At the Expo’s PitchCamp x.0 workshop, a range of experts on pitching (or, rather, being pitched to) took to the stage for a semi-lecture, semi-panel-discussion, semi-workshop style session. Pitching is something many companies need to perfect, and it’s definitely a great idea to provide some coaching now before it really matters. The latter half of the workshop consisted of twelve startups refining their pitches in breakout groups with mentors, then presenting to the session audience; but more on that later.
The workshop began with a presentation on ‘how to make a great pitch’. It seems simple enough:
- Have a clear view of your own business, including your business goals, market segments, and the problems you solve
- Understand your audience and what they care about; what do they want, and why should they care about you?
To get to this stage you can work through a number of questions, such as:
- What are your business objectives? What’s the next milestone you’re working towards? What are you achieving now and where will you be long-term?
- Who is the target market? Even if everyone in the world is a potential customer, how are you going to market to that large and vague a group? Focus on a particular segment who will love your product first.
- What problem does your product solve? Do people realise they have this problem? How are they solving it now?
On objectives: A message that rang through was one of specificity, especially when it comes to goals. Saying ‘launch our website’ is worse than ‘launch our website and have 5000 registered users by January’. The former goal meets itself, the second is an actual milestone. If you’re aiming towards a certain number of users, or customers, how will you actually get those users? What are the first steps? As you answer those questions, your strategy becomes clear.
On market: Geoffrey Moore’s ‘Crossing the Chasm’ breaks down the market by time of adoption. Initially, there’s the ‘first bowling pin’ who comes along in the first 3-9 months — the early adopter. Then you need to jump to follow-on markets, in 6-18 months; convert the initial buyer into a repeatable win and bridge adjacent markets. Finally, the big picture; how big is the eventual market for the initial product, and what other products (and markets) can you develop?
The early adopter isn’t the early majority — the early majority might not be your eventual customer base. Learn to tell the difference.
On problems: what are the problems your target market has that your product or service can address? A problem is different from the solution; your solution might be “we sell eco-friendly business wear” but that’s not the customers’ problem. Once you have the problem, look at the set of solutions — what’s the most competitive vector? How do you win along that axis? For example, if the vector is price, you might be cheaper; if it’s convenience, you might be faster, etc.
Pitching also requires knowledge of the audience, and a repeated message was ‘do your homework’. Investors’ criteria vary depending on whether they’re angels or institutional investors; know everything there is to know about the people you’re presenting to. If you’re talking to potential partners, focus on them, not you; what can you do for them? How is it a beneficial relationship? Finally, the media — journalists exist for one purpose, their readers. So think about their readers and put things in a context that they’ll appreciate. If you don’t think the readers would be interested, either find an angle that works, or ask yourself why you’re talking to the journalist in the first place.
The pitchees on stage gave a rundown of what makes them sit up and listen, and in some cases what doesn’t; clarity was one message that rang through, plus enthusiasm and ambition. The pitcher has to care, and explain why others should care too. The partners among the pitchees stressed the two-way nature of the pitch — their products and offerings must be central to the pitch (“I don’t care about your business. I care about my business”).
The second half of the workshop then kicked off, breaking out into groups to refine people’s pitches. The advice given was very specific to the pitch I observed, so I won’t go into detail, but the take-away lesson from that was definitely “show someone your pitch before you pitch it”. Whether you find a local friendly VC or simply your next-door neighbour, having outside feedback is really crucial if you want to get things right. When the coached companies then pitched, it was clear to see who had more practice and feedback and who was simply mumbling their way through without much preparation.
In summary, pitching is an art, and like all arts it needs practice. Outside criticism may seem harsh, but it’s definitely the best way to get feedback — even the prettiest slides in the world can’t hide a lack of content. Know your audience, know yourself, and practice!