Six tips for a polished pitch
A lot of my day to day work focuses on developing the confidence, motivation and productivity of my clients so I was fascinated by the flurry of coverage that followed the recent party conferences. Why would I blog about party political speeches on a finance for business blog? Because pitches to investors are scrutinised every bit as much as big speeches from politicians, albeit not by as many people. Here’s six tips that will bring polish to your pitch.
It wasn’t just the party policies that were scrutinised in minute detail. The controversial words about the City used by Vince Cable, the way in which Ed Miliband opened his speech and rejected the charge of being “red”, the aside made by his brother David and David Cameron’s use of repetition and vision for the Big Society- every innuendo was inevitably picked over by the UK media. Investors are every bit as exacting.
Entrepreneurs preparing to pitch for funding could learn a thing or two from our politicians so I encourage you to listen and learn from watching these speeches again on You Tube (see links above). Take your time to scrutinise them. See where emphasis is placed on words, how eye contact is (or isn’t) made, and gestures were used. The way you deliver your content is just as important as the content itself when pitching your business idea.
Understanding Finance for Business
Andrea Cockerton mentioned the tendency for entrepreneurs to be overly pre-occupied with their idea. Like Andrea, I urge you to stop for a moment and consider the investor’s viewpoint. What are they interested in? If you are unsure, there is lots of advice and insight available from the ‘Understanding Finance for Business’ team. Once you have decided what you want to say, please give considerable thought and practice how you are going to say it. A lot of pitches come across as unprofessional, because the pitch has been cobbled together at the last minute and never been rehearsed. You’re busy running your business and haven’t got time? If you need finance for your business, make the time. It will be worth it.
Six tips for a polished pitch:
- Rehearse, refine, rehearse
- Take your time to breathe before you start
- Use pauses rather than filler words or worse still ums and ers
- Emphasise key words and phrases with energy and enthusiasm
- Summarise your key message and funding request
- Start and end on time.
Getting it right could mean the difference between raising funds for your business and being shown the door. After all, who do you trust the most, the person who just uses the right words, or the person who uses the right words and says them convincingly, while being congruent in appearance?
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