Influence should be your main concern when it comes to speaking before an audience–may it be consumers, employees, teammates, or potential investors. Your goal is to make an impact big enough to either change your audience’s opinion or strengthen an already existing point of view.
The point of an effective sales pitch is to persuade your audience into buying or to think about your presentation, may it be a product, service, or concept. To do so, you must appeal to the listeners and convince then that what you’re offering is the most favorable choice.
The content and design of your custom pitch deck should work together to convince your audience.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) was incredibly influential, especially that he made significant and lasting contributions to various aspects of human knowledge. One of his concepts included the modes of persuasion, which, according to him, can be furnished by the spoken word. These are as follows:
Ethos (Credibility)
When delivering a pitch, you must assert your credibility and intelligence as a speaker. Your tone, pitch, and diction help establish this–you have to look and feel confident. Stage presence is also necessary in gaining the audience’s trust.
How do these factors translate to your pitch deck?
Include your credentials in a self-introduction slide.
Let your audience know who you are and what you specialize in, as these give your listeners a sneak peek into your expertise. If you have achievements that would help build your credibility as a speaker in the field, the better.
Leverage your credibility by quoting other industry experts.
Quoting industry experts add value to your pitch. It shows how familiar you are with the topic, boosting your credibility.
Pathos (Emotion)
The emotional content of your pitch makes it more memorable. That said, you become a better speaker when you have the ability to work with your audience’s emotions just as you handle your own.
How will you add an emotional factor to your slides?
Tell a story.
Stories can get in touch with your audience on a personal level, hence making it an effective pitching technique. The more people can relate to it, the better they understand what the pitch is all about.
Rehearse your pitch in front of other people and have them give you feedback. Remember that storytelling can either make or break your pitch so you have to make sure that the story you’re sharing is appropriate for your audience.
Evoke emotions through visuals.
Colors have the power to change or reinforce your audience’s mood in a matter of seconds. Apart from the design itself, companies that build pitch decks put the palette they use into careful consideration.
Logos (Logic)
Aristotle emphasized the appeal to logic and reasoning the most. Once you’ve captured your audience’s attention, the next step is to take action. Convince them that the change or action is within reason and in their best interest.
Survey results, market data, trends–the last mode of persuasion is the most common and the easiest to incorporate into a pitch deck.
How can you incorporate logic and reasoning into your custom pitch deck design?
Use backup in the form of case studies and testimonials.
When you include these into your pitch, it shows the effects of the practices, ideas, products, or services, in action.
Use common concepts as analogies and make comparisons.
Explaining complex concepts may not be an easy feat, but if you make the right analogies and comparison, those who may not know much about the subject can easily understand the topic.
While these strategies may seem obvious to many people, there are still those who are miss out on the advantages that these pointers give to the pitch itself, making them bland and unconvincing.
Hopefully, you apply these to your next sales pitch. Not only will you improve your credibility, but these will increase your confidence, too.
Download free pitch deck templates now.
Get professionally designed pitch deck slides weekly.
Not everyone has what it takes to be an entrepreneur. There’s a wide set of skills and traits you have to possess in order to become an effective business leader. Among those traits is self-confidence, a natural magnet that can draw people to you and make them want to listen to what you have to say. As such, it’s an invaluable skill during a business pitch.
To entice potential investors, you need to appear and sound confident while pitching your idea. Investors are naturally drawn to leaders with high self-esteem because it signifies strength of character, another trait necessary to lead a business venture forward. As Larina Kase, a psychologist and author, said, “True confidence is not thinking that you’ll get a great result. It’s knowing that you can handle any result.” When the path towards success is dark and murky, confidence can carry a strong business leader through.
How to Boost Your Confidence for a Business Pitch
There are things you can do to pump up your spirits before facing investors and presenting them your business model. Here are seven of them:
1. Look and sound the part
The thing about confidence is that you don’t need to have it to look the part. You can carry yourself with poise even if you’re feeling intimidated or scared inside. There are a few things you can do to package yourself for success: dressing well, correcting your posture, minding the pacing of your speech, using precise language, and smiling. In other words, by making a conscious effort to look confident, you can make a good impression.
2. Exude conviction from every pore
To sell a business idea, you should be able to show investors how passionate and committed you are. They’ll try to gauge whether you really know what you’re doing, so make sure that you remain composed but enthusiastic throughout your business pitch. Make the investors believe in your potential to succeed. To achieve this effect, you have to communicate a certain aura that tells investors how confident you are about your product. This means avoiding uptalk and articulating a statement with a declarative—not an inquisitive—tone.
3. Know your key differentiator
To identify your business’s primary selling point, ask yourself what your edge is as opposed to competitors. Why should investors choose you over businesses similar to yours? You must have something unique to offer to make your business pitch stand out. Apart from this, you should also be able to explain what your worth is to investors. How can they benefit from your business? What gains can they expect, and when?
4. Find an external manifestation of success
Perhaps the best way to gain self-confidence is to find an external manifestation of your business’s capability to survive and succeed. It’s easier to sell a business idea if you have something tangible to back it up. An example of an external validation of success is a solid customer base that raves about your product. A sizable social media following that has positive things to say about your company is also a good proof that you’re breaking ground. Determining your niche is crucial during the first stages of business development because if you sell to the wrong customers, your business is bound to flop. On the other hand, with the right audience, you can improve your revenue and boost your credibility, which will ultimately attract investors towards your business.
5. Solve problems before they appear
Amateur entrepreneurs who only want to impress investors often make the mistake of acting like they’re immune to disasters. They’re hiding behind the assumption that their business model is so perfect, it can’t possibly be taken down by any future problem. As a general rule, before you present your business pitch to an investor, you should think through the possible challenges that you may encounter along the way. If possible, look for various solutions for each issue so that if one fails, you’ll have a backup to fall on. Set up contingency plans for when things don’t go as planned. By making sure that you’re prepared for the ugly as well as the good, you’ll be able to present yourself as a competent leader who can weather the storm when the worse comes to the worst.
6. Rehearse and refine your business pitch
Preparation is key to any speech. As with any other field, achieving a certain level of self-confidence takes time and an immense amount of effort. Research also plays a major role on how competent and confident you will appear in front of a panel. Make sure that your presentation has no loopholes and that everything goes as planned.
7. Worry less and just do your part
Fussing over the aspects of your business pitch that you can’t control will only stress you out. Instead of worrying over the negative aspects of your situation, just focus on the positive. Don’t zero in on your weaknesses as that will only distract and discourage you. Instead, strive to turn your weak spots around and let go of the things you can’t change. Optimism can go a long way in boosting your self-confidence, so try to appreciate the good parts as much as you can.
Above all else, smile even if you don’t feel like it. As Christine Clapp, a public speaking expert at George Washington University, said, “Smiling not only makes your voice more pleasant to listen to; it also conveys confidence…. You will appear friendly, approachable, and composed.” That reason alone should be enough for you to flash a smile during a business pitch.
If you follow the aforementioned tips, you’ll be closer to improving your self-esteem. Just be patient and remember that confidence is built over time. With determination, you can stand in front of a panel of investors and present your business in the best light possible.
Connick, Wendy. “How to Find Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP).” The Balance. June 19, 2017. www.thebalance.com/how-to-find-your-unique-selling-proposition-usp-2917402
Landrum, Sarah. “10 Secrets to Sounding Confident.” Fast Company. July 20, 2015. www.fastcompany.com/3048748/10-secrets-to-sounding-confident
Lobb, Jennifer. “How to Pitch Your Business Like the Pros on Shark Tank.” Nav. December 28, 2016. www.nav.com/blog/how-to-pitch-your-business-like-the-shark-tank-pros-15102
Whitmore, Jacqueline. “9 Ways to Show More Confidence in Business.” Entrepreneur. September 30, 2014. www.entrepreneur.com/article/237634
“How to Give Investors Confidence in Your Business Idea.” Virgin Startup. n.d. www.virginstartup.org/how-to/how-give-investors-confidence-your-business-idea
Looking for creative presentations that can leverage your business? Enjoy free pitch deck templates from SlideStore! Sign up today.
As we’ve seen in stories, zombies are drawn to loud noises. This lets them swarm you and prevent you from reaching whatever goal you have set. Applying this in our line of work as presenters, there’s no better way to infect the audience with zombie-like expressions than letting noise interfere with your own pitch.
It’s impossible to get your message across if the crowd can’t hear you properly, but this isn’t limited to sounds that your audience can hear. Noise can also come in the form of unnecessary interruptions that get in the way of your business pitch. Technical glitches, distracting colors, inappropriate pictures, unreadable fonts, even a malfunctioning air conditioner can all count as noise.
Simply put, anything that makes your listeners uncomfortable is a potential hazard. These can prevent you from convincing them to invest in your proposal, which means lost partners and potential profits. Fortunately, there are two types of noise and three ways to immunize your clients from it.
In a post written on Public Speaking Tips, professional speaker and author, Lenny Laskowski, states that noise comes in two forms: external and internal.
External Noise
The first type may come from your surroundings, disrupting effective communication with your listeners. An unsilenced phone going off, a tall person blocking the view of another behind him, or an unexpected update notification flashing in the middle of your pitch can get in the way of delivering a successful performance.
Parts of your audio-visual aid might even unintentionally distract your audience. For example, if the speaker volume isn’t high enough, any narration that might be embedded won’t be heard. The same thing applies to your visuals if the screen is too bright or too dark.
Using colors can also be a distraction. If the setting or topic requires formality, using bright colors isn’t ideal to complement a formal pitch. The same goes for times when you need to put on an energetic personality and fire up your audience but end up using dark colors in your slides.
The venue itself is also a factor. If it’s too hot, too dark, or uncomfortable because there aren’t enough seats, people may have trouble listening to you. That’s why you should always check out the area beforehand.
Internal Noise
The second type, internal distractions, are worse because these come from within and may include your own negative thoughts and feelings.
You might be emotionally distracted by being too enthusiastic or possibly tired, which can affect the energy you have for your pitch. A lack of energy or sounding too serious can give the impression that you just want to get your speech over with. It may be fine to sound enthusiastic, but too much of it, like in an investor’s pitch, might make you sound too biased if you make promises without backing them up with hard facts. Alternatively, if you become too serious in an event that needs a more casual and friendly setting, this can send the wrong impression to your clients and infect them with that same lack of interest.
On the other hand, the audience might also be biased or have misgivings about your topic, especially if you present any new unproven products that have yet to enter the market. While skepticism may be unavoidable, you need to prepare for possible contrasting opinions during your Q&A section if you have one.
Here are three things to consider when combatting both types of noise to safeguard your pitch’s success:
1. Detect the Source of Noise
Damon Verial, a professional writer and contributor for various Web sites, including eHow, tackles the importance of finding the source of noise. He explains that depending on the importance of the situation, noise should be eliminated through various means.
Careful preparation is what helps you avoid unwanted interruptions, but despite your best efforts, some unexpected circumstances are still hard to prepare for. For example, your laptop might randomly shut off, or your slides could suddenly freeze while presenting. In times like these, you need to have backup devices that have copies of your pitch deck, if possible, so you can pick up where you left off immediately.
Before striking back, identify the root of the problem to find an immediate solution. Was it lack of preparation that disgruntled you? Or was it a problem with the venue that disturbed your pitch? The former can be taken as a lesson for what to prepare for next time. The latter can be resolved with some help. In this case, ask for the organizer’s help to take control of the situation and minimize any disruptions.
For technical problems, politely ask the coordinator to help you fix any issues so you can continue your pitch. This will help you handle the situation and put everything in place. Lighting problems, sound systems, microphones, and even power cables are things that they should be ready for.
2. Sharpen Your Listening Skills
Your job isn’t limited to speaking; listening is also vital to dealing with your audience. With the end goal of delivering a message, improving your listening skills is an essential part of the process. You need to know what concerns your clients will have when you bring your proposal to the table. These aren’t limited to prices. Timelines, implementation costs, and possible benefits are also factors to determining how feasible your proposal can be.
However, passive listening isn’t enough. To be an effective listener, actively seek out and attend to people’s concerns. This lets you better understand what they mean when they ask questions about your topic. After all, noise works both ways too: you need to ask for clarifications if clients voice out their concerns in order to prevent any misunderstanding and give appropriate responses.
By being an attentive listener, you get to answer in a constructive and engaging manner while showing your audience respect. This gives the impression that you genuinely want to know what others need, as opposed to simply pushing your products out and hoping someone will be willing to invest in them.
Aside from convincing them to voice out their opinions, give your viewers a chance to help you clarify anything that needs to be addressed. This prevents any possible misunderstandings that can divert their attention.
3. Harness the Power of Repetition
Never underestimate the power of repetition when combatting unwanted noise. People remembering your pitch after it’s over can make the difference between success and failure. If your prospects remember what you want them to, and you give them the means to contact you afterwards, you’re halfway to converting more leads to sales.
Simply having excellent speaking skills isn’t enough. You also want your listeners to remember the best parts of your performance. That’s why audience recall is important in any pitch. Keep your points simple enough to repeat them for emphasis but not so much that you endlessly reiterate each one. Are there aspects of your proposal that you can reduce into one to three words? Use these to reinforce your speech and support your facts so that the audience will remember exactly what you stand for.
A simple way to improve recall is to repeat your main points during vital breaks or at the end of your pitch. This highlights important takeaways for the audience, emphasizing your thoughts and stressing relevant information for your listeners to make your pitch memorable.
Done right, it makes your pitch sound more entertaining and convincing.
The Takeaway: Always Stay Alert
Always anticipate an onslaught of diversions. These can come from the venue, your equipment, your slides, or even yourself or the audience. Consider the appropriate tools to use and have backups in place when technical breakdowns happen. It won’t hurt to coordinate with your organizers for any contingencies you can use in worst-case scenarios, too. This lets you stay focused to avoid further distracting your listeners.
Instead of immediately going on the offensive, strengthen your defenses against disturbing noises that can ruin your performance. At the same time, maintain a solid feedback line for communicating with your audience. They may not always understand you, but if you take efforts to understand their side of things, you’ll be able to find out exactly what causes the noise on their end. You’ll also come across as someone who wants to build better business partnerships with other people rather than a typical salesman who simply talks about their own products without considering if it’s the right fit for his customers.
Don’t let negative thoughts or circumstances overwhelm you. Combat them by detecting the unnecessary noise, enhancing your listening skills, and reiterating your ideas to make sure everyone gets the point. Once you’ve got unnecessary noise under control, you’ll have the audience focusing on the most important things: the benefits that you can give them, and why they should choose you over the competition. This’ll prevent spreading blank stares to the audience and help you convert more leads for your business.
References:
Laskowski, Lenny. “Aspect 6 – The Noise.” Public Speaking Tips, May 22, 2015. www.ljlseminars.blogspot.com Verial, Damon. “How to Overcome Noise Barriers in Communication.” eHow, n.d. www.ehow.com/how_8031308_overcome-noise-barriers-communication.html
PowerPoint may be a user-friendly tool, but its functions go beyond templated slide designs and bullet-point lists. You don’t have to stick to plain slides and clunky graphics. Instead, why not improve your deck and create a design that’s suited for your pitch?
Here are some PowerPoint hacks to help you do just that:
1. Be Creative with Your Images
It’s no secret that the leading cause of Death by PowerPoint, or complete audience boredom, is a slide overloaded with too much information.
Replace blocks of text with images or keywords you can expound on. This leaves you free to talk more and keeps the audience’s attention fixed on you. However, some presenters use this as an excuse to insert random images in their slides in an uninspired layout.
Make your deck more interesting by being creative with your use of images. Instead of copy-pasting a stock image to the middle of your deck, why not crop and edit it first? Crop images to your desired size by dragging the crop handles that will appear around your picture once you format it. Creatively incorporating and tweaking images to perfectly fit your deck lets you illustrate the essence of your core message without boring your audience.
2. Enhance Design with Animation
Depending on how you use them, animation and transition can make or break your pitch.
Some presenters have been criticized for their excessive use of slide transitions and animations. For example, business pitches may require no more than a simple wipe. Overdoing it with a dramatic transition like Fracture or Dissolve may lessen your professional credibility.
Fortunately, Microsoft’s presented a solution to that problem and released one of PowerPoint’s latest features, Morph. The add-in allows users to create seamless and impressive animations that can also be used as a slide transition.The Morph option can be found under Transitions, and it lets you animate your desired slide element, which can be in the form of objects, text, or images.
Unlike the previous animation options for PowerPoint, this transition type requires you to draw out a work path for the object you want to animate. You can just drag the slide element in the direction you want it to go. When you view your pitch, the object will move on its own without needing a prompt, like a mouse click. This frees your hands and lets you further use body language to emphasize key points and connect with the audience instead of having to focus on operating a clicker.
3. Have Your Pitch in Mind
Everything on your deck should contribute to your pitch.
That said, the greatest PowerPoint hack is to always keep your pitch in mind when you’re crafting your slides. Extraneous elements will only distract the audience from your main point. Before adding anything, think about why you’re putting it there and whether it will enhance your spiel.
Keep an outline of your content to remind you of your slide order. Highlight key terms you want to emphasize in your visual aid so you’ll know what to include and what can be saved for verbal elaboration.
Decide whether you should plug in your data as text or whether you can improve on it by presenting it creatively. For example, diagrams, charts, and other visual representations may make hard information more palatable to your audience.
Content, delivery, and visuals should all go hand-in-hand, so don’t leave out one for the other. Make sure you develop each of these elements equally for an overall winning pitch.
The Takeaway: Take Advantage of PowerPoint’s Features
PowerPoint is a constantly growing software, rich with new features. Improvements in the presentation tool make it possible to improve your deck without too much hassle. To summarize:
Be creative with your deck design and experiment with image layout and position. Crop and edit pictures before putting them on your slides so that they can work together with your overall design to get your message across.
Make use of PowerPoint’s latest features, particularly Morph for animation, to make your deck more attractive and interactive.
At the same time, always align your deck with your pitch. Good design used inappropriately can still lead to a confusing pitch.
Craft a winning deck with these PowerPoint hacks, or contact our pitchdeck.com experts today for a free quote!
References:
“PowerPoint 2013: Formatting Pictures.” GCF Learn Free. www.gcflearnfree.org/powerpoint2013/17 “Using the Morph Transition in PowerPoint 2016.” Office Blogs. www.support.office.com/en-us/article/Using-the-Morph-transition-in-PowerPoint-2016-8dd1c7b2-b935-44f5-a74c-741d8d9244ea
We’ve previously discussed how the numbers one to five can make your business pitch decks count. This was based off keynote speaker Stephen Boyd’s tips to create a presentation countdown. With our own take on it, let’s continue counting from number six to number ten.
6. Presenting after SIX o’clock P.M.
Business professionals work eight hours on a regular basis. After a long day, only a few stay later than six o’clock p.m. to polish their paperwork, web designs, pitch deck slides, and the like. After all, we want to get back to our families and our lives, right?
Deliver your pitches as if you’re doing them after six in the evening. Embody the elements of fun, involvement, and learning to keep your audience awake. Treat your audience like close friends and family you’ve been longing to see. Sustain their interest from the beginning to end, no matter how late it is.
7. Seven Means Complete
According to the Bible, the number seven has three Hebrew roots: saba, shaba and sheba. These three biblical ideas are associated with oaths, perfection, and completeness. Whether you’re delivering a pitch to a potential client or discoursing a monthly report with co-workers, your pitch deck should contain complete data.
Providing evidence supports your argument or main idea. Maximize the use of graphs and charts, statistics, and other visuals for a more comprehensive discussion. Inevitably, your audience will have questions or clarifications which you can tackle in a Q&A session. However, it pays to address all of these possible questions from the beginning to make things easier for everyone.
8. Eight for Affinity
The number eight is drawn with two interconnecting circles. Lacking one circle, either at the top or at the bottom, means you have zero. Pitches are about making connections. Your business speech is useless without an audience.
Command interest by connecting with them on a personal level. You can best engage an audience by exuding a credible aura, by appealing to their emotions, or by challenging their intellect. Building networks after your business pitch is another way to solidify your core message, and get viable results as well.
9. Nine for Anticipation
Where there’s nine, an end is anticipated — nine is followed by ten, ninety-nine makes way for one hundred, and so on. Anticipating unforeseeable circumstances in your talk is a good pitching skill. Don’t make your audience tune out because you panicked or lost your train of thought. Always be prepared for whatever can go wrong in a speaking engagement.
Planning ahead increases your chances of foreseeing or dealing with such problems.
10. Perfect Ten
There’s no denying that the number ten connotes perfection. Ten is a rounded number, which is why our counting system is based on the power of ten. We rate things with one being the lowest and ten being the highest. Striving for perfection is the best mindset for succeeding in your business pitch.
Make sure that your pitch deck design has the perfect font combo and title slide. Reinforce it with confident delivery and compelling content. Always aim for a deck that will get a perfect ten rating.
To Sum It Up
Use numbers six to ten as your guide for delivering fun, complete, engaging, planned, and perfect business pitch decks. Remember the importance of connecting to your audience, sharing complete and pertinent data, appealing to emotions, anticipating crises, and striving for perfection.
Need a pitch deck to give you an edge? Check out our portfolio for inspiration, or contact our slide design experts for a free quote.
Big ideas are important in business-to-business pitches. The stakes are higher, with both capital and profits on the line. Also called major selling ideas, they act as your pitch’s cornerstone, condensing your offer’s features, advantages, and benefits into an easily understandable and repeatable concept.
A Unique Selling Proposition (or USP) is a marketing concept that allows advertisers to demonstrate a product’s key effectiveness and guides their advertising campaigns’ tone, message, and overall execution. It’s the core that makes any big idea successful. Before stepping into the spotlight, take a step back and analyze if your product is memorable and unique enough to present itself. They may even guide you into becoming a better public speaker.
Here are three ways to use USP’s to improve your business pitching technique.
1. It Demonstrates Appreciable Value
People tend to invest in or buy something that either has proven value or improves their daily lives. Examine your potential customers and, if possible, find out their priorities and motivations. Use this information to determine how to best package what you’re selling.
Similarly, focus on figuring out the ideal way of convincing them to buy in or invest. Knowing how your product improves lives is an important part of fine-tuning your message. During your pitch, assert how your product can make your customers’ lives better to grab their attention.
2. It Reveals an Inimitable Quality
Your audience has probably listened to countless unmemorable pitches. If you don’t play your cards right, you could be one of the many failed proposals, especially if you’re presenting to an established business. Pitch yourself as someone who can offer something that no one else can.
Advertisers research on possible competitors to determine their USP’s validity and sustainability. Similarly, check out your rivals and figure out how you can get a leg up on them through pitch deck design. Having a unique and professional-looking deck is a surefire way to impress and engage.
3. It Displays a Strong Hook to Reel Them In
As we’ve discussed before, having the facts is only one part of getting your pitch done. It’s the same with your USP. Flex your creative muscles to craft what you bring to the table into a communicable, understandable, and sellable business proposal.
Package what you must share with your potential investors into a novel idea, and you’ll have the main ingredients to success.
Conclusion
Before you start selling your product, make sure that your product can sell itself.
Pinpointing your USP and fleshing it out requires some intensive research and inspiring creativity. Fortunately, it makes an untold amount of difference in making a simple collection of facts and sentences into an effective marketing strategy.
First, find out how your offer improves your target market’s lives. Second, show them what only you can do, which competitors can’t replicate. Lastly, present your product or service in a creative way. Start applying the concept as an approach to business pitches now and reap the rewards.
References
Belch, G., & Belch, M. (2001). Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective (5th ed.). Boston, Mass.: Irwin/McGraw-Hill. Reeves, R. (1961). Reality in advertising. New York: Knopf. “Unique Selling Proposition (USP).” Entrepreneur. Accessed August 24, 2015.
Featured Image: “Apples-Stand-Out” by Flazingo Photos on flickr.com
We’ve mentioned before that giving a pitch is similar to marketing and advertising. This is why you need a simplistic deck for better pitch ideas.
But what exactly makes what Cutting Edge Advertising author Jim Aitchison calls the “less is more” principle effective enough to make ad agency gurus and professional presenters rely on them? Why do professional presenters like those who give the TED Talks make better impressions?
There are three reasons why simplicity gives better pitches.
According to ad veteran Luke Sullivan, all of them rely on a principle made by one of the founders of the ad agency behind the famous Volkswagen ads: “…they won’t listen to you if you’re not interesting, and you won’t be interesting unless you say things imaginatively, originally, freshly.”
Aside from being able to sell effectively, Aitchison suggests that an ad needs to be understandable. This is the same requirement that every professional pitch deck needs in order to sell.
With simplicity, your sales pitch becomes more understandable, accurate and concise, letting you state your main point and tell your clients what they get out of your proposed product from the start.
2. Simplicity Cuts Through The Competition
Everyday, people are being bombarded with a clutter of advertisements. Clients face a similar situation with presenters. With all the other pitches to sit through, they need to sort through every potential partner’s gimmicks and extra bells and whistles.
With simplicity, you get to state what you can do, what clients get out of your offer and what advantages you have to outsell the competition.
3. Simplicity Gives More Creativity
With a simplistic strategy, you have more room to be creative and interesting. Once you know your product and your position in the market (be it an industry leader, an upstart underdog or a company playing second fiddle), start crafting your pitch deck slide designs and your speech around highlighting your current strengths.
For example, do you want to highlight your achievements as the best company in the industry? Do you want to feature your advantages over the top companies? Do you want to introduce a new product’s advantages and benefits to the client?
It all depends on how you want to present your company to your client. One effective way to do this is to keep it simple enough to be interesting.
The Main Ingredient: Look To Your Product
Those questions are simple strategies that give room to let your pitch deck visual design ideas do the talking, a specialty of pitch deck design professionals. The answer to doing all this lies in finding that one thing that makes your product interesting.
To know more about how to highlight your best ideas, take a few minutes to get in touch with us, all for free!
Download free pitch deck templates now.
Get professionally designed pitch deck slides weekly.
“Ad Agency Tricks: Outsell Competitors in Sales Presentations.” pitchdeck.com. Accessed August 21, 2015. Aitchison, Jim. Cutting Edge Advertising: How to Create the World’s Best Print for Brands in the 21st Century. 2nd ed. Singapore: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004. Great Volkswagen Ads. Accessed August 21, 2015. Sullivan, Luke. Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: A Guide to Creating Great Ads. 3rd ed. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2008.
A professional pitch takes time, not just in making the actual pitch deck, but in planning how to make it.
Pitch experts (even the ones behind Apple’s and TED Talks’ pitch decks) recommend spending the majority of your time planning for how to make and deliver the sales pitch. According to brand communication expert, Carmine Gallo, this takes at least 90 hours, with only a third of that time used for building the actual deck.
The rest of the time needs to be spent on knowing your client’s expectations. Qualtrics’ Scott Smith presents seven customer expectations to watch out for, so make sure to dedicate your time to researching the topic, and developing an effective method of delivery.
Ask yourself:
What problem am I trying to solve?
Is there an applicable solution that I can use?
How will I solve the problem then?
What advantage can I offer that the competition can’t?
A secret to getting effective pitch deck ideas is planning ahead of time.
Let’s go into detail about how to plan your business pitch.
Step 1: Write Everything You Want to Say
Make a list, sit down with your colleagues, consult your company’s production/research teams, draw quick sketches and draft a script. Just get something, anything on paper when you start.
This way, you’ll have an easier time sorting through pitch deck ideas that work from those that don’t.
Both professional presenters and advertising experts talk about similar methods. Whether it’s planning on paper or, as ad veteran Luke Sullivan suggests, sticking drawings of your best ideas on the wall, the best way to get your sales pitch idea is to dump everything into an empty space and sort them out.
Step 2: Be Your Own Coldest Critic
Once you have everything you can think of in one place, be it an empty Microsoft PowerPoint file or on blank sheets of paper, start judging. Using the questions listed above can work as your guide.
Everything you place in your pitch deck stems from two sources: the client’s problem and the product or service you’ll use to solve it. The strategy is up to you. Consider the following questions:
Do you want to bank on your company’s reputation for being the best in the business?
Do you want to highlight one advantage you have over the competition?
Do you want to introduce a game-changing solution to an old problem?
If you want to pitch for a car-rental service provider, or sell your electronics to a local distributor, ask yourself about the workability of your idea (for example, displaying consistent sales numbers or user testimonies). If you think it’s doable, keep it.
Step 3: Once You Have the “Eureka” Moment, Stay on It
One benefit of dumping your ideas and being your harshest critic is that you arrive at your winning sales pitch idea faster.
Everything you say and write will flow by themselves if your idea and strategy are sound enough. The best thing to do is stay with it.
Write down your script and slide content while your thoughts are still fresh in your mind. Delaying it will interrupt your train of thought, wasting time better spent on finalizing your pitch deck.
The Lesson to Learn
Don’t be afraid to critique your own ideas. A sales pitch is all about testing ideas against the client’s problems and coming up with your best solution.
If it works, come up with an appropriate strategy to sell your proposal better than the competition does. Keep at it until you find your selling idea.
To help you come up with it even faster, spend time with a pitch deck expert. It’s worth the investment. (All it takes is fifteen minutes.)
References
Gallo, Carmine. The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience. New York. McGraw-Hill, 2010 Smith, Scott, “Customer Expectations: 7 Types all Exceptional Researchers Must Understand.” Qualtrics. Accessed July 15, 2015. Sullivan, Luke. Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This! A Guide to Creating Great Ads. Hoboken, NJ – J. Wiley & Sons, 2008
The idea of adapting a sales pitch into a 30-second elevator pitch is to deliver a clear and concise speech that makes a good impression in a short amount of time.
When the elevator door opens and a potential client stands near you, you want to catch his attention and, hopefully, get his business card.
Stay ahead of the competition. Consider every pitch as the chance of a lifetime, so make a speech that sells more than it tells.
Here’s how you can plot your message similar to a well-crafted elevator pitch:
Establish Credibility
How can you earn someone’s trust in the span of an elevator ride?
The key is to establish credibility.
Reel your audience in at the very start and build a positive mental picture in their minds.
A short yet concise self-introduction makes you sound credible. According to presentation trainer Gavin Meikle, you can also literally walk the talk and exude credibility through confident body language.
Stating your specialization and longevity on the field, as well as your manner of speaking, are essential. Convince your audience that you’re worth listening to.
Build Curiosity
Eagle Venture CEO Mel Pirchesky’s famously quoted line summarizes the essence of an elevator pitch: “The objective of the first ten or fifteen seconds is to make your prospective investors want to listen to the next forty-five or fifty seconds differently, more intently than they would have otherwise.”
That’s why most elevator pitches build upon curiosity. They want to make the impression last until the last second.
Though short, elevator pitches shouldn’t reveal your entire offer right off the bat. It’s more of a prelude to the bigger pitch coming up once you’ve hooked your listener into paying attention.
For pitches, giving your audience a glimpse of your product’s benefits is great for hooking in a new lead. This suggests involvement and creates the right atmosphere for persuasion.
Express Spontaneity
Elevator speeches express spontaneity.
They sound like a story being told out of impulse, often in a conversational tone. This adds a greater sense of sincerity to your pitch.
When doing a sales pitch, avoid sounding like you’re reading a script.
Practice delivering your speech naturally while sharing your main idea and purpose. Asking a relatable question can also increase audience participation.
Summing It Up
Your sales pitch is your gateway for new leads. Craft an elevator pitch to hook your audience in the most concise and fastest manner possible.
Having problems creating pitch decks that sell? Contact pitchdeck.com and we’ll help you design a pitch deck presentation that gets you the sales you deserve!
Download free pitch deck templates now.
Get professionally designed pitch deck slides weekly.
Presenting to executives and other high-powered decision makers can have unbelievably high stakes. Corporate pitches of this significance can be absolutely nerve-wracking. You should expect no less from a possible career or life-changing opportunity.
Achieving success here isn’t a Herculean task. Use these three tips to become a more confident and effective presenter for when it most counts:
Put the Spotlight on Your Core Message
Executives and board members are busy individuals who have no time to do long conversations. Simplify your pitch and break down your message so that it’s easily digestible.
Keep your discussion on the right track.
Avoid using industry-specific jargon and focus on explaining and expounding on your core message. If you have too much important data that clutters up your deck, put them in an accompanying report or handout.
This doesn’t mean your deck has to be plain and bare. Engage your viewers’ eyes with the right visuals. Despite their status, executives are people too, and would appreciate a good pitch that stands out from the numerous other pitches they encounter daily.
Rely on Evidence and Actual Data
Rhetoric tools are still useful in this situation, but the higher-ups need actionable data based on tangible evidence. You can’t expect them to make high-risk decisions based on unconvincing or misleading information.
This is where research comes in handy. Conduct a thorough and comprehensive study on the subject of your current report. If you can’t do it alone, try mobilizing other departments in your company and ask for help.
At the same time, according to entrepreneur John Rampton, you can also outsource and tap into other references to access the information you need. This may even save you the time and cost.
In terms of deck design, don’t saturate your slides with content. Minimize the amount of text to streamline your corporate pitch deck. If your data relies on showing numbers, then explain them in visual ways like charts, graphs, and diagrams.
Rehearse the Nerves Away
These are high-stake affairs, so your preparation should correspond to the predicted benefit of succeeding.
Be self-critical of your own pitch, determine possible weaknesses in your arguments and prepare for your audience’s possible concerns. Consider the proper clothing choices to match your purpose and the occasion.
Opt for an attire that’s not too flashy or formal. Go for something that won’t throw your audience off but give them a memorable impression of you.
It’s natural to feel more nervous than usual but you can get rid of your fears with constant practice. Practice breathing techniques and a few warm-up exercises to put you in the right state of mind during your pitch. You’ll want to be at the top of your game in front of this crowd, after all.
Conclusion
Getting through and impressing the big leagues requires an even bigger amount of preparation.
Fortunately, sticking close to your message, relying on hard data, and dedicated practice prove vital in getting the best out of your pitch. Keep these tips in mind for when that big break comes.
For these opportunities, you need to be at your best. Get a corporate pitch deck to match the occasion with pitchdeck.com. Contact us for a free quote.
Download free pitch deck templates now.
Get professionally designed pitch deck slides weekly.