There are many business skills to learn over the course of a career. But as a business owner in need of new leads and a business pipeline, there are few as valuable as pitching skills.
A pitch doesn’t have to be a glossy PowerPoint presentation in front of corporate bigwigs; it is often a more informal, personal process. Perhaps you are trying to sell a product to a customer or applying for investment; it may be that you are trying to attract a new member to your team; even your written materials such as marketing collateral can be considered to be a pitch.
Whether it’s one person you are communicating with or 100, however, the skills and methodology are often the same.
If you don’t consider yourself to be a natural orator or salesperson, the first thing to do is pay close attention to those people you do consider to have these qualities. You may have colleagues or associates with a talent for persuading those around them – or even famous entrepreneurs on TV you consider to have the skills you seek.
Study these individuals more closely and you can pick up a lot about the way they deliver their pitches and how they interact with those around them. Most will be employing some or all of the skills outlined below.
Start as you mean to go on
Communicating badly and lacking direction can sink your pitch before you’ve even made it through your opening gambit. Start positively, however, and you are more likely to take your audience on a journey with you.
When pitching in person, communication begins before your mouth has even opened. Eye contact and posture can demand that others pay attention to you, so always look people in the eye (that means meeting their gaze, not staring them down). If you are addressing a roomful of people, shift your attention from person to person and move your body to face each individual in order to show that you value every member of your audience.
It is important to come across as relaxed and comfortable, so work on having your shoulders back and your arms relatively loose so that you don’t appear hunched or uptight. Appear to be on edge and the chances are you will make others feel awkward, too.
Once your eyes and body have the room engaged, it is time to let your voice do the rest of the job. Mumbling and stumbling will cause people to switch off, so enunciate and speak forcefully without giving the impression that you are a drill sergeant.
Standing out from the crowd
If you are one of many people presenting to your audience – in a sales environment, cold calling or tendering for a contract, for example – it is crucial to distinguish yourself from others. This might be including a fun or informal slide into your presentation, taking the time to engage the audience and ask for their input or even letting a little emotion come through and expressing a passion for the subject matter.
While standing out from the crowd may seem to be off the cuff, it is important that you prepare for any eventuality. Perhaps you want to ask a colleague a question you already know the answer to, or simply have a strategy for bringing any conversation back round to the point of your pitch within a certain timeframe. Whilst it is good to be personable and not stuffy; being underprepared and unable to maintain the focus of a pitch is a considerable turn-off for potential clients.
Still not sure that you’ve got what it takes to be good at pitching. The only way to improve is to practise. Take advantage of any opportunities you may have with colleagues, friends and customers, and you will soon find your pitching skills improving.
For more advice on developing valuable start-up business skills, get in touch with the team at Tedco by emailing enquire@tedco.org.