How to Pitch Your Business Effectively?

I have come to a realization that every time I help someone for a sales or an investor pitch, I am always emphasising on the same three steps to overcome a very common challenge. The challenge of not being able to simply explain a business or a concept. The way to overcome this challenge is by answering these questions in a short and precise manner using the following three questions:

1. What does your product do?
2. What difference it makes?
3. Why should it be bought?

So why is this an issue of importance? It is important because if you cannot make someone else imagine the value of your business, you just leave them confused and indecisive. A confused and indecisive audience is going to tell you that they are “not sure” or they will answer with a straight ”no”. Secondly, not everyone has time to listen and decide and the time they have given to listen to you is to be convinced to buy your product or business. A  Google search will show you that the person will have decided in the first 20 to 30 seconds if they want what you are giving or not. At the same time you have to capture your audience’s interest in the best way you can instead of trying to overload them with information.

As an example I am going to show two ways I can potentially explain what this article is about to someone in a conversation.

1. Long version: The article I wrote is called “How to present and explain your business effectively?”. It talks about the best way to present your business in a simple way. I have noticed many people overlook this and get themselves and their audience confused instead of convinced. The reason my article is helpful……………….goes on and on....
2. Short and precise version: My new article covers three basic elements of a simple and effective pitch. A. What does your product do? B. What difference does it make C. Why will the product be bought?

Now let’s analyse both versions. I hope the point that I am about to make is self-evident. The first version is boring, takes too long to get to the point and it is changing direction constantly by not focusing on the value. On the other hand, the second one summarizes my article in a very small description and is focused on the value of the article.

An argument that I receive against this is that people want to know more about the product and the business. Keeping it short leads to awkward silence. To this I say how about following with a question? How about getting to know the questions they actually have instead of trying to answer all the questions you think someone might have? Once you are done with the short and simple explanation follow up with a question. A question along the lines of “Have you ever experienced such an issue?” focusing on whatever problem you are aiming to solve. This allows your audience to connect with you and get rid of any confusions that they may have. This may not be applicable when you have to present for a certain amount of time. However, starting with a short and simple introduction will increase your chance of capturing interest into what you are about to say next.

To understand why do I suggest the three steps I mentioned lets go through them one by one.

1. What does your product do?

In this step the aim is to highlight the problem and the solution right away. One thing to be avoided here is jargon or techy words like “Internet of Things”and “SEO”. A simple statement will do the job like "we provide a way to control your appliance from anywhere" or "we increase the flow of traffic to your webpage".

2. What difference does it make?

Now that the problem and the solution have been highlighted it is time to emphasize on the outcome of the solution. Continuing with the examples from SEO example the statement can be “Increased traffic will lead to higher sales and higher brand awareness which will increase your profits with lesser effort.”  

3.Why should it be bought?

After emphasizing on the value you are providing the focus now moves to how you are different and why that difference is worth paying for? Simple way to think of this is how you are delivering a higher value for every unit of money  to someone who has other similar services to choose from. If you don’t rely on differentiation you can emphasize on facts that show how you save time or cost compared to an alternative method of doing the same function that your product does.

To summarise, a short and simple explanation of your business will help develop greater interest in your product which will lead to a better response from your audience. It is a better alternative than a long and detailed description because you deliver three value oriented aspects that your audience wants to know about your product without confusing them. In addition to that, it helps you think about your product(s) and what value it is able to provide to your customer.

Thank you for reading my article! I hope it has helped you. If you have any questions feel free to comment or send me a message.

Profile: I am a consultant and I help businesses in management, decision making,  business development and in extracting analytical insights. 

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pub/rizwan-khan/56/175/76b

Website: www.BIstructures.com