Successfully pitching your business is as much about conveying emotion as it is about conveying information. The adage “They don't care what you know until they know you care” is good advice to follow. Your pitch doesn't have to be long; keep it as concise as possible and your audience will be pleased. In the revised second edition of the bestselling book, Write a business plan Eric Butow, CEO of online marketing ROI improvement company Butow Communications Group, explains how to put together a 10-minute presentation broken down into one topic per minute.
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10 Minute Pitch Planner
- 1st minute: Introductions. Let your audience know that you personally care about people and the problem they're trying to solve.
- Minute 2: State the problemPeople with this problem are ruled by emotions. They may feel conflicted, frustrated, angry, disenfranchised. Get real about human emotions. Break the problem down into its component parts and illustrate them.
- Minute 3: Present the solution. Show your excitement and passion for your business' solution. Explain to your audience not only how it works but also the great benefits it offers.
- 4th minute: Present your business model. This is where you tell your audience how you're going to make money. Explain how you're going to charge for the solution you're providing.
- 5th minute: Talk about your competitors. Don't talk about what makes you better than your competitors. Instead, focus on what makes you different. Your attitude towards your competitors gives your audience a glimpse into your business soul. Do you respect their presence and power, or are you arrogant enough to think that it's okay for your little startup to beat them? Prefer humility.
- 6th minute: Talk about the market and how to sellSpeak passionately about how many potential customers you have and how you're going to reach them. Walk your audience through the market data, your chosen entry point, and your sales and marketing strategy.
- 7th minute: Tell the audience how much you earnWe talk about how selling to a market tells you the unit economics of a single customer (price) and the market size tells you how many potential deals there are (volume). With this information, we can explain how revenue grows over time.
- 8th minute: Introduce the team. It's important to introduce your team in the context of your business so your audience understands why they exist. If you introduce your team first, you'll have to explain their role later, which is a waste of time.
- 9th minute: Prove your business has traction. To get buy-in from investors and customers, you need to show results, so answer key questions like: What has your team accomplished? Is the company profitable? Are your customers happy?
- Minute 10: Ask for buy-in. Whether you're asking investors for money or hiring someone for a job, you should spend your last minute asking people to buy into your business and your vision. Use this last minute to paint a clear picture of what you want from your audience and what it would mean for them to invest in you.
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Bonus Tip
Use as many charts, tables, and other graphical elements as you can to clearly communicate your ideas, but don't expect extravagant visuals to convince skeptical readers. Some readers are actually put off by plans that seem to be trying to wow them through your presentation.
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