Preparing the perfect pitch

How do you present your company?

This week we had the amazing opportunity to present E.Factor at a prestigious “by invite only” event in Silicon Valley. As I wrote last week – it meant going back to the drawing board and  capturing our core message afresh. It resulted in a great slide series and a successful presentation (see my Library under my profile: efactor.com/Marion for the presentation itself, a webcast of it will be available in a week or so).

What I like about this type of presentation is that you are actually able to go in and pitch your company. Normally when you do a presentation, the idea is that you talk about a topic on which you have some expertise rather then do a outright sales pitch, but in this scenario, it IS all about your company. And that is one topic about which you obviously know everything there is to know. I noticed amongst many of the other presenters, that they focused on their product rather then their company – which to me is not the idea of such short, shart presentations. The product is literally that – something produced by your company but not what your company is all about. So I thought it might be useful to put together some tips on how you can prepare to give a great company pitch to a group of potential investors and partners:

a)    what everyone wants to know about most, is whether your vision is tested and viable. So add some evidence to start out with about what you have achieved, like the number of your clients, or the reach in the market if measurable. Make sure you capture your audience interest in the first 10 seconds…then you only need to hold it thereafter ☺
b)    What are the factors that led to your company being founded – the market, economy, changes in technology or other background details that help define your success ultimately?
c)    Who are you, what are your credentials?
d)    Why will people buy your product – not a lengthy description of your product itself – you won’t have time for that and it doesn’t really matter whether you sell widgets, lightbulbs or nanotechnology – as long as you can express why it is that you KNOW that people will buy it
e)    What does your business model look like – how will you make money.
f)    End with a strong statement – it will make people remember you, make you stand out from the rest even if you were one of 5 or 10 presenters in a short time.
g)    Make sure your presentation actually is in line with your site’s appearance or your marketing materials. For example, we had new cards printed just so we could have the same look & feel on the cards we handed out as the presentation we gave - making a much stronger impression and connection then if it had been different.
h)    Practice!!! However good you are, a little practice will make sure you get the right words in and the right statements rather then just filling the allotted time.

At E.Factor, the coaches will always happily review your presentations if you want to get a second opinion. So don’t hesitate to ask!

Marion Freijsen

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  Kenneth Darryl Brown

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  Cees Quirijns