Mastering the Act of Pitching

2022-10-18T17:56:10+00:00

By TRWCBlogger

Imagine the president of your country was your friend while in high school. You maintained contact for a couple of decades after high school, until recently. And due to his new status, he is no longer accessible.But then you heard he had come to the state where you reside to commission projects. You decide to hang around the presidential wing at the airport on the day he would depart, taking a prominent position where the president will not but notice you. You believe he’ll surely recognize you; after all, your face and physique haven’t changed much. Your plan worked. The president saw you while he was boarding his flight back to his base. On his way mounting the aircraft’s flight of stairs, he saw you not too far away and beckoned. He is a busy man and had to leave immediately to meet other important state functions. The only thing he asked you was, ‘What do you do and how do I come in?’ At this point, you went blank. Meanwhile, you have a business that you run or a business idea you had written and rehearsed in your head a hundred times. But you realized you couldn’t defend your business when it was most important to your life! The president is a busy person. His aides and flight crew signal that it is time to leave. If you’d been better prepared, you are sure that he’d have scheduled a meeting. This is one situation where it helps to have an elevator pitch.

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What Is an Elevator Pitch?

An elevator pitch is a statement that introduces you or your company quickly and compellingly.It is also known as an elevator speech or elevator statement.It is a short speech, prepared beforehand, that explains what you or your organization does clearly and succinctly.An elevator pitch is a brief persuasive speech and it creates interest in what your organization does. A good elevator pitch should last no longer than a short elevator ride of 20 and 30 seconds.Having a good elevator pitch ready can help entrepreneurs make the best of brief encounters with potential investors at parties, business events or elevators. An elevator pitch is a prime chance to make a good first impression and generate interest in the company.

Mastering the art of pitching can be vital to scaling your business.

An elevator speech is always delivered verbally – it is a speech, after all. You can use pitching in a variety of situations, but it’s often more suited to social situations or during a very early introductory meeting where you have less time and just need to give an off-the-cuff description of what you do. A good elevator starts with the understanding of your Unique Selling Proposition, which includes what your customers want as well as what your brand does well and what your competitors don’t.

Now you understand an elevator pitch, but what’s a pitch deck?

A pitch deck is a short slide presentation to introduce a business proposal – mostly associated these days with an investor pitch deck.A pitch deck should be interesting, memorable and succinct. It also needs to explain what makes you – or your organization, product or idea – unique.

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You will probably not select the best brand story right away, and that is okay. Focus on coming up with several distinct stories, then tell them to people.Listen carefully to the feedback, and try to pick out the elements of each story that people liked. You can use these to construct the most powerful story possible for your company at this stage.For example, you can tell how an individual’s pension investment with your company sustained his family and passed over wealth to the succeeding generations.

How to Deliver a Good Pitch

Pitching yourself or your brand is simple. You need to tell a story about your brand that helps your audience do two things: understand what problem you solve and for who; and how you are different from other companies doing the same thing.You can use a pitch to introduce your organization’s potential clients or customers. You could use it in your organization to sell a new idea to your CEO or to tell people about the change initiative that you’re leading. You can even craft a story to tell people what you do for a living.A pitch deck can be delivered over email or even as a stand-alone slide deck that investors can view in their own time. Temidayo Babatunde has a demonstrated experience in human capacity development. He can be reached via his LinkedIn ([email protected])