Here’s the 10 Steps to have the best Pitch:

1. Elevator Pitch
2. Problem
3. Solution
4. Market
5. Business Model
6. Competitors
7. Marketing strategy
8. Team
9. Traction
10. Necessities

Image courtesy of Olu Eletu at Unsplash

Description of each step

1. Elevator Pitch
   What do you do? But instead of the old formula of “What? How? and What?” Try these game changer order of questions “Why? How? and What?” Why you do what you do, how do you do it, and what is that you do. You’ll find that people respond emotionally to the causes behind our actions, humans are driven by the “Why’s”
2. Problem
   Define a problem that affects a person, a real pain towards a real person. This way at least one person in the room you’re in will make a connection with the issue your presenting. You have to create empathy so that people can truly listen.
3. Solution
   Explain briefly how your product or service can solve the problem and pain, use images, drawings or moqups. Steps for using your product works well. If you show it to a 10-year old and he understands, you’re on the right track.
4. Market
   Be the most specific possible and show the size of the market and why it is attractive.
5. Business Model
   How will you make money? Show at least 3 monetization ways, one has to be highly scalable.
6. Competitors and Differentiation
   There’s always going to be competitors, if you fail to recognize it, you don’t fully understand your product. Once you identified direct and indirect competitors, map them to see their strengths and weaknesses. Then you’ll be able to show your unique features that make you the best choice over the others.
7. Marketing strategy
   Show your plan for acquiring new customers, what tools will you use and how much will it cost you. The best marketing strategy is for newcomers to become ambassadors and evangelists of your product. Nothing beats a recommendation from another person who’s already satisfied.
8. Team
   The core of your startup. Showcase their strengths, their trajectory, and why their perfect for solving the problem and providing with a scalable and profitable solution.
9. Traction
   This part will be decisive for investors to put their faith in you. Show how many users you have in your waiting list, how many users are trying your product, sales made, or strategic alliances.
10. Necessities
    State what you need from the people that are in front of you, what you need to scale your startup. How much will you give (equity) for the help your looking for?

Image courtesy of Elite Flyers

Closing the Deal

Make a call-to-action for people to join in. A compelling instruction for investors, early adopters, possible cofounders or media in general. Achieve empathy and make them put their trust in you.

Tools for your presentation

• Canva – It enables you to create beautiful and concise presentations that you can then export in pdf. or png.
• Microsoft Office Remote – with this you can connect your smartphone with your PC via Bluetooth, and then have the ability to control Power Point, viewing, changing slides or use a red pointer with your fingers. Truly epic!
• Moqups – if you want to show off how your product/service is going to work in an App, moqups is the way to go. With a simple user interface you can simulate the user experience thru a series of moqups.

Here’s what I do, and works for me

I design the presentation in Canva, enough images and drawings to convey the message, little to no text. Then I export the presentation in separated .png images. Then I open a Power Point and set the design of the background to 4:3, I grab each image and paste them in each slide, until finally all the images are pasted in a separated slide.

Why do I do this? Because I like to control the presentation from my Android phone with Microsoft Office Remote, which works wih Power Point, and all of this having the beautiful design of the Canva content of my slides.

My advice

• Never use more than two fonts.
• Never use too much text per slide, you should prefer images or drawings, as images are preferred and better retained than written or spoken messages. One study shows that an average person retains only 10-20 percent written or spoken language but almost 65% percent of visual information.
• Use your body to convey your message, you’re not a tree.
• Modulate your voice, low volumes when you are showing or talking in preparation for a “huge and epic” fact which is going to be at high tones and/or high volumes.
• Stop using Power Point or Prezi… their time has come. What is preferred now is to design on Canva, or Adobe Illustrator.

Endnotes:

Be confident, be knowledgeable, be accessible, be happy and most important… be you when you’re pitching.

Thank you for reading, be sure to check my next posts… Remember, entrepreneurship posts on the week, and Discovering Mexico posts on Sundays.

Image courtesy Matthew Wiebe at Unsplash

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Hello! I am Humberto Quintanilla, inveterate socio-economic entrepreneur. Bitcoin advocate and Nikola Tesla fan. That’s my life summed up in 15 words, I encourage you to do the same in the comment section below, write your life in 15 words.