pitch deck tips Archives

Ad Agency Tricks: Outsell Competitors in Sales Pitches

Posted on May 15, 2015May 3, 2023 by Rick E

Advertising is a daily part of our lives. This applies to presenters and their pitch decks. During sales pitches, you’ll compete against at least three other teams, each with their own pitch.

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How do a selected few make their voices heard from the chorus of companies selling their products?

Simple, they offer what their competition doesn’t.

How It Works: Look to Yourself and Your Competition

According to ad veteran Luke Sullivan, to know the competition, look at what your company offers and compare it with the competition. Take some advice from Jim Aitchinson’s Cutting Edge Advertising: Are you currently running second like Avis? Are you as innovative as Nike Shox? Or are you looking to shock people like XO Beer?

Is your pitch strong enough to challenge the competition, or do you want to highlight your strengths? After answering these questions, you can start building on your sales pitch deck’s main idea.

Describing Your Products & Services

Simplifying your offer is a pitch deck technique that defines exactly what you want to show. Brands contribute to advertising clutter. Clients go through the same thing, sitting through pitch after pitch. Strip your idea down into one core message. Don’t read from your slides and drone on it—go straight to your proposal.

Build up the moment before revealing it, or pose a challenge to your clients. This makes your message stick in your clients’ minds longer.

The Reality Distortion Field

Once you’ve hooked clients with your pitch, support their curiosity with facts.

Use what brand communications expert Carmine Gallo calls the “reality distortion field,” which is to convince anyone of practically anything. Propose a challenge to highlight your strengths as with the Nike Shox TV ad, or doing an unconventional but effective stunt like XO Beer.

You can also present an opportunity to change, like when Steve Jobs asked John Sculley, the then-president of PepsiCo, to join Apple in 1983.

Challenge the Status Quo

Aitchison describes a sales pitch as a chance to dismantle the current status quo and establish something new. This applies not just to your clients but also to your competition.

After defining what your company offers, your pitch will soon be built around what it does, what it can offer, and what you do differently from others.

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References:

2000 Vince Carter Nike SHOX Commercial/Jumping Over Gary Payton. YouTube. Accessed May 15, 2015.
Aitchison, Jim. Cutting Edge Advertising: How to Create the World’s Best Print for Brands in the 21st Century. Singapore; New York: Prentice Hall, 2004.
Gallo, Carmine. The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010
Sullivan, Luke. Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: A Guide to Creating Great Ads (3rd Ed.). Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2008.
XO Beer. Neil French. Accessed May 15, 2015.

How to Plan for Your Next Successful Pitch

Posted on April 22, 2015May 3, 2023 by Rick E

Sharpening your pitch skills isn’t limited to preparing before the actual thing. You have to take a look at the results of your pitch, too.

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Every idea you present will affect others in some way. After every pitch, you need to look into two types of general feedback:

How your audience reacts as you present
What you did to invoke those reactions

Knowing exactly how your audience reacts will give you information on what you need to fix. Looking into these lets you sort between what your listeners like and don’t like about your performance. By gauging the quality of their feedback, you’ll know what techniques to keep and which to remove.

In fact, this method of evaluation is so crucial that companies such as Volkswagen and marketing experts like Northwestern University’s Philip Kotler (1972) highly recommend it to keep their customer relationships healthy. In his article, “A Generic Concept of Marketing,” Kotler discusses how these help gauge audience behavior and what it costs to achieve the results you want.

Attitude & Behavior-Related Responses

No matter how you present your ideas, they will affect your viewers in some way. Positive responses, such as smiling and nodding in agreement encourage better rapport between speaker and audience. Negative behavior, such as blank stares or people dozing off, might hurt your reputation in the long run.

As a presenter, monitoring audience behavior during and after your pitches can help identify points for improvement. For example:

Were your slide designs relevant to your content?
Was your information presented in an easy-to-read format?

Observing and remembering these simple reactions allow you to build your skills as you go along.

Costs and Efficiency

Preparing a pitch deck and getting the needed information costs time, sometimes even money. While it’s true that positive results matter, you also need to consider what it took to get to that outcome. When evaluating this aspect, you can ask yourself things like:

Did you spend a longer time formatting content than you should have?
Did you have to buy any information for your pitch deck?
Was there anything you could save up on or do more efficiently next time?

As with any business, costs—time, manpower, and money—matter, especially when it comes to marketing and advertising. It’s no different when making a pitch deck to sell your services, products, and ideas. Finding out what to save up on and what to invest in can make the difference when planning for your next pitch.

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Audience feedback can sometimes be so overwhelming that you don’t know where to start. However, applying these two control skills will help you clarify what you need to improve on and how to do it.

At the end of the day, considering your audiences’ reactions can give you an edge over other presenters. Using that to improve your pitch deck will become second nature once you realize that you deal with people, too.

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References:

Kotler, P. (1972). A Generic Concept of Marketing. Journal of Marketing. Vol. 36, No. 2. Retrieved from: http://www.8pic.ir/images/rommbbx28bfgpry1idn.pdf

Make an Impact and Deliver Better Business Pitches

Posted on February 26, 2015May 3, 2023 by Rick E

For most professionals, typical business pitches include having to sit through monotonous discussion while trying to decipher the small text projected in front them.

While these scenarios are common, bland business pitches shouldn’t be the norm.

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For your big pitch, turn the situation around and deliver something memorable that will leave a lasting impact on your audience. That’s why we decided to review the different things you can change and emphasize for your business pitch.

Take note of these essential characteristics and learn to apply them to your work:

Authenticity

The problem with most business pitches is that they often lack emotional impact.

Because they’re delivered in formal settings, presenters think that business pitches need to focus on the hard facts.

While data is obviously important to help build the credibility of your pitch, you still need to add a human element in order to create a connection with the audience. What better way to capture their attention and keep them engaged than by building this important rapport?

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you have to try and move your colleagues to tears or leave them rolling on the floor with laughter. Your goal is to build an authentic experience for them. Instead of presenting overwhelming amounts of charts and data, try to integrate a story to your pitch deck.

Thorough

Following our previous point, you’ll know that business pitches commonly suffer from information overload.

Without setting a clear goal, presenters tend to add too much to their content and end up prolonging the discussion with repetitive details. That’s why business pitches need to be thoroughly prepared. Solve the dilemma of an unorganized discussion by defining a clear objective.

From there, meticulously curate your content to make sure everything is aligned with your goals. Cut back on the data you present and include only the numbers that are most important to help drive home your key takeaways.

Compelling

To make an impact with your business pitches, you also have to focus on how well you face the audience and deliver your speech. If you want the audience to sit up and listen, focus on creating a compelling and engaging atmosphere.

As you start your pitch, catch their attention through nonverbal cues. It’s not enough to speak with confidence, you also have to exude the same amount of credibility in the way you dress and carry yourself. Avoid slouching or gestures that make you seem closed off or aloof.

Don’t be too stiff—try to strike a balance between both feeling comfortable and commanding authority in front of an audience.

Visually Stimulating

Finally, business pitches also need to break out of the “Death by PowerPoint” mold.

Instead of undecipherable pitch deck slides, you need to come up with a pitch deck that is visually stimulating and interesting.

This will elevate the message presented in a pitch deck. That said, it shouldn’t overshadow the core message with walls of text and misused bullet points.

Appeal to the visual sense of the audience. Apart from carefully curating your content to make sure you don’t end up with too much text, choose high-quality images to visualize your points.

Don’t forget to pick out a striking color palette and a few interesting fonts as well.

Looking for inspiration from design experts? Take a look at our design portfolio or contact us for a free quote today!

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Your business pitches do not have to lull the audience to sleep. Keep your colleagues engaged by making an impact they won’t soon forget. Take note of these 4 essential tips and deliver the best business pitches they’ll ever see.

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References:

“Hook, Line, and Sinker: What Makes a Great Pitch Deck Story.” pitchdeck.com December 11, 2014. Accessed February 26, 2015.
“Non-Verbal Communication.” Skills You Need. Accessed February 26, 2015.
“Understanding Information Overload.” Infogineering. Accessed February 26, 2015.

Featured Image: Startup Stock Photos

How to Prepare a Flipbook: The Pitch Deck’s Fine Print

Posted on February 6, 2015May 3, 2023 by Rick E

As we’ve established in the past, a majority of people respond positively to visual information. Avoid unloading too much data on your audience and trying to fit everything in a short series of slides.

This doesn’t mean that you can leave out the fine print completely. Sometimes key individuals like investors in your audience will want a closer look at the details.

As a solution, provide them with a flipbook—a document where they can examine the details they need in their own time.

Unlike a pitch deck, a flipbook carries a lot more text and information. It’s similar to a report, but with a better sense of design. Even if it’s meant to act as a supplementary document, a flipbook will need to be as visually engaging as the presentation you delivered.

Here are our top pointers to make sure your flipbook works well with the rest of your presentation:

Your flipbook needs to stand out

Business documents are often kept simple, printed in a subtle black and white. However, if you’re looking to impress people, you need something more that will encourage your recipients to keep flipping through the pages.

As with a pitch deck, make sure that key information stands out in your flipbook. Learn to experiment with different design elements to add life to the information you’re presenting.

While expounding on details, make use of images, illustrations, and color accents to help key points stand out.

Keep basic design principles in mind

Even as you make sure your flipbook stands out with great design, still be mindful of the same principles that guide your pitch deck.

Remember that people have limited attention spans, and need room to relax their gaze so they can focus on more important objects.

Continue to observe basic design elements such as contrast, white space, and the rule of thirds in order to strike the perfect balance.

You’ll be able to grab your viewers’ attentions without saturating them with too many slide elements this way.

Structure your content properly

Proper structure helps your document become much easier to read, regardless of its length. If you can cut up your content into consumable chunks, recipients will be able to easily scan your document for the information they need.

For some tips, here are just a few ways you can keep your content organized:

Break down discussion with headlines
Highlight the key takeaway with a subheading
Discuss a single point per paragraph
Use bullet points to list down key information
Add pull-quotes to emphasize important parts of your content

Use grids and columns as a layout guide

Documents are also much harder to read when the layout is haphazardly done. You can’t just arrange your content randomly.

Make sure your layout encourages the reader to keep going, guiding them from one point on the page to the next.

To solve this problem, utilize grids and columns as you format both design and content.

Design blogger, Sean Hodge, explains in his article on Smashing Magazine, the benefits and purpose of grid-based design. Hodge included a grid’s optimization of variety and transformation of disharmony into something that enhances design rather than detracts it.

These can guide you in arranging your content in a satisfying and creative layout, so make use of them for visual appeal.

Whether you’re creating a pitch deck or a flipbook, powerful visuals play an important role in helping your ideas stand out. If the occasion calls for a closer look at the details, give the audience your presentation’s fine print. Follow these tips to prepare a flipbook that magnifies the importance of the message you’re delivering.

References

Hodge, Sean. “Grid-Based Design: Six Creative Column Techniques.” Smashing Magazine. March 25, 2008. Accessed February 6, 2015.
“Pitch Deck Lesson: The Rule of Thirds in Slide Design.” pitchdeck.com, November 10, 2014. Accessed February 6, 2015.
“The Visual (spatial) Learning Style.” Learning Styles. Accessed February 6, 2015.
Watson, Leon. “Humans Have Shorter Attention Span than Goldfish, Thanks to Smartphones.” The Telegraph. Accessed February 6, 2015.

Featured Image: siBorg via Flickr

Sales Pitch Tips: How to Leave Your Clients Inspired

Posted on January 26, 2015May 3, 2023 by Rick E

A sales pitch is the proverbial last mile. The opportunity to come face-to-face with a prospect is your last bet to make sure the sales process goes in your favor. Because of this, the stakes are high and there’s a lot of pressure to perform. It’s not enough that you’ve made sure to present your product or service in the best light. You also need a good story to share.

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Salespeople tend to focus on the particulars of what they’re offering. While it’s important to introduce the details of your product or service, it’s also important to answer a crucial question. As TED speaker Simon Sinek puts it, “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

Following this line of thinking, here are a few ways to make sure your story stands out and leaves prospects inspired:

Follow a compelling structure

Do without the blatant matter-of-fact way tone sales pitches typically have. This traditional technique doesn’t particularly inspire prospects to engage with you.

If you want to add an edge to your own sales pitch, follow the dramatic arc of ancient Greek plays. Scientific research has proven that narratives following this specific structure can trigger powerful emotional responses. This is exactly what you need if you’re looking to create a stronger connection between you and your audience.

Identify the challenges your prospect is facing

The conflict is perhaps the most important part of a story. In a movie, this is the point where all the tension and suspense start to build up. While you’re not looking to scare people off their seats, it’s important to create a similar feeling in your pitch.

Build a rapport by identifying the challenges that your prospects want to solve. Let them see that you’re aware of their current situation and you understand where they’re coming from. Describe to them a scenario that addresses the challenges they face to make your pitch more relatable.

Detail a solution particular to their issues

Obviously, it isn’t enough that you identify the problems your prospects want to solve. Challenges need to be solved. If you really want to leave them inspired, balance your story out by offering your own solution.

This is the part where you can bring out the details of your product or service. Delve into the features that are particularly helpful for the challenges you just presented. Make sure these solutions are specific to give your sales pitch a more personalized feeling.

Urge audience to action with a definitive statement

When you finish covering all the important points, don’t forget to end your sales pitch with a bang. Urge the audience one last time by providing them a Call to Action statement that’s simple and straight to the point.

Summarize the purpose of your pitch in one bold statement that will get prospects to commit. This final, definitive statement is your last chance to make sure the audience doesn’t forget your story and message, so make it memorable and convincing.

Make sure the visuals highlight your brand

All these tips could fall flat if you don’t have visuals that help highlight and elevate your story. Part of that story is making sure your brand is well-represented.

By creating a pitch deck that mirrors your brand, you can make sure that your sales pitch is more distinguishable and unique. Best of all, it also helps remind your audience that you’re the best choice from a range of competitors.

The best way to go about this is by incorporating your logo in the colors you use. Take a look at these sample slides for more inspiration.

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A sales pitch doesn’t have to be an uphill battle. Following the right techniques, it can be an easy sprint to the finish line. Follow these tips to make sure you leave prospect clients inspired and ready to get on board.

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Reference

How great leaders inspire action. Simon Sinek. TED, 2009.
“The Science of Effective Storytelling in Presentations.” pitchdeck.com, September 28, 2014. Accessed January 26, 2015.

Featured Image: PicJumbo.com

Hook, Line, and Sinker: What Makes a Great Pitch Deck Story

Posted on December 12, 2014May 3, 2023 by Rick E

What makes a great pitch deck? Before anything else, your pitch deck needs a story at its very center. This is a point we’ve talked a lot about in the past, but it’s always worth repeating.

Outstanding design and effective delivery will help your pitch deck stand out, but it’s the story that helps keep everything grounded. In other words, a pitch deck should be more than a recitation of facts and data. It needs to connect with the audience. If you spin the information into a story, you can easily capture people’s imagination. You’re creating a connection that taps into their emotions.

For some, this might sound like a bad thing. Why should emotions play any role in the boardroom? Eliciting an emotional response doesn’t mean that you have to move the audience to tears. As we detailed in our previous discussion on the science of storytelling, great stories can evoke the audience’s empathy. With that, they’ll find it easier to relate with what you’re sharing and to consider ideas through your perspective.

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Having emphasized the importance of a great story, it’s time to take on another question. What makes a great pitch deck story? How do you create a pitch deck story that captures the audience hook, line, and sinker? As with any endeavor, you’ll need to start with the basics.

Here are the three things that your pitch deck story needs:

A structure that pulls you in

Whether it’s an epic like The Lord of the Rings or a Sherlock Holmes mystery, all stories are told through a basic structure. It might go back and forth with flashbacks here and there, but it always has a beginning, middle, and end.

The same should be true for your pitch deck story. As Aaron Ordendorff of Fast Company writes, too many presenters start their story right at the middle. Instead of providing some much needed context, we start at full speed and hope that the audience can catch up and run along. To avoid losing their attention or interest, the audience needs a structure they can easily follow and understand.

Dr. Paul Zak of the Center of Neuroeconmic Studies found that Gustav Freytag’s dramatic structure is the most effective for presentations. This structure involves having an exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and conclusion. You can spin your pitch deck story to follow this pattern by figuring out some essential details about what you want to say.

Beginning: What context is your pitch deck coming from? Start your pitch deck story by introducing how the concept you’re presenting came about. If it’s a business pitch, talk about the problem you want to solve.
Middle: With the context a lot clearer, you can start to go into detail about the purpose of your pitch deck. How do you plan to solve the problem you introduced? What is the main point you’re trying to impart?
End: After the main discussion, circle back to the initial problem and provide a resolution. This is where you reinforce your core message one last time.

A character that’s relatable

Your pitch deck will also need a central character. This will give the concepts you present a relatable face. If this sounds a bit confusing, review some of your favorite TED Talks.

Most TED speakers introduce a larger theme by centering their story in a particular character. That character is often someone in their family, someone they work with, or even a younger version of themselves. You’ll need to come up with something similar, even if your pitch deck comes from a slightly different context.

So how do you identify the character of your pitch deck story? Reflect on your core message and think of how you might make it more relatable. If you’re trying to win over clients, you might want to center the story around them. You can also set up a hypothetical situation involving a person that represents your target market. Your pitch deck story can also be about you, especially if you want to talk about an experience that’s connected with your core message.

A message that’s significant

Stories of all kinds are told to reveal broader themes and truths about life. Take the famous Harry Potter series, for example. Aside from being a story about magic and wizard, author J.K. Rowling also talks about other things like the meaning of friendship and family. While you don’t have to address abstract themes in your pitch deck, your story should be able to share a significant message. In other words, the story you tell should encapsulate the message that is at the core of your pitch deck.

The more you can fine-tune and understand your core message, the better you can deliver a pitch deck story with a clear purpose. To come to that concluding statement, here are 3 key questions you need to ask yourself:

What is the purpose of your pitch deck?
What’s the one thing you want the audience to remember?
What is the best way to elevate that message?

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A pitch deck can’t succeed if it doesn’t connect with its audience. To create a more relatable experience, you need to spend some time crafting a strong pitch deck story. Follow these pointers to come up with something that others can easily understand and engage with.

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READ MORE: Bring Your Presentations to Life with these 5 Storytelling Components – Fast Company

Featured image from picjumbo.com by Viktor Hanacek

Pitch Deck Design Tips for Presenting Data

Posted on December 2, 2014May 3, 2023 by Rick E

Dealing with data is a crucial part of any pitch deck. When the stakes are particularly high, presenting data is the best way to add weight and leverage to your ideas. If you want to make sure your pitch holds up, you need to provide evidence that will support your main arguments.

The only problem with data is when you have too much. As we’ve constantly established, simplicity is an important factor in pitch deck design. How can facts and figures be helpful if they only end up confusing your audience? When it comes to presenting data, you’ll need to cut back on complex graphs and lengthy explanations. The best way to present data is through concise visuals that are both striking and creative.

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Before anything else, you need to think of data in your pitch deck as an iceberg. The part we see floating in water is said to make up only 10% of its entire mass. The rest of it is underwater, hidden from plain sight. Similarly, the data you include in your pitch deck should only be a small part of the information you have available. A lot of research and hard work goes into gathering data for a pitch deck, but you can’t expect to include everything in your slides.

Data in your presentations should act like an iceberg — Like an iceberg, don’t show your audience every bit of information you have. The data in your pitch deck should only be a small part of everything you’ve gathered during research and preparation. (Source)

In other words, the data you include in your pitch deck should be the ones that are most crucial to making your point. Before you start building your slides, review the information you have and figure out what each stands for in relation to your core message. The numbers that stand out the most are the most significant to your key arguments.

With that said, here are a few more tips to keep in mind when you’re presenting data:

Figure out the best way to visualize your data

After deciding which of the information you have is the most relevant to your pitch, the next thing you need to do is to turn your data into visuals. Review the different types of charts to find out which one works best for the numbers you have. Check out these resources to learn more about choosing the most suitable format for your data:

Charts and Graphs – Mind Tools
How to Use 6 Basic Charts to Create Effective Reports – Fluid Surveys
Chart Types and their Uses – SAP Design Guild

The charts in your pitch deck should make sense without too much explanation. Make sure you choose the correct format so that you can get the simplest and most streamlined illustration. Basically, line and bar charts are great for emphasizing trends. Meanwhile, a pie chart is perfect for illustrating how specific numbers correspond to a whole.

There are also times when it’s better to avoid using charts at all. Certain data is better presented through a simple illustration. If you’re not comparing several numbers, maybe a single but striking graphic is enough to prove your point.

Be creative with your visualization

Presenting data doesn’t have to be boring, so keep your visuals interesting. It’s not enough to turn your data into simple charts or illustrations. You also need to take note of a few pitch deck design principles.

In our discussion on top pitch deck design practices, we discussed how some factors—particularly the use of images, color, and space—can make a huge difference in the look of your slides. If you want your data to pop, make sure you learn how to use and manipulate these elements in your visualizations. Look through our portfolio for inspiration.

black friday data — Data about Black Friday shoppers visualized in an infographic on Visual.ly

Highlight the insights

Aside from great design, it’s also important to highlight what your data is about. When it comes to presenting data, the audience isn’t particularly interested in seeing exact figures. What they want to see is the logic behind the numbers. Why are they important? What point are they trying to make?

To avoid confusing the audience, make sure your slides feature a short explanation of your data. Caption your charts or illustrations with a few short sentences that can briefly explain what your data represents. Here’s another example from the pitchdeck.com portfolio:

When you’re delivering your pitch, it will also help if you lead with the conclusion. To present everything clearly, you’ll need to show the bigger picture before going in to the finer points of your data.

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Featured Image: Nic McPhee via Flickr

A Quick Guide to Pitch Deck Handouts

Posted on November 25, 2014May 3, 2023 by Rick E

If you’re dealing with a topic that involves a dense amount of information, it’s ridiculous to assume that the audience will try to memorize every detail. As the presenter, it’s your job to do most of the heavy lifting. You need to craft your pitch deck carefully, taking time to simplify and illustrate complex details. It’s your job to give them an experience that stands out and is easy to remember.

This isn’t always an easy task, especially if you’re expected to share a lot of facts, data, and complicated concepts. Still, there’s one way you can make sure everyone can easily review the key points of your pitch deck. You can turn your core message into a concrete takeaway by creating pitch deck handouts.

Why are pitch deck handouts important?

Pitch deck handouts aren’t always ideal for every scenario. However, if yours is similar to what we’ve just described, handouts can be beneficial for both you and your audience.

For starters, you can make use of handouts to include additional details about the points in your pitch deck. Since pitch decks are meant to be simple and concise, you would have to cut a lot of the data out from your slides. Your handouts can then serve a similar function to end notes or an appendix page.

With pitch deck handouts, your audience is also more likely to listen to what you’re saying. Most of the time, a lot of people worry about taking down notes and missing out on something important. If you give them something they can review in the future, they will be more likely to sit back and just absorb your entire delivery.

After the pitch, your handouts can also serve as a great reference material for your audience. If the data or facts you provide are particularly important and informative, they can refer to you in their own reports and pitch decks.

One of the challenges to delivering pitch is making sure your audience remembers all the key details. By creating pitch deck handouts, you can provide them with something they can easily access and look over.

Useful tips for creating pitch deck handouts

All that said, there are a few things you should keep in mind when making handouts for your pitch. It’s not enough that you distribute a printed version of your slides. As we constantly point out in this blog, your pitch deck is a visuals aid, specifically created to make your pitch more engaging and dynamic. Your pitch deck handouts need to be more detailed and exhaustive than that.

Here are our quick tips for the best pitch deck handouts:

Keep it structured and well-organized

Aside from containing all the helpful information you had to cut out of your pitch deck, your handouts should also be properly structured and organized. Like you would with a pitch deck, organize everything into the main sections of your discussion. From there, you can expound on the details you had to condense. You can also add graphs and other illustrations you used to represent data.

Handle extra information with care

While you should provide the audience with additional info, keep in mind that too much can be overwhelming. Your job is to discuss a topic in an accessible way. Loading everyone with every piece of data you have will hurt this objective. Knowing your subject matter well, you can easily strike the balance between ‘too little’ and ‘too much’. Your pitch deck handouts should delve a bit deeper, but it shouldn’t feel like a cornucopia of information.

Don’t forget to cite references

It’s important to cite the references you used in your pitch deck. This shows the audience that you used credible and reliable sources. They can also check them out easily should they want more information. It will also be helpful if you can provide them with additional resources that might be helpful. Leave them with a list of websites, blogs, articles, and books that can provide them with additional insight on your discussion.

It might take an extra step, but creating pitch deck handouts can bring plenty of benefits. Give your audience something they can read and review long after your pitch. For a pitch that’s heavy with data and complex concepts, handouts can increase the impact you leave.

Featured Image: Joel Penner via Flickr

The Road to Delivering a Persuasive Pitch

Posted on November 24, 2014May 3, 2023 by Rick E

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.

Featured Image: Corey Leopold via Flickr

The Secrets to a Successful Board Pitch

Posted on November 17, 2014May 3, 2023 by Rick E

As you know, delivering a pitch can be challenging. You have plenty to prepare and accomplish before facing the audience. You need to prepare your talking points and make sure your data is well represented through visual aids.

Since there’s a lot at stake, you might feel a lot of stress and pressure to achieve the best outcome. However, this feeling usually doubles when you’re expected to address a corporate board. For a lot of professionals, board pitches can be a fear-inducing event since there’s very little room for error.

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Board members have the power to make or break the ideas you put forward. If you’re successful, the decisions they make as a result of your pitch has the potential to propel your career forward. Despite the anxiety you feel because of it, board pitches are a wonderful opportunity. To make the most out of it, you need to prepare well-developed ideas backed up by hard facts and data.

As public speaking expert Lisa B. Marshall writes,

Members of boards are generally very smart, experienced, and successful professionals. …They usually grasp ideas and issues very quickly and ask penetrating questions. In addition, board members are often very busy and don’t like to waste time. They want and expect concise pitches as well as crisp and accurate responses to difficult and complex questions.

If you want to make sure that your ideas survive their scrutiny, you need to be in control of what you say and show them. Here are a few tips that might help you unlock the secret to a successful board pitch:

Craft your core message carefully

Board members aren’t very interested in long discussions. They want to see a pitch deck that’s well-structured and straight to the point. For that, you need to set a clear direction for your pitch. It’s important to identify and craft your core message. This will be the main idea behind your pitch deck. The anchor that will keep your pitch from floating wayward.

Ask yourself some key questions to make sure you’re on the right track. What are you trying to say? What are the members expecting from you? Why did they invite you to speak in the first place? Do they want to hear a status report? Are you requesting funds for a new project? The word “craft” suggests careful attention to details, so make sure you consider every information you may have available.

Keep your talking points short

Board members often have busy schedules, and you won’t have a lot of time to explain everything and go into detail. If you want to complete the pitch you planned, you need to make sure that you get straight to the point. Draft your report and include only the things that are pertinent for the members to know. Any detailed explanations can be written on an accompanying report or handout. According to Norbert Kubilus of Tatum CIO Partners, it’s wise to keep your pitch under the allotted time. Try to shoot for at least 3/4 of the schedule to give yourself plenty of time to address questions.

Create visuals that are clear and concise

The slides you present should highlight the message you’re delivering. Like your talking points, your visuals should be clear and straight to the point. Unless you want your audience to tune out, it never helps to dump all your information and data on a pitch deck presentation. One way you can keep your board pitches engaging is by investing time on creating visuals that are clear and concise. Use images and illustrations to bring life to your points. Translate your data into charts that are easy to comprehend. You can take a look at our portfolio for examples.

Give yourself time to rehearse

It never hurts to practice your board pitch, especially if you’re feeling pretty nervous about it. Rehearsals will help you feel more comfortable once you’re finally in front of the board members. After practicing the way you speak and present yourself, you’ll feel a lot more in control of the situation you’re in. Rehearsals are also good for memorizing your talking points. If you don’t want to bother with cue cards, practice as much as you can.

Aside from practicing your talking points, you should also consider how you’ll address possible questions. It’s common for board members to interrupt pitches to ask for more details. Try to identify which questions you’re most likely to get and start practicing how to answer them.

Be ready to improvise

With most pitch decks, your role as presenter is to address and inform the audience. The scenario is quite different when it comes to board pitch. As Stephanie Overby writes, “presenting to the board is less about you addressing an audience than it is about the audience addressing you”. Your role here is to present ideas that will be useful for the board. That means that you’ll have to address questions in the middle of your pitch, or that you might have to go back to a previous slide to provide details. Sometimes, you might also get a question you don’t have the answer for.

You can’t possibly prepare for everything that might happen, so stay alert and be ready to improvise. Make sure you know every aspect of your pitch well. Study the data you have, even if you can’t include everything in your slides. If you’re faced with a question you can’t answer, be honest about it. Acknowledge that you don’t have the answer and that you’ll follow up with them as soon as you can.

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While a board pitch can be nerve-racking, it’s also a great opportunity that can forward your career. Make the most out of it by preparing as much as you can. Follow these tips to fine-tune every aspect of your pitch. Careful planning can help you achieve the best outcome possible.

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