Who is the audience?

Before beginning any pitch, you need to understand who you are pitching to.

Let’s use the extreme example of pitching your business idea to a group of university students and presenting the same idea to seasoned bankers.

The tone, the content and the focus of your pitch would have to be significantly different for these two audiences. Good questions to ask yourself are: What are the audience’s values and what is important to them?

It is very important to do as much research as possible in order to understand your target audience before you present your pitch.

The structure of the pitch

While no two pitches are the same, some of the sequencing will be the same for any pitch. A good pitch needs to tell a story, starting with the problem and how it affects people (your potential market), and then moving on to your solution and how your solution solves the problem at a profit.

Importantly, you need to talk about why your organisation has the ability as well as the credibility to deliver the solution. There is of course a great deal more detail within the story, but all pitches should follow this basic structure.

The pitch versus the clarifying questions

For a successful pitch, all entrepreneurs need to understand that there is the pitch and then there are the clarifying questions. The trick is working out what to put in your pitch and what the likely clarifying questions will be.

If you can create enough of a tease in your pitch, you can almost solicit the questions you would like to answer in more depth afterwards. For example: "Within the marketplace we have three unique features, the most important of which is our goodimagafty technology."

By mentioning the three points and legitimately highlighting only the most important of them (owing to a lack of time), you will probably prompt the curious investor to ask for clarity on the other two.

Headline financials with detailed understanding

During a pitch, when talking about the numbers, you should present only the main headlines. But you can be sure that the judges (or investors) will ask for the details behind the headlines during their clarifying questions.

You need to ensure that these details are ready to just roll off your tongue with a sense of both confidence and humility.

by Allon Raiz, CEO at Raizcorp

Originally published on Ecommerce.co.za.