After attending several Demo Day pitches and tuning in for countless hours of “Shark Tank”, we’ve noted seven ways entrepreneurs can perfect their pitches.
If your idea purports to solve a problem for the consumer, make sure there’s actually a problem to be solved. Remember when Joey Tribbiani filmed an infomercial about pouring milk (“You're the guy who doesn't know how to pour milk!”)? Consumers aren’t going to spend money if they don’t view your product as solving a problem they actually have.
Pick your team’s best presenter to give the pitch. It may well be that your Founder & CEO is the most passionate about your idea, but are they the best speaker? You’ve only got a few seconds before you lose the audience, so pick someone on your team who is comfortable, charismatic, and well spoken in front of a crowd.
Get to the point. About that few seconds you have before you lose the audience, make sure you aren’t being so clever with your open that you forget to tell people what it is your company does.
Don’t let the demo take over. If you are going to demonstrate your product, be careful. Practice in front of folks. Can they see what you’re doing? What about far away in an auditorium. Can you demo with one hand and a mic? Maybe you really just need to tell people about the product in the demo and let them see the product close up later in person or on your website.
Spelling counts. Even if you’ve double and triple checked your presentation, get a few more pairs of eyes to make sure it’s perfect. We recently watched a pitch with a glaring spelling mistake. Not only were there only three words on the slide, the misspelled word was core to their business. Careless errors on a presentation will make investors and customers wonder if you’ll be careless with their money, their privacy, or the quality of your product or service.
Do your research. Make sure you know who your competitors and customers are. Acknowledge your competition and what makes your product or service different. Everyone has a competitor! Make sure you have an understanding of who your customers are and how many of them you can really reach.
Do more research.You also need to know the investors you’re trying to reach. You don’t want to present your idea for the best new e-commerce solution to a firm who typically invests in energy or logistics.
If those last two scare you the most, let us help you with research. Bizologie can help you define your Total Addressable Market (TAM), find your competitors, and help you understand your potential investors.