Notes from mEga 310508 workshop

http://meganode.ning.com/
http://www.mega.org.au/

Workshop 6 – Developing Your Pitch

David Griggs

The Speakers Studio
http://www.speakersstudio.com.au/

What to consider in your presentation/pitch
Content
Process – the way the content is presented
Perception – what others perceive of you – happens in the first few moments of meeting
Permission – allow yourself to do it
Breathing – state of flow

What do you really want?
Who is it that you would like to be pitching to?

Be absolute clear about what it is that you want from your pitch
You need differing lengths of ‘pitches’ – 30 sec pitch – 3 min pitch – 30+ min pitch

I/You
What’s in it for me (WIIFM) – and ‘selfinterest.com’
use more ‘you’s than ‘I’s
It’s not about you – it’s about what you can do for them (the people you are pitching to)

Re-directing your nervous energy
What is your audience afraid of?
What are your audience’s interests?
Who’s the primary influencer on the panel?

The more you know about your audience
Plan, prepare, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse it at least 5 times
Create cheat sheets or mind maps
Don’t use PPT as a cue card system – the PPT is there to ‘add’ to your presentation
Get to your venue early, and become familiar with your space
Getting into the ‘zone’ – breathing, do warm ups, develop a ‘ritual’ to get yourself into character – clear the carbon dioxide and tension – create a trigger which helps you to relaxed enough to present
Imagine they’re all naked – doesn’t work for everyone – it’s about creating the right perception to the audience about building a ‘relationship’

Positive Talk:
I’m glad I’m here!
I’m glad you’re here!
I care about you
I know that I know

The audience needs to be a ‘mirror’ of you – demonstrate confidence and passion – and the audience will ‘feel’ this with you

You need to know the first 3 mins

The secret of success is to be YOU!!

When there’s more than one person doing the pitch – the pitch becomes a ‘theatrical’ presentation – ensure you look like you work well as a ‘team’ and ensure there is a ‘clear leader’ in the presentation, the beginning and the end would normally be the same person,

Think about who you would like to be pitching your idea (if you don’t know who they are – ‘create’ them) and what you want from them and create your pitch around this

When presenting to a Venture Capitalist:

Start with WHY does the world need this product?
Then WHAT is it that you are offering?
And HOW it works?
Finish with WHAT IF the VC invests in it?

Leila Henderson

http://www.linkedin.com/in/leilahenderson

Who are you talking to?
What floats their boat?
How do you make them look good?
What’s your idea?
What problem does it solve?
How will you protect it?
How will you make money?
How much will I make?
When?

WIIFM?
Explain how you’ll become successful
Describe your market, its size and needs
Ask for what you want
Tell them what they will get out of it

Establish your credibility
Team qualifications and experience, Strategic Alliances, Customers, Awards, grants, Capital raising

The Role of Three – the father, the son and the holy spirit; the three little pigs

It’s all about the ‘opener’ and the ‘closer’ which makes a different. You need a ‘hook’ in the opener

Feedback to groups’ 1 min elevator speeches:

Develop the vision and the passion, put it into context, be very descriptive, important to talk about the consumer message but need to kick into the business message, don’t take for granted that the audience knows what you’re talking about, give examples about why they need your product, what do you want and what are you going to give, need to use humour and emotions appropriately, try to get the audience to connect to what you are talking about, emotional connection/hook with your audience as soon as possible is very important, start with an emotional hook then talk about the logical information then finish with an emotional hook – how does your product make them feel better or how does it solve their problem

David Evans

CEO – Director & Secretary – In the Chair
http://www.inthechair.com/corporate.php

Elevator Pitch
For (target customers)
Who (problem)
(Product) is a (product category)
That (solution)
Unlike (competitor)
(Competitive) advantage
We require (ask)
To (use of funds)

Make sure each part of the pitch has an ‘action’