How do I structure a pitch?

That’s a great question and I get it a lot. There are so many possibilities when it comes to putting your pitch together, and I’ve helped put together thousands of pitches over the years.  

Here’s what I have found to be most successful.

POINT 1: INTRODUCTION AND ASK

In the “introduction and ask” segment of your pitch, you do what you would do in any polite social situation; you introduce your team. No need to go into depth, at this point. Spend no more than about 10 seconds/person on:

• Name.
• Position.
• 2-3 highlights about their career (be specific).

For example:

 “Mary Smith is our marketing director. In the last four years, Mary has held senior positions with IBM and Technita. During that time she successfully launched three products on time and within budget. One product become a market leader in just 18 months.”

Once you’ve introduced your team, tell your potential investors what you want. Don’t be afraid to lay it out there right upfront. This provides your audience with a context in which to listen to your presentation. They will listen more carefully and digest the implications as you progress through the pitch.

POINT 2: COMPANY AND OBJECTIVES

Now that you’ve introduced your team and indicated what you want, it’s time to build your credibility. This is where you highlight relevant successes in the recent past. You can include:

• Previous start up experience.
• The first big sale.
• A big order that you have just received.
• Distributors just signed up.
• A major strategic alliance just finalised.
• A write up about your company in a respected newspaper/journal.
• Awards given to the company, particularly technology awards.

If you are early stage you have a couple of options:

• The successes of individual management team members in previous companies.
• Notable people as advisers/board members.
• A testimonial from a very well known industry expert.

There may be other facts that you can include that will enhance the credibility of your team and your company. Put time in here and come up with a very solid credibility building statement.

At this point you may introduce your three major objectives. If you are getting short of time, objectives can be covered in points nine or 10 (to be covered in forthcoming blogs).

POINT 3: THE PROBLEM/OPPORTUNITY

In this section you should begin to outline the major problem that your technology or service will solve. There are two key messages to convey here:

• To clearly articulate exactly what is the problem in the market.
• To demonstrate that this is a BIG problem.

This should be conveyed in a simple statement. Generally, entrepreneurs have difficulty distilling the problem down to simplicity. That is not a reason to avoid developing a simple clear statement of the problem.

If you can’t do that then engage the help of someone who is not too close to the technology. Often other people are better at this, they are not so close to the technology. It works, try it.

In some cases you may have identified an opportunity to exploit in the market, rather than a problem to be addressed. This tends to happen with technology that causes a paradigm shift in the market. This is a more difficult sell because the prospective customers need to be educated. That takes much more time. You will need to work very hard to convince investors of the worth of this technology.

POINT 4: YOUR SOLUTION

So we know the problem, what does your company have to solve the market problem?

This is where you get to talk about your product or service for the first time in any depth. At this stage you take what you’ve just outlined as the problem in point three, and tell your potential investors how your technology or service will fix that problem, will take advantage of that opportunity. Relate the technology directly back to the problem.  Focus on the benefits the technology provides.

A key point here is to talk about your value proposition. This is where you talk about the value you provide to the customer. Some examples are:

• A favourable price/benefit ratio.
• A short payback period.
• A value that is measurable in dollars.

Good value propositions contain numbers. Check out this link for detailed information.

That’s all I can do right now. I’ll cover more points in my next blog.

Until next time.

Gail Geronimos, is the founder of Achaeus, which helps entrepreneurs develop their businesses and she has just started a new site www.pitchingtoinvestors.com with tools and tips about how to develop killer presentations to raise capital.

To read more Gail Geronimos expert advice, click here.

Got a question for one of our Experts? Choose one that suits your area of inquiry and send it in to asktheexperts@smartcompany.com.au