Presenting in front of an audience can be nerve-wracking but scientists have found that the physical sensations of being nervous are almost the same as those when you are excited. There are studies that suggest relabelling nervousness as excitement can really help especially for giving a speech or going for a job interview.
I looked several guides to making a pitch to get a better idea of the best way of going about it. This was in addition to this week’s lecture. Some of these guides were:
https://www.bplans.com/business-funding/pitching/pitch-deck/slides-you-need/
https://www.toptal.com/finance/pitch-deck-consultants/pitch-deck-components
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/pitch-deck-guide
Looking online for guides on how to make a pitch successful this was the one piece of advice I saw the most often. It was in our lecture as well; its clear people don’t want complicated language or deep dives into ideas during a pitch. They want a high-level overview of the idea which states the main points and leaves room for further investigation later. As I saw in many guides investment decisions are rarely made at a pitch, much more likely you are asking for an opportunity to speak to investors again in more detail.
There are certain things however your pitch must have, the first is to tell potential investors the problem your idea is going to solve. This is key without a problem to solve the question will no doubt come up, “How needs this?” or “Why is this going to make the world a better place?” Without a clear problem for your idea to solve the validity of your idea will be in question right from the start.
The problem gives the context for your solution it shows that there is an opportunity in the market for your idea and now you can show the potential investor your solution. It is very hard to frame your solution without the problem and this is why you cover the problem first; it gets your audience interested and thinking about the potential opportunity that your solution will offer. So, after framing the problem for your audience you can give them your solution.
Now you need to back up your solution with validation, this is where you show research that shows that your idea has the potential to succeed, this can include lots of different methodology but in truth it is simply answering the question “Does anyone/enough people need/want this?” This is where you can show user research that shows that you have shown the idea to a selection of people from your target audience and from their answers you can expect a good proportion of them to want your offering.
In a pitch to investors the last point that you need to cover is the “ask” this is where you tell the investors what you are looking from them, this includes financial information any share options you are offering as trade for investment and any other details that are relevant. As this part of the pitch is not required for my presentation, I am not going to spend a lot of time looking into this.
Rhetoric is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as:
“Speech or writing intended to be effective and influence people”
Source: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/rhetoric (Last Accessed 15/12/23)
As this is a good description of what we are trying to do in a pitch, it is obvious that the rhetoric that we use is going to be a key factor in making that pitch successful.
There are a huge amount of different rhetorical devices that can be used to give your words more meaning and impact and I am going to look at a few here.