The goal of a pitch is to pique the interest of others in what you’re proposing. With a business pitch, you can express new ideas and garner support in a professional setting.
You need a clear demonstration of your plan or goals, and how you intend to achieve them. Sharing research, statistics, and expressing your vision are often part of a good pitch.
3 types of business pitches
There are many types of business pitches. Let’s explore the key ones below:
- Sales Pitch – A sales pitch is a short presentation intended to grab your audience’s attention and outline your plan or the products/services that you offer. Your goal in a sales pitch is to persuade the audience to either invest in your business or to buy your product or service. A concise version of the sales pitch is also commonly called the “elevator pitch” because it should be about as long as an elevator ride.
- Pitch Deck – A pitch deck is a presentation with slides, like Keynote or Google Slides, that outlines your business plan to people who might invest in your business. The pitch deck should contain research, information about your competition, marketing strategy, and should outline your companies’ finances. This type of business pitch should leave your potential investors with a complete view of your company as well as illustrating the potential value it could hold for them.
- Interrogative Pitch – An interrogative pitch is used when dealing with customers or prospects. It typically starts with a line of questioning that focuses on problems your customers and prospects may face. Your goal is to explain how your business can solve these problems.
Pitching in the workplace
If you have an idea for a project or initiative at work, you can use a pitch deck to display and summarize your plan and exhibit its potential advantages. If you are vying for a promotion or raise, you can use an elevator pitch to illustrate your value and persuade your superiors.
Another business pitch type that can be used in career development is a job proposal. When pitching a job proposal, you have identified the necessity of creating a new role within your company to solve a specific problem.
The job proposal pitch must outline the company’s challenges and then explain how the role would operate to solve them. Don’t forget to include your relevant qualifications and experience.
Pitching when networking
A business pitch can be a great tool for networking. Having an elevator pitch ready is useful if you want to sell yourself to a potential employer or connection. In under a minute, the elevator pitch allows you to provide a concise representation of your skills, qualifications, and accomplishments.
When meeting new people in a professional setting, a quick business pitch is an easy way to make a memorable impression while demonstrating your value. Remember to carry business cards with you as a tangible reminder for anyone you may meet. New opportunities can be found anywhere so be sure to consider this type of pitch.
How to develop and deliver an effective pitch
Let’s dive into ways you can craft and present the perfect pitch.
- Be succinct
A good business pitch must be succinct. You want to provide the most important points in the simplest of terms. There is no need for excessive ‘fluff’ or theatrics. Use statistics and visuals to explain your issues and your goals. You want potential investors to understand the facts immediately.
If you waste time and don’t get to the point, you will lose the interest and attention of your audience. Summarize and simplify.
- Understand your audience
Find out as much information as possible about the people you will be pitching to. Don’t go into a pitch blindly, as you will miss out on the chance to effectively tailor your pitch to your audience.
Learn about the individual backgrounds of the people you will be pitching to and find out what motivates them. If you can appeal directly to them you can make your pitch more personalized and persuasive.
When you pitch to investors or customers, they are interested in how their investment in your business will benefit them. If you understand that from the get-go, you are on the right track. Show them how you plan to generate demand for your product and present them with realistic return projections. To get a better idea about the target audience, target market examples study is required.
- Do research
Even the most eloquently worded and succinct business pitch cannot be taken for its word. Your pitch must contain accurate and supporting evidence for any claim you make.
Good research skills allow you to gather credible information that speaks for itself. There is no such thing as doing too much research – as long as you stay on track. Whether it is internal or external, research and collect data that can be readily referenced in your business pitch.
Make sure that you always have the latest data insights on your potential customers. You don’t want to put yourself in a position using outdated data to personalize your pitch. That’s the fastest way to burn qualified leads. Instead, use change data capture (CDC) to move your data in real-time between your database and your tools, and make sure you always have the right info before you pitch.Pay attention to details
Once you’ve presented a general outline of your plan, don’t be afraid to dive into some more detail as well. Justify exactly why investors should invest in your business idea and show them why it will work.
If you are too vague and general, you will not be convincing enough. Get into the details by providing financial projections and being specific about your path to success.
Charts and graphs can be a great way to show details while still remaining straight to the point.
- Differentiate from your competitors
As unique and groundbreaking as the idea presented in your business pitch may be, the odds are high that you will still have competition. Investors and customers want to know why they should be choosing you instead of anyone else.
Provide information that highlights your value over the competition. Some examples of this could be offering more unique features or by showing that your business has a better potential for more growth.
This is a great place in your business pitch to emphasize the qualifications and skills of yourself and your team. Talk about your accomplishments and prove to your investors and customers that the people behind your idea are better than those of the competition.
Remember: any claims you make must be supported by evidence or research.
- Use visual and interactive components
Graphs, charts and infographics can be an easy way to add a visual component to your business pitch. If you can make it interactive as well, you will further engage your audience by adding a tangible element to your pitch.
Everyone absorbs information differently and many people are stimulated by visuals rather than words on a slide or speech. If you can craft your business pitch to appeal to different learning styles, you will engage the entire room.
Being aware of communication strategies is important in every professional setting.
- Be prepared for questions
Investors and customers alike will surely have questions for you. Be prepared to answer them by coming up with answers to the most obvious ones they might have.
This is another area where good research will benefit you. As long as you have supporting evidence for your claims, any questions based on the validity of your claims can be answered with relevant research.
Respond to tough questions in a calm and collected manner that exudes confidence and professionalism. If you don’t know the answer to a question, be upfront and honest instead of dancing around it.
- Practice!
As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. Practice your business pitch as many times as you can so when it is time to present it you will be ready.
Nervousness and anxiety can be natural when the stakes are high. If you know your business pitch and material well, it can help ease some of the pressure.
Start pitching
A business pitch is an incredibly important tool for your business to secure funding and customers. While it may seem like any other sales presentation, it is important to understand the specifics about business pitches that can make or break your presentation.
There are various types of business pitches so be sure to do your research and choose the proper method for the correct circumstances. If you follow what you learned in this article, you are in good shape to craft a business pitch that will engage your investors and secure their investments.