{"id":20491,"date":"2014-11-27T10:00:27","date_gmt":"2014-11-27T15:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/?p=20491"},"modified":"2020-02-02T18:24:24","modified_gmt":"2020-02-02T23:24:24","slug":"pitch-performance-presentation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/pitch-performance-presentation\/","title":{"rendered":"A pitch is a performance, not a presentation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MadMen_Pitch\"<\/a>The fall is always one of the busiest times of the year for new business development. Responding to new requests, proposal writing and pitching are all part of the crazy fall schedule. In today\u2019s competitive market winning new business is harder than ever before. That\u2019s why you cannot just be good at pitching new business; you have to be great.<\/p>\n

Anyone that knows me knows I love the pitch. Some people hate the boardroom or the pitch. I live for that moment. The energy in the room, the feeling after you nail it, and of course, when you get the call that you have won the business.<\/p>\n

I have never seen myself as a salesperson. I love to tell stories, solve complex problems and tell people about the amazing ways we can help. I don\u2019t see a pitch as a sales presentation but rather a performance. Like any great play or movie. To me it\u2019s art. Storytelling. It\u2019s a performance on the small stage.<\/p>\n

Learn from the best<\/b><\/p>\n

One of greatest pitch stories I ever heard was from famed creative director Lee\u00a0Clow. His agency was pitching the idea of only showing one single product feature in an ad campaign for Apple. Steve Jobs wanted to show five features. During the pitch Clow opened his notebook and ripped out five pieces of paper and crumpled them into balls.\u00a0 He picked one up and said, \u201cPretend this is one of your product features we are going to communicate to your customers.\u201d He then threw the ball at Jobs. He caught it.\u00a0 And Jobs threw it back at Clow. Clow then picked up all five balls and threw them at Jobs. He didn\u2019t catch any of them.\u00a0 Jobs got up from the table, smiled and said, \u201cSold.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you’re interested in honing your pitching and presentation skills, you have to learn from the best. Garr Reynolds\u2019 book Presentation Zen<\/i> and Peter Coughter\u2019s The Art of the Pitch<\/i> are some of the best out there. Peter\u2019s book is a must read and I often refer to it during prep sessions. In today\u2019s hyper competitive business world clearly communicating and pitching your idea, services and products is not a nice to have, it\u2019s a must have. From the first year co-op student, to the business owner, everyone needs to become a great pitch person.<\/p>\n

The five elements of a pitch<\/b><\/p>\n

Every detail matters during a pitch; who says what, who attends, where everyone sits. Every detail matters. Every slide and every word matters. It\u2019s the difference between a good pitch and winning the business. Taking a few points from Peter\u2019s book, and adding a few of my own, here are what I view as the five elements that make up a great pitch:<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Prepare, prepare, prepare<\/b><\/p>\n

Work in a small core team, 3-4 people max. Others might provide support. Start quickly and devote equal time to each aspect of the pitch. Think about possible questions and rehearse your responses.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> Recognize your competition<\/b><\/p>\n

Know who you are up against. Know their strengths and weaknesses. Don\u2019t obsess about your competition just find ways to beat them.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> Ensure a narrative<\/b><\/p>\n

The best pitches are done by telling a great story. Don\u2019t just talk at your audience, carefully craft smart questions and ask them. Use minimal slides with a leave behind.<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> Keep the tone engaging<\/b><\/p>\n

The audience doesn\u2019t just listen to what you say; it\u2019s also about what it means to them. People will feed off your passion.<\/p>\n

5.<\/strong> Connect with the audience<\/b><\/p>\n

Be human. Be bold. Minimize space between you and the audience. Give a sense of what it would be like to work with you.<\/p>\n

One of the most important things to learn is that a pitch is live theater and something may go wrong. How you react and respond is key to winning.\u00a0Becoming great at anything takes practice and years of experience.\u00a0 Pitching is not easy. Start by re-framing your presentation as a performance and follow the above key elements.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fall is always one of the busiest times of the year for new business development. Responding to new requests, proposal writing and pitching are all part of the crazy fall schedule. In today\u2019s competitive market winning new business is harder than ever before. That\u2019s why you cannot just be good at pitching new business; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":20583,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[947],"tags":[756,170,757],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20491"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22656,"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20491\/revisions\/22656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}