A good pitch is not about you.
It’s about the client, their needs, and how you can help them. Anything else is just a brochure.
So, go back through your pitch and work out if your client will feel as if they are the centre of your universe. If not, get someone to re-write it.
Psychologists have shown that our unconscious brain makes decisions faster than our conscious brain. That means you want to appeal to the unconscious brain from the start.
For example:
If your reader is not sold on you by the time they read page 2, then your pitch needs more work.
A good pitch helps a client with their needs.
If you understand their needs, you can write a well targeted document.
A badly written pitch document makes assumptions about what the client might want. So, stop assuming and make sure your pitch is written to reflect what you know your client wants to hear.
The client should be the star of your pitch, not you.
A client does not want to read about how great you are. They want to know what you can do for them.
Check your pitch and see how many times the pitch says ‘we’ vs. ‘you’. How many ‘we’s can be replaced with ‘you’s?
Help Me Create A Great Pitch
Stories are a powerful way to communicate.
They link facts together into a logical sequence and they have a natural rhythm that makes them a pleasure to read. Even the driest pitch document can be told as a story.
Does your pitch contain enough stories?
The second rule of sales (after ‘know your client’) is stress the benefits. Where features are listed it shows either laziness or that you do not understand the client well enough. Make sure every feature about your offer is turned into a benefit.
Is your pitch a pleasure to read? Is it summarised well? Does each part push the story forward? If not, you have not made it easy for the client. Find someone to re-write, re-structure and re-edit until your document is as easy to read as a newspaper.
It is easy to say too much. It’s tougher to be succinct, engaging and compelling. People like reading short, pithy, powerful documents. So get someone to re-write it so it’s all very easy for your client to read.
“Moved our presentation into a different league and undoubtedly improved the outcome and offer we received.”
Liz Warner CEO, betty
Help Me Create A Great Pitch
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Help Me Create A Great Pitch
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“BBA transformed our pitch into a compelling investment narrative. They undoubtedly helped us secure Sky TV as an investor.”
Gerry Bastable Director, Blast Films
“The new presentation properly represents the institutional quality of our fund. It has been a step change for us.”
Erwin de Kleijn Head of IR, Saemor Capital
“We were very pleased…[BBA] helped us define and explain our unique value proposition. As a result we have attracted new and different investors.”
Florian Kemmerich Managing Partner, Bamboo Capital Partners
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