When you're preparing to pitch your business to investors, potential customers, or a room full of innovation enthusiasts, there are all sorts of obvious things to plan for: the length of the pitch, the structure of the presentation, the call to action on the final slide.
But less obvious are all the ways you prepare *yourself* to give that presentation. All the little things that can make or break a presentation. That's what you'll find here. It's every best practice that can be applied to a pitch no matter the audience or structure or time limit.
Here's the non-obvious pitch practices you should implement every time.
Creating the Presentation
As you're building out your pitch, whether it's in-person or virtual, verbal-only or with a full slide deck, there are a few things to keep in mind.
Build a New Pitch—Every Time
This sounds like a lot of work, but it doesn't have to be. The simplest way to get started is to make a copy of the last pitch deck you presented (or the last version you delivered verbally). Then take a look at the guidelines for this pitch. Find out who might be in the room or the judging panel. Study the rubric if there is one. Essentially: know what's expected of you and edit your pitch accordingly.
If you're pitching to investors, there should be a slide about how much money you're raising, the milestone(s) you plan to hit with that amount, how much time it will buy you, and details about check size, valuation, and how much is already committed.
If you're in a pitch competition, you might want to tailor that Ask slide to the amount you're competing for—what you'd do with the money and how it relates to your overall goal. If the audience votes for the winners, you should appeal to them throughout, not investors. If you have a judging panel, take a look at their bios and LinkedIn profiles to see what connections you can draw between your business and their background.
Your job is to build connection points with the audience. That means making small (or big) changes every time you pitch to a new audience.
Keep it Conversational
Speaking of connecting with the audience, the last thing you want to do is rack up disconnection points. And the quickest way to do that is to use confusing terminology or a monotone cadence.
Industry-specific jargon does one of two things: for people totally out of the loop, it confuses immediately; and for people in the industry but not as close to the day-to-day work as you are, it requires a second or two of recall, which is just enough time to disconnect or miss what you're saying. If you have to use terminology the average person wouldn't know, define it in layman's terms the first time so you know everyone is on the same page.
And while you're at it, make sure you're not droning on. No matter the audience, conversational tone will always keep people engaged more than a consistent hum of monotone speech. Not sure if you have trouble with this? Record a video of yourself doing the pitch. Listen without watching to assess your tone of voice, then watch without sound to get a sense of your body language. Tweak as needed.
Tell a Story—and Tell it to a Friend
There's lots of information in a pitch. You'll rattle off numbers as you talk about traction and market size and fundraising. You'll mention names and categories when you talk about competition and customer segments. And you'll do all this in a short period of time, then ask your audience to decide if you deserve their support.
If you want to present essential information to other humans and have them absorb it, understand it, and remember it well enough to evaluate it in the context of what your company endeavors to do, you have to tell a story. That's how humans comprehend best.
Once you've storyboarded your pitch, dropping all your bits of information strategically into a narrative, deliver it to a friend. Ideally, this will be someone who you don't work with, or who you haven't been working with to build the pitch. See if they follow it. Ask them where things got confusing and if there's any clarifying you need to do.
Delivering the Pitch
Now that you've created a compelling pitch, bring it home by delivering it just as you've practiced. This is like race day or the championship game. You've prepared for it. Now put that prep to work.
Take a Deep Breath Before You Begin
You'll have some adrenalin—that's normal. It may present as butterflies or just a slight uptick in your heart rate. That all depends on your comfort level with standing in front of people and speaking on something you're passionate about.
Whether you're trembling with nerves or just feeling the excitement, take a deep breath before you begin. Even for the most seasoned speakers, adrenaline can make you talk faster than normal or skip a detail or just be a bit shaky. You want to deliver the pitch just like you practiced it. So take a deep, centering breath, then calmly begin.
If You Yet Lost, Just Reset
We've all seen it happen: the presenter loses their way and gets flustered, stares at the slides, maybe even says something like "wait, lemme go back." That's never fun.
But what's cool is when someone hits the reset button with a deep breath and finds their way back on track.
If you get lost in your presentation just breathe, reset, and keep going. It'll only take a few seconds. And your audience will barely notice. One stumble, one poorly-presented slide, is no reason for the whole pitch to down the drain with your prep in tow.
You're the Best Person for the Job
Never forget this: you're the best person in the room to pitch your startup. You may or may not be the smartest, know the most about the industry, or have the greatest likelihood of startup success. But you eat, sleep, and breathe your business. You can certainly pitch it and answer some questions.
If you still feel daunted, that's ok. Some of your confidence will come from knowing the material. Some of it will come from pitching over and over.
Practice a lot, pitch often (formally and informally), and you'll get better. Especially with this advice in your back pocket.
