News & Events

What is the pitch and why is it so important?

The pitch is the summary presentation of your activity, project, or company and its strengths.

More than a simple introduction, the pitch is an opportunity to catch the attention in a powerful way by engaging the audience. The goal: your audience wants to know more as trusts you!

If you are a wannabe startupper a great pitch to the right investor can give you many opportunities and can help you sky rocket your business. But preparing the perfect pitch is not easy – it requires time and efforts.

It is crucial to articulate your pitch around your objective: to sell a service, to present a new product, to obtain funding. Keep in mind that the purpose of a pitch is not to provide as much information as possible by a limited time, but to present just what it necessary to impress your audience and to be contacted for more information.

Therefore, it is essential to aim for brevity and simplicity! Your audience must immediately understand your message and remember it.

Before developing your pitch, it is also essential to review your strengths and should allow you to differentiate yourself from your competitors, in particular by highlighting your added value.

It’s up to you to find distinctive elements capable of convincing the person in front of you!

Know your audience. Before you start preparing your pitch, spend some time to think about your audience. Find information about the investors that you are going to present in front of. This will help you to understand better what they are looking for in a startup pitch, so you can include this important information in your pitch as well.

Capture attention with your introduction. Your introduction should be flexible and personalized for the audience will receive your pitch, depending on the depth of their knowledge. By the end of the introduction, your listener/reader should identify:

• Who are you;
• Your brand and your business model;
• Your product / service category and what you are selling.

Tailor your approach to the listeners and their level of knowledge in a way that piques their interest from the start.

Identify your target market and how you serve it. Once you’ve introduced yourself and your business, you’re going to need to demonstrate that there is a product-market match. In other words, you need to clearly explain who your target customer is.

Prove that there is demand for your offer by considering for example:

• The pain points that you solve;
• The passions that you allow people to express;
• The void you fill and the opportunity you create (for innovative technological solutions);
• The time and money you help people save.

Recognize the existence of competitors. Instead of pretending to ignore competitors, acknowledge their existence – especially if you pitch your idea to someone who is familiar with the business or market.

By drawing attention to your competitors, you will have a good excuse to explicitly differentiate your business from existing companies. It is by following these considerations that you will start the conversation by positioning yourself above the competition.

Make a call to action. End your sales pitch with a powerful, contextual call to action, personalized for your audience.

Calls to action can include:

• Give your contact your business card so that they can find out more;
• Suggest that your interlocutor continue the conversation on LinkedIn or by email to discuss a possible collaboration;
• Suggest that your interlocutor pass your information on to their own circles.