Usual pitch formats

Introduction

The first thing we have to take into account when starting to work on a business pitch is to know who’s the audience we are addressing, how many time we have to present our idea and what technical support we have.

Through this lesson, students will be able to:

1. Choose the most suitable pitch regarding the audience they have.

2. Know what type of content they should include in the pitch and what tools they can use to prepare it.

1. Pitch types

The elevator pitch is a brief description of your project or business in the time you have during an elevator journey: it is used when you have to present your project briefly, and usually lasts around 1 minute.

A well-developed Elevator Pitch will allow you to capture the attention of your interlocutors so that they want to have a second conversation with you to deepen the project.

Remember that you don’t know when or where the next business opportunity may arise: at an event, a meeting, a fair ... Therefore, prepare a good script that hooks your interlocutor and memorize it as if you were not going to count on audiovisual support because the opportunities to get investors and clients don’t only occur in competitions or investment rounds.

The Elevator Pitch could follow this structure:

WHY: what inspires you? What is the final purpose of your project?

HOW: what means are you going to use to reach the goal of the project.

WHAT: what actions are you currently taking.

Another way to prepare would be by thinking about the problem and the possible solution.

The three – five minute pitch:

The five minutes pitch is the time that is usually given in the investment rounds to explain your project to future investments, clients or business partners.

In this type of pitch, the visual support will be crucial so that you can convey your idea in a clear and motivating way. You must study and be clear about the mission, vision and values ​​of your business, your road map, competitors, objectives …

Pitch Deck or Pitch for Investors:

The objective is to present a business idea to get investors. It will have a maximum duration of 15 minutes.

You must take into account the audience you are addressing: what they know about the subject and what they need to hear. Investors may not understand your product, but if they see that it can be profitable, they will be interested in meeting you.

You can support yourself with audiovisual support, which will also serve to send it to potential clients, investors, innovation incubators, etc.

It is important to focus on this type of pitch by presenting your audience with an excellent investment opportunity and not a simple product sale.

Commercial Pitch or Sales Pitch

You will have to prepare this type of pitch when your objective is to sell your product or service.

This presentation should take into account the objectives of your potential client, their problems and needs. Through your pitch, you must provide solutions.

Normally, you can also use visual support.

Tweet Pitch

It is a brief presentation that can be used when starting any of the previous types of pitch: it is the fastest way to tell your idea. Remember that it should not exceed 280 characters.

2. Some interesting ideas when preparing your presentations:

2.1. Content of your pitch and how to present it:

2.2 A basic outline that you could use for your presentation would be the following:

• Title Slide
• Company Purpose
• Problem
• Solution
• Why Now
• Market Size
• Competition
• Business Model
• Customer Acquisition
• Team

Conclusion

Pitch is a challenging exercise which can be very useful while getting the opportunity to participate in some events dedicated to business presentations, for instance to raise funds. This is the reason why the next lessons will go deeper in this topic, showing how to build an effective pitch.

Bibliography

Examples of pitch - videos recommendations (retrieved on December 2nd 2020):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrIfes1L7NI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6O98o2FRHw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXwewPgLmkE

Examples of elevator pitch tutorials (retrieved on December 2nd 2020):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb0Yz_5ZYz

Here you have the contents of the lesson in PDF: