Steve Jobs created mesmerizing presentations. Even though he had the luxury of presenting innovative products, a great part of his success was based on preparation and continuous training of the presentations he delivered. Preparation and practicing the presentation thoroughly again and again, is most likely the single-most important factor for creating a good presentation. So, how many times have you practiced yours?
The problem with practice
The typical answer – if it’s honest, of course – is 0-3 times. It’s too few and only a minority actually practices their pitch enough. With clear consequences to follow: the message is unclear, delivered badly or is simply uninteresting to the perspective of the audience. The resulting consequence of this is that the listeners are not convinced; they don’t see the light of your good idea or clearly understands the good message and don’t act upon it accordingly.
That’s a shame. For you and for your listeners. But if practice and training actually works and results in better presentations, why do we then not practice more?
First, it’s too easy to simply not do it. It takes time and motivation to prepare. The second reason is that the fruits of practice are not harvested immediately, but later. The third reason, that I often hear, is that it feels fake to practice without an audience or without “something on the line”. Because of these, and probably also because of other good or less good reasons, practice is often not a first choice in our busy everyday life. For that reason alone, you also have the positive opportunity to set yourself apart from the rest of the presentations out there – if YOU practice.
When have I practiced enough?
“It’s the effort you put on the training ground Tuesday and Thursday that determines how good you are during the match on Saturday”, was something my soccer coach always told me. And there’s something to it; it’s on the training ground we become better. It’s there that vi can practice, make mistakes, correct errors and try again. Without anything costing us the victory in an important match or the that business deal in an important pitch, for that sake.
But when is enough, enough? When have we practiced enough? Just like on the soccer field we practice to become better, but regardless of how good we are at a given moment, that won’t stop us from playing a match in the weekend – or pitch to the right investors or potential customers when the opportunity presents itself. That also improves our skills – it is training, after all! So, even though it’s difficult to precisely define when we have practiced enough, some good markers exist that can provide hints about having trained enough.
As an example, you can tell that you’ve come far when:
- Your message is easily understandable (evaluated by others than yourself!)
- You can remember the overall structure and important parts of your presentation instinctively.
- You appear convincing and trustworthy in your delivery (again, evaluated by someone else than yourself)
- Your nervousness is drastically reduced in comparison to when you first started practicing.
Take special note of the last marker about nervousness that often is directly related to the other markers. So if you have a tendency to be nervous when pitching, then practice is the best medicine.
How to start practicing
Begin by accepting that becoming a great pitcher, or presenter, demands training. Both your message and your delivery of it is drastically improved over time and through practice. At Pitcherific you can easily get started with creating the first version of your pitch and, from there, practice it using the built-in practice tools. In the beginning it’s fine that you pitch to a couch pillow or to the mirror and support yourself with a printed version of your pitch. To just say words and phrases aloud can give you ideas for how to improve or how to express yourself more clearly, including the way you deliver your messages by.
When you progress a little further, you will need to put away your notes and replace the pillow and the mirror with a colleague, a friend, a family member, or practically anyone who wants to listen to you. Their reactions and feedback will show you the strong and weak sides of your pitch, reveal what’s unclear and give you significant tips for improvement that you couldn’t discover on your own. It’s completely normal to lose the big picture and get lost in the small details, especially when you are preparing yourself intensely.
Explain your colleague etc., who your pitch is aimed at (e.g. a potential customer or investor), so they can put themselves in that person’s place and give you better feedback, thanks to that. Also get the person to take notes for you while you pitch, so you can work with them afterwards. If you have the opportunity to get feedback from people who are your target audience, like customers or investors, then that would naturally be a more useful and valuable kind of feedback.
Remember to alter your pitch based on the feedback you get and save the changes, so you can experience how your entire pitch gradually improves, version by version. If you have Pitcherific PRO, you can easily do that using our ‘time machine’ feature, which automatically saves an older version of your pitch when you update it.
If you want give your practice an extra go, then it’s a great idea to record yourself on video and watch yourself pitch. This both gives you the opportunity to better evaluate yourself and also gives you good conditions for training and improving your body language. You might be surprised by how you unconsciously use your body when you pitch – e.g. how you move around, how you use your hands or how many times you say ‘uhm’, ‘so’, ‘actually’, ‘like’ and other disturbing words (or sounds). Use the video recording to notice these things and work with that knowledge in your own pace afterwards.
Be happy about improving your pitch
Every time you pitch – whether being in front of the mirror, your significant other, your colleague or to a potential customer – your performance and your pitch becomes a little bit sharper. If take on that kind of perspective then you will always be ready to pitch and do your very best. At the same time, you learn every time you pitch and that can make it enjoyable to see how your pitch and presentation improves over time.
And since you’ve properly spent months developing your product and business, then your customer – and yourself – deserves that your pitch is clear and captivating.
Good luck with your pitch training!
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