5 Tips to Make the Perfect Pitch for your Project
Every year thousands of creative ideas appear in the market but only few of them get the green light. The problem is that coming with a worthwhile idea is easy, selling it to strangers is hard. Business owners, executives and marketing managers often go to great lengths to show how their business concept aligns with market needs – just to get rejected by investors who fail to see the real values of the idea. So why is this happening?
You’ve prepared a solid presentation and spent weeks rehearsing it in front of the mirror. The long-awaited day arrives. You start the appointment with great expectations but in less than two minutes you feel you’ve lost the audience – your potential investors watch the clock and reach for their phones to check emails. You go straight to the key data but it’s too late, nobody is interested.
Have you ever been there?
Well, many people tend to blame investors for being absent-minded and not forward-thinking enough. But the bitter truth is that the reason of your failure is the quality of your pitch. And it’s a normal thing because project leaders are rarely great salespeople.
Fortunately, there are some techniques that you can learn to successfully pitch your project.
Tip 1: 90-second rule
The first 60-90 seconds are crucial for your success. The famous ‘90-second rule’ says:
“When a person has a reaction to something in their environment, there’s a 90-second chemical process that happens in the body. If anything continues after that it is because we have chosen to hold on to the emotion.”
In other words, if you want to successfully pitch your project, you have to nail the first 90 seconds! So voice your elevator pitch and grab the interest of your audience at the very beginning of the speech.
Tip 2: Voice the business benefits first
Ensure you pitch the business benefits first. As a project leader, you might be insane over what you are suggesting but investors are on the different side. They are not interested in the project itself but how it can reduce their costs, how much more efficient it can make their operations, how it can improve the customer experience, and so on.
Tip 3: Use a ‘common’ language
Many pitches fail because project leaders are unable to find a common language with investors. Even though everyone in the room may speak English but when you start using field-specific words and abbreviations, you may sound like you’re talking German.
Always remember about your listeners and use terms that they can easily understand.
Tip 4: Share your passion
Passion is what will make your idea stand out among the majority of mediocre projects. Passion is infectious, it helps inspire, motivate and engage listeners. Identify what makes you feel so passionate about your project and find the best ways to communicate it.
Tip 5: Be your own best testimonial
Nothing sells your solution better than being your own testimonial. If your project addresses the problem you have to deal with every day, and you can suggest a worthwhile solution that really works, this will skyrocket your chances of success. After all, who can provide a better solution to a problem that the person who faces it on a daily basis?
