In 2015, Microsoft conducted a study on human attention spans, and the findings concluded that humans have a shorter attention span than a goldfish. The goldfish has a 9 second attention span, and humans have an 8 second attention span.
In today’s complex and demanding workplace, an organization’s most valuable asset is no longer people’s time, it’s their attention.
So, that becomes our very first challenge is trying to get the attention of the audience.
Let's take a moment and look at 10 ways to open your next presentation or pitch:
- Question: Questions are hard to resist, they engage our curiosity. Keep your opening question short and simple, but prepare it in advance. The question can be real or rhetorical, but it is a question that breaks the ice.
- Quiz: Opening with a quiz is a great way to break up the monotony of any conference, tradeshow, or panel where multiple individuals are presenting. This can also be leveraged to catch them off guard from the others that pitch or present in the same exact format.
- "You're probably wondering" movie line: This is a very common practice, but isn't as engaging as the others in this list, but it is widely used in a lot of movies. "This is me, and you're probably wondering how I got here" has been used in hundreds of movies, television shows, social media posts, etc.
- Leveraging the Imagination: One of the most popular speaking strategies is to ask the crowd to participate and imagine while you, as the speaker, paint the picture for them. Ask the audience to participate in a story with you that paints the picture of the challenge, and a solution presents itself... This approach helps the audience to put themselves into the shoes of the end-user, and how they would feel if they too were going through these challenges, and how the solution would address those challenges.
- Using Analogies: Another standard tactic is using analogies to associate the topic at hand with something that hits close to home with each and everyone in the audience. An example would Uber, they stated in their pitch to their invetors, "AirBNB for cars", which is a strong analogy to help indicate how vehicles can be leveraged for-hire to rent in the same fashion as AirBNBs would be.
- Using Story to Sell: A great strategy is to include story in your pitch. A story helps captivate the audience and put them into that story along with the current challenges, and finding solutions they can immediately associate with. Some great resources include StoryBrand with their framework that leverages an entire marketing plan to tell the story where it puts the prospect into your story as the hero and includes a guide to help them find the solutions to their challenges. StorySelling is another book that leverages a framework to sell using stories.
- Demonstrating Your Expertise: There are multiple learning styles that have been identified wheras the three primary include visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. The best programs in the world leverage all three of these in a sequential pattern, however, in the instance where a pitch is presented, it's a great idea to utilize either a visual or kinesthetic demonstration. SharkTank leverages all three in a brief 3 minute presentation, allowing the shars to see, hear, and touch/feel the presentation at hand.
- Using Keywords, Phrases of Numbers: If we go down the road of Malcom Gladwell using the 10,000 hours theory. Malcolm has started his speeches with, "10,000 hours... (pause)... the key to achieving true expertise in any skill is simply a matter of practicing, albeit in the correct way, for at least 10,000 hours."
- Using Quotes: As an example, “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” –?William Arthur Ward, author is commonly used in commencement speeches. This quote is used to explain the direction of the future for those that are preparing to graduate and how they are in the drivers seat to set the tone to for future generations.
- Unusual Fact: A great strategy to capture attention to an audience is to present an unusual fact or statistic. For example, "1 in 3 American's cannot survive a $500 unexpected expenses... In the wealthiest country in the world, 1 in 3 American's cannot survive something as small as a $500 unexpected expense"
Some of the most important elements of a good pitch or presentation is to know your audience. Knowing your audience will help drive your pitch. Your pitch purpose will help you determine the intent, whether you're trying to garner support, secure funding, and/or lock in contracts with potential business partners.
The 4 Ps of Pitching include Promise, Picture, Proof and Pitch.
Promise or Big Claim is your first step. Make your big claim, be clear and concise with your claim. Your claim should be really clear on the primary benefit.
Picture is leveraging the strategy of storytelilng and painting the picture of what your prospective buyer or investor will benefit by doing business with you.
Proof of our promise or big claim. Which data points will you use to ensure that your big promise is going to substantiate into something tangible, and if intangible, which proof can you supply?
Lastly, your pitch or your push... what is your greatest call to action to invest, buy now, vote today, etc., that will help you garner as much support and influence towards your cause.
