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business pitch is an executive summary of your business, highlighting the goals and plans of the business and proposing new ideas to gain support. Pitching is not just for entrepreneurs who want to gain financial support from venture capitalists. As an employee, pitching is an opportunity to sell yourself and your ideas to your board of directors for a project.
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Being an expert in pitching helps you not just to gain investors, but also to gain
customers for your business or company. Every professional should know how to pitch his/her business or ideas. This helps people to know your business inside out and helps them see your business or idea through your creative eyes, thus making them understand the vision you have.
Let’s start with you. Do you have what it takes to pitch? Have you developed the skills which would help you entice investors, customers, and executive employers? Being able to pitch effectively entails having great written or verbal communication skills (You should be able to express your vision in clear words), being an erudite researcher, being a good public speaker (gaining mastery of tone and body language in speech delivery), and the ability to creatively design ways to solve rising issues through your ideas. When you are able to train yourself in these areas, you’ll be able to write and deliver compelling business pitches.
So how can you write and deliver a Great Pitch? Here how:
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Research! Research!! Research!!!
Yes! You cannot deliver a good pitch without research. Research provides you with raw facts upon which your pitch will be built. Pitches are not made based on assumptions. You need to know every detail of your business or idea, its strength, where it stands amidst competition, market trends as regards the product or service, etc. All these have to be backed up with hard facts.
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Understand Your Target Market
Everybody cannot be your target market even if that’s your future goal. There should be more specific segments which your business, idea, product, or service targets and you need to know these segments. You need to know what they need and like; their preference, consumption habits, daily routine, etc.
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Write Your Pitch Or Sketch Your Presentation
Having gathered adequate information on the idea, product/service, target market, you can now dive into creating a pitch that not only captures investor attention but sells the idea to them.
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To gain mastery over what you’ve written, you need to practice it repeatedly in front of friends, family, or even in front of the mirror. This helps to boost your confidence and prepares you better for your presentation. Also, ask yourself possible questions you think might arise after the presentation and try answering them.
Whether you need to use the elevator pitch or the pitch slide, it is important to remain focused while delivering your speech. Everything to be said or stories to be told should revolve around selling your ideas and should not be off the point. Your investors do not have all the time in the world. Give them details of what the business is about in a brief, clear and concise manner. You can as well share stories of your success and level of business growth. This opens investors’ eyes to the possibilities of getting a great return on investments. Let them know the numbers behind the numbers, where competitors stand, and how effective your team is.
Questions should be a welcomed responsibility as it shows that your audience listened to and understood what you said. It is important to give room for questions at the end of your presentation to clear any air of confusion from your audience.
When your presentation is over, watch your audience’s reaction. This will help you know whether to propose a contract draft and signing or give them more time with a stated follow-up date to digest your presentation.
When trying to pitch, you should bear in mind that there are various types of pitches depending on the situation. You can either pitch for investors/customers, in your workplace to secure a project or while networking. And at every point in time, you should be able to sell yourself, your idea, or your business, be it in an elevator, your workplace, or while networking. You should know what you or your business stands for.
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This article was first published on 4th November 2021
chidiogo-akaelu
Chidiogo Shalom Akaelu holds a degree in English and Literary Studies, from the University of Nigeria. She is a freelance writer, editor and founder of Loana Press, a budding online publishing outlet.
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