IxD302 – Week 9 – Pitching and Presenting

Our brief…

To create a pitch for a digital product that we have created.

What is a product pitch?

A product pitch is not much different than a sales pitch, but is specifically focused on a product or service. You’ll go in-depth and emphasise how your product works, how it will solve their pain points, and the specific benefits it will bring to your customers.

As an example, a sales pitch can be broadly focused, like if you’re a consulting firm that offers a wide range of services. You’re selling your business as a whole, rather than a specific product or service, like a CRM platform or accounting tool.

How to Start a Pitch

Starting a pitch is arguably the hardest part. You have to grab your prospect’s attention so that they actually want to hear the value of your product and how it can help their business. But before you can share the product’s value, you have to hook the prospect.

When starting your pitch, you’ll want to integrate the following essential elements.

  • Start with the problem. Always start with the problem. Unless they know the problem you can solve, they won’t be open to hearing how your product is a solution.

 

  • Tailor the start of the pitch to their vertical. No one wants to hear a general pitch that would apply to any business. Research their vertical and use the information you found to personalize the pitch immediately.

 

  • Offer stakes. If they don’t solve the problem using your solution, what do they have to lose? You don’t need to state it in such clear terms — but alluding to the risks at the start of your pitch can help you secure buy-in straightaway.

 

Here are a few methods for starting a product pitch, but remember: try to stick to thirty seconds, or one to two sentences if you’re delivering the pitch via email.

Start off with a personal anecdote.

Start off a pitch with what you know best — yourself. While I don’t think you should focus solely on yourself throughout your entire pitch, starting off with a personal anecdote can help you speak with more authenticity and foster empathy.

The key here isn’t to focus on the product’s merits. How many product pitches start off with “This product helped me achieve X results in X amount of time”? A lot. And I’m already yawning. And no one cares about results unless they know the problem first.

Your personal anecdote should focus on a problem that your product can solve. Make it as excruciating as you’d like — and don’t forget to be genuine and connect your anecdote to their business.

Ask a question that relates to the problem you solve.

Oh, yes, the good old question. While it might verge on overused, it’s not to be dismissed. Asking a question is a highly effective way to start a pitch. The question should, again, focus on the problem.

Stick to yes or no questions and tailor it specifically to the business you’re pitching to. If you’re speaking to a real estate business, create a question that articulates a problem specifically experienced by real estate firms. If you sell a property management software, it could be as simple as, “Do you spend way too much time tracking individual property sales? That’s time better spent actually showing homes to prospective buyers.”

Start with a stat that resonates and offers stakes.

Starting with a stat can be effective — but it has to resonate with the audience and offer stakes. In other words, what does the stat have to do with the problem? How does it reflect a potential and critical downfall that could harm your prospect?

Let’s say that you’re a salesman of yard maintenance services. Starting off with “50% of homes don’t use yard maintenance services” is a lazy and boring way to begin your pitch. Consider instead: “50% of homes don’t use yard maintenance services, resulting in thousands paid to HOA every year.”

Now that you know how to start your pitch, it’s time to deliver the rest of it. Use the following tips to secure buy-in in less than three minutes.

 

 

1. Make it short.

A sales pitch isn’t a conventional presentation. You’re not going to have PowerPoint slides. You’re not going to have complimentary pastries on a boardroom table. And, most of all, you’re not going to have your audience’s time and patience for long — at least not until they’re sold on your product.

2. Make it clear.

This ties in with the previous point. You don’t have the time to go on tangents or talk about anything but the message you’re trying to get across. Your pitch has to be lean and to the point. It has to register with your listener immediately. That means speaking with intention and clarity.

If you’re pitching a product, you want to ensure that you clearly communicate how it will solve your prospects’ pain points, giving them a clear picture of how their day-to-day will improve if they decide to make a purchase.

3. Explain who your customers are.

Consider the picture you’re going to paint in your pitch. Give your listeners perspective on who’s buying your product or service. They want to know that you have a lucrative, engaged market in mind. Be specific in identifying who will be interested in your product, and try to convey why your listeners should be interested in them.

4. Explain the problem they’re facing.

Cover why your customer base needs you. Your target market is only as valuable as the problems you can solve for them. Convey a problem they consistently face. If you’re pitching a spreadsheet software for accountants with functionality Excel doesn’t have, you could discuss how hard it is to bookkeep without your software’s unique features.

5. Explain how your product addresses their needs.

Here’s where you start to bring it all home. You’ve established who you’re selling to. You’ve established why you’re selling to them. Now, you have to establish why they’d buy from you. What can you do better than your competition?

As mentioned above, you need to clearly explain how your product addresses their needs. Continuing with the accounting example, you could touch on how your unique data visualisation features make busywork more efficient.

6. Describe what success with your product will look like.

Show the benefits of your product on a broader scale. In the example we’ve been using, you can talk about how accountants that use your software have more time to spend with important clients or the flexibility to spend time with their families. Show how your product makes your customers’ lives better as a whole.

Ideally, your pitch should be a one-liner summarising what your company does, how they do it, and for whom. And this is not just a requirement for sales reps. Anyone in your company, from the CEO to sales consultants, needs to know your one-line sales pitch by heart.

These tips and tricks I found online are really useful and have made me feel a lot more prepared for my own presentation. I also took it into my own hands to watch an episode of Dragon’s den. I felt this was a good way to prepare myself for possible questions I might be faced with.

Daniel also provided us with great examples of other investor pitches, including one for an AirBnB and past pupil examples. These were really useful as they helped me to visualise what I want my pitch to look like and gave me a good insight into what’s the best way to order my pitch.

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