Feature image How to Master Pitching

How to Master Pitching

Have you ever found yourself in a situation, where you thought that getting your message across was a piece of cake – but it turned out very difficult? In the following article, we take a look at why pitching can be difficult but also how to start mastering the art of Pitching.

So much to say – so little time

Winston Churchill has been quoted saying that “If you want me to speak for two minutes, I need three weeks of preparation, but if you want me to speak for an hour, I am ready now.” His point was that a short speech requires a lot of preparation time to make the two minutes count and get your message through in such a short time, while a long speech allowed him to find the points along the way, so less need for preparation time.

Let me tell you straightly; (!) nobody wants to listen to you or anybody else making up the points along the way. You need to know your message and priorities in advance and then be able to communicate them precisely. In short, you’ll need to prepare.

At the same time, there is only room for the most important aspects of a story or case in your pitch. There’s no room for less important aspects in a pitch: details and ‘nice to know’s‘ are for a later and longer meeting.

The pitch is about creating sufficient interest, understanding, and persuasion so that the receiver wants more. More info, more of the story, more of you presenting an interesting case. Therefore, you must only tell one message – the one that is absolutely ‘need-to-know’, not to you, but to one(s) in the receiving end of your communication.

Why most entrepreneurs fail when pitching

Let’s say your end goal for communicating is selling a product. What do you do? What will your pitch include, and how will it start and end?

The most common mistake for entrepreneurs pitching their idea is to focus first and directly on explaining the product or the solution. After all, that’s the most exciting thing and what’s bringing value, right? Well, not exactly. Not to the receiver of your pitch and at least not yet.

Instead, first, we need to begin with aspects that the potential customer can relate to. Don’t start with the solution; the unknown to the listener. Start in your customer’s world, in his or her known world. Show that you know and can relate to their existing world, their pain points, problems, or needs.

Søren Kirkegaard, the famous Danish philosopher said that “if one wants to really succeeds in leading a man to a certain place, one must first of all find him where he is, and begin there.”

In the same manner, the doctor doesn’t prescribe any medicine to the patient before he makes a reasonable diagnosis: understanding the patient’s world and current (problem-) situation is a prerequisite for helping. As an entrepreneur, you should use the same tactics as the doctor and the knowledge of the old philosopher.

Start with defining the problem, and then present the solution; the listener will then be able to make sense of your solution and understand what meaning and difference it makes in his or her life. Hence, the sequence of the things you tell in your pitch is of critical importance!

What you can do to master pitching

The few elements mentioned above are some important aspects of pitching and there’s plenty more to dive into to really learn how to create and deliver a great pitch.

Don’t worry. Everything is troublesome until we learn how to master it. Pitching is a discipline of its own and it can be mastered. It is difficult at first, but we will learn it eventually. Learning some basic mechanisms of pitching and following some simple principles will make you able to get a grip on pitching. And as you know, Rome wasn’t built in a day. It takes time and practice, practice, practice to master the pitch discipline.

In order to make it easier for you and others to start pitching and succeeding easier and faster, we have built Pitcherific. Pitcherific is a dedicated pitch training tool built up around best-practice pitch templates, where the framework for content, the sequence of content, and the weight of the content are made in advance, so you can concentrate on phrasing the message and rehearsing the deliverance. By the way a tool that automatically incorporates some of the wisdom of Churchill and Kirkegaard.

If you haven’t already, you can try the tool for free here: https://app.pitcherific.com/signup

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