Developing an Effective Business Pitch

One way to think of pitching is to see yourself in an elevator. This is known as the “Elevator Pitch” where you must see yourself in an elevator convincing a potential investor of your business idea in that short amount of time. This may seem rather daunting, and it does not come without some practice.

Some key things you must consider when pitching to investors or clients is finance, marketing and how you will stand out from the opposition. You may also need to be prepared to answer some awkward questions. Finance is by far the most important. You will need a good idea of your cashflow, income and profit projections. You should try to spend as long as possible perfecting these figures and should have evidence to support what your saying.

I know myself that pitching is not easy. I have recently been going round some local businesses in my hometown asking if they would be interested in working with us. The first few pitches were rather shaky, but this increased in time and we did make progress. Me and my business partner made up a factsheet of figures and facts to memorise in order to aid our pitch.

You need to try and show that unique side of your business to your clients which will win them over. If pitching to an investor, this is extremely important as they will not invest if they cannot see any potential in it.

Many people may try and use computer software such as powerpoint. You must be careful in doing this as I have learned from my experience at university. Get straight to the point and don’t waffle on! You need to have a minimal amount of words to make it more pleasing to the eye, colour sometimes will work too and charts relating to figures may also be a good idea!

One of the main things about pitching is being confident. You need to be able to express yourself and don’t be frightened of your audience. Understandably, you will get nervous but try not to let it affect you as you can only do your best after all! Eye contact and a clear voice are two essential things you must have to make your pitch strong.

To sum up, pitching can be difficult. It takes a lot of research and a lot of work to make the content of your pitch accurate and convincing. You need a realistic idea, especially if you stand a chance in being confident. Always get your figures right and be prepared to be grilled! You need to know your figures well and be able to explain what you can offer that your competitors can’t. Always be yourself and try to stay relaxed and focused at all times, you only get one chance after all with that particular client you are pitching to. If you are making a pitch soon, I wish you the best of luck and hope that my article and experience has helped you!

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