Pitch Perfect
A template (and example) of how to pitch in an engaging way!
It’s pitch and accelerator season, which means founders are pouring over how to tell their story in 3ish minutes, usually for money.
So now feels like a good time to share how I recommend framing your pitch, and a few tips for presenting.
As someone with more than a decade of marketing and story telling experience, who has pitched and won money, mentors for SEED SPOT and supported an Enthuse pitch competition last year, I want so badly to hear good pitches. But often founders get caught in their story or in the weeds.
Here’s how I recommend laying out your pitch (it’s also the template I used when I won a pitch competition):
Start with the problem:
Introduce the problem, then who you solve it for. If your audience isn’t the target and it’s not a universal feeling, find a way to relate it to them.
Starting with the problem introduces the tension, a feeling that is universal and often very relatable. Working your target audience in to that tension helps investors understand what you’re doing before you dig in to how you do it.
What’s your solution?
Talk about HOW you solve the problem. Don’t get too technical. Share enough actual benefit to be dangerous, but not enough to make anyone’s eyes go crossed.
Yes, you want to share your product, but in the context of the tension you’ve set up in the pitch. You want to use one of these words: “Faster, Better, Easier, Cheaper*”
*you rarely want to use cheaper, but it’s one of the most powerful - it plays into people’s natural risk aversion.
Why you?
Then explain why you’re the one to solve it. Not, “I had the idea” but “I have the expertise, I developed a unique process” or “I needed the problem solved so I figured it out the best way I could imagine.”
Most investors want to bet on founders with good products, not just good products. They want to know the right person is steering the ship.
Give a little more detail on what makes your solution desirable
You’ve hooked them and earned their trust, so give them a bit more. (If you have time). This is a great time to share additional (clear) points of differentiation, drop recent successes, or market data that lends credibility to your solution.
Ask away!
End with a clear ask or plan. If you’re pitching for a clear award, tell people how you’re going to use it to make your company better, grow, address bottlenecks, etc.
Clear action removes some of the “risk” of betting on you, even if it’s a grant or competition - judges still want to pick the best horse in the race!
If you’re pitching for investment, communicate clear (high level) terms. Stay out of the weeds, but be clear about what’s on the table.
If you’re selling - go ahead and ask your customer to buy. Let them know where to go or what they need to do to close the deal.
Here’s a product example:
The Merch Blueprint
Mid-size CPG brands often find themselves growing a loyal following but hit a point where it’s more challenging to reach new consumers without a much larger marketing budget. Before economies of scale have been realized to free up budget, teams need to get more creative with tactics.
Enter, merchandise. Often under-appreciated, retail merchandise has the opportunity to essentially manufacture word-of-mouth marketing and expand organic and earned impressions. While actually adding to your bottle line.
My first role in the beverage industry was managing retail merchandise for a brewery, and our gift shop regularly did five figures of revenue a month. Back then, I was looking for information and ideas and didn’t find much. What’s out there isn’t bad, but it’s by no means impartial (or collected in one place). So I decided to condense my knowledge and experience and literally wrote the book.
The Merch Blueprint lays out a foundation for how businesses can integrate retail merchandise into your existing brand strategy (not just how to order merchandise items), and also provides the how-to knowledge to optimize promo items and even incentive programs (including press and creator “gifting”). It’s compact and quick to read, but full of actionable insight.
The book is available now on Amazon (free to read with Kindle Unlimited, I might add) here:
Grab your copy, get reading, and build a merchandise plan that helps grow your brand.
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A few more pitch tips:
Practice your pitch starting at different points, like the start of each paragraph. That way, if you get stuck or stumble it’s easier to pick back up with your pitch and get it back on track.
Wear your brand colors (shameless plug for The Merch Blueprint - I talk about this in the Uniform section). While the goal is to win, your second should be to memorable. You never know who else is listening or in the room (cough, potential investors, cough).
Don’t overcrowd your slides. If you want to have data at your finger tips for Q&A, put it in the appendix. It’s actually more impressive to *click click* to exact data and graphs after a clean pitch than try to cram it all in to a 3 minute slide deck.
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Pitching sits at the intersection of storytelling and “sales”: you’re often talking to someone who can bridge the gap between you and your target audience (whether that’s funding, shelf placement, or visibility) - let’s connect!