For this reason, sticky notes are a lot more convenient. Use one sheet as a single panel and stick it on a flat surface. When you’ve finished sketching and writing, you can easily rearrange the notes in any order you’d like.
Take a step back and look at the big picture
After sketching out your ideas, you can now step back and review your pitch deck storyboard. Scrutinize how each panel is connected. Figure out if this sequence helps in building a logical narrative for your core message.
Does every panel contribute to the point you want to drive home? Are your points supporting the argument you’re trying to make? Be discerning and remove details that you don’t need. From this stage, you’ll come out with a blueprint to guide you with your pitch deck.
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When creating a storyboard, the most important thing to remember is to keep an open mind.
In summary, a pitch deck storyboard will help:
Turn your ideas into a logical and discernible narrative
Visualize how your key points can translate into a pitch deck presentation
Let your thoughts flow out organically. Storyboarding allows you to swim through ideas and concepts until you find the ones that suit your message the most.
Download free pitch deck templates now.
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Business storytelling has been helping brands add more impact to their online content, and it can do the same for your pitch decks.
We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again: Your pitch decks have the potential to become one of the most powerful marketing tools in your arsenal. During pitches, you’re directly talking to the people you want to reach out.
So don’t waste a good opportunity by boring potential clients with bad delivery. Engage them with a simple technique that’s ‘as old as time’. Tell them a great story.
What is business storytelling?
According to Mike Murray, business storytelling is basically about “brands sharing their messages in ways that engage audiences and drive them to a desired action.” It might sound similar to the definition of content marketing we gave previously, but Murray maintains that they are two separate, but related things.
“Business storytelling is a distinct content discipline that leverages well-crafted narratives in a diverse range of content types, while content marketing is much broader and speaks to the collective efforts that companies use to communicate with their audiences in informative and engaging ways.”
To frame it, content marketing refers to a collection of things you do to reach out and engage consumers and potential clients. One of the ways you can do that is through pitch decks that reveal the core identity of your brand and company.
While Simmons uses these stories to help frame interactions that are more straightforward, her insights can also be helpful to marketing pitches. Particularly, it’s the first three that are important to business storytelling in your pitches. These are the type of stories that help reveal insights to build trust and establish rapport between you and your audience.
Obviously, you won’t be telling stories from your own personal experience. Instead, think of answers to “Who am I”, “Why am I here” and “What do I envision” in terms of your brand and company identity. Here are a few specific questions, courtesy of Content Marketing Institute, to help you narrow it down:
What’s your reason for being?
What’s your history?
Who are your main characters?
What’s your corporate mission?
How have you failed?
Humans have always been storytellers. It’s our way of connecting with each other. In whatever form, the core of all our communications is the primordial impulse to tell and hear stories. Why not use that to improve your pitches?
Raising capital is complicated. There are a lot of pieces to put together, including selling your audience, knowing your valuation, how much capital you need, use of funds and much, much more.
The initial hurdle for countless companies comes at the intersection where entrepreneurs and investors meet. Entrepreneurs often stumble building their investment deck and effectively pitching which makes it that much harder to get people to give you the capital. Investors must believe in you and your abilities to manage and grow a company. The problem is that showing who you are and what you’re capable of can be difficult let alone doing it in a 10-15 minute window.
For that reason you need to put your heart and soul into the pitch, but not just the content, also the delivery. What does a perfect pitch look like, you ask? That is a matter of opinion and you’ll never see the “perfect pitch deck”, but recently its all about presenting your company in a unique way to stand out from the crowd. One additional option you may consider is a scrolling web pitch. Scrolling web pitches incorporate a unique scrolling technique that allow the presenter to replace the generic professional pitch deck click-by-click slides with an interactive, more organic and lively design. This is not meant to be a replacement for the face to face pitch but a reinforcement and/or teaser to get the meeting. Here are 4 reasons why you need to use scrolling web designs for you next investor pitch deck:
Keep Content Up to Date
In using a scrolling web pitch, you are making any future edits or updates to your text as easy as can be. This design simplifies the process and maximizes your use of time.
Stand Out from the Crowd and be unique
Most people email their large, boring and lifeless pitch deck presentations to prospective investors, but it really doesn’t make sense to do that. Without context from the entrepreneur you’ll risk a misinterpreted message or worse they might not even move past the first three slides. Treat you pitch with respect. Why be dull and lifeless when you can be unique, creative and memorable?
Monitor page analytics/views and keep consistency
Data, data, data! Being able to keep your pitch up to date online and get analytics will help you assess the effectiveness of your deck. Additionally, you’ll have created another venue to market in. A great scroll web pitch will be able to sell itself without you being there, so any viewer could potentially bite in your concept.
Create more interest and leads
Analytics and views lead to increased interest and leads. Garnering and extrapolating public interest in your concept will serve as evidence to any potential investors as quality and a great opportunity.
Think of it as pitch deck presentation Darwinism: evolve your pitch or have it die. Though raising capital may be intimidating, challenging, and maybe seemingly impossible at times, the process starts with how you present yourself to people.
If you have any questions or comments about scroll pitches just comment them on this post?
