Make your pitch count

In an earlier post (The plumber’s sink is always plugged), I talked about an experienced angel investor who totally blew his pitch for his business by making some very fundamental mistakes. I ended the post by saying “what you know can hurt you,” and it’s so true. The more you know about what you should do, the greater the chance you will mess up—I know because I’ve seen the same mistakes being made over and over when entrepreneurs pitch their business for money. But let’s not focus on the mistakes, rather on what you really need to do to pitch your business successfully. Most pitches, depending on the purpose, range from 30 seconds to 15 minutes. The amount of time you have actually doesn’t matter because you have to accomplish the same thing no matter how much time you have: convince your listeners that you have a compelling business proposition. So how do you do that? It’s easier than you think as long as you remember the most important things they want to hear.

1. There’s a pain in the market—a problem that customers want solved.

2. You have the solution and customers want it

3. The market for your solution is big and reachable

4. You have the team who can reach it

5. You have a way to make money

See how simple it is? Right! So why do so many entrepreneurs ignore these steps and get buried in the love of their product, falsely assuming that if they love it, everyone else will too? Frankly, I absolutely do not know; but what I absolutely do know is that if you focus on these five things, you’ll get their attention, because they rarely see a really great pitch. And one more thing…even if you do have 15 minutes to pitch, you need to emphasize these five things during the first 60 seconds. That way you’ll grab your audience and they’ll stick with you for those 15 minutes.

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