『How To Be A Pitch Contest Winner』のカバーアート

How To Be A Pitch Contest Winner

How To Be A Pitch Contest Winner

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10月19日まで。※適用条件あり
A pitch contest is not really about squeezing as much company information as possible into a short speaking slot. It is about creating a stronger, more useful and more memorable impression than everyone else in the room. When I was unexpectedly added to a Chamber of Commerce pitch contest in Japan, I approached the ten-minute presentation as a genuine competition: control attention, give the audience value, demonstrate expertise and leave them with something worth keeping. What is the best speaking position in a pitch contest? If you can influence the speaking order, go first or last rather than getting buried in the middle. Going first lets you establish the benchmark everyone else must follow; going last gives you the final impression immediately before judging or voting. In my Chamber of Commerce pitch contest in Japan, I landed in the middle of the batting order, which was not my preference. The first speaker has the opportunity to blitz the room and own the opening impression. The last speaker has recency working in their favour because their message is freshest when the audience makes a decision. Of course, you may not control the order, but if organisers give you a choice, treat that choice strategically rather than casually. Mini-summary: If you have a choice, take first or last. If you do not, make your opening strong enough that the audience forgets where you appeared in the order. How should you use slides in a ten-minute business pitch? In a short pitch, slides should create immediate visual impact rather than force the audience to read. Ten minutes disappears quickly, so every second spent decoding dense text is time taken away from you and your message. Several contestants used conventional slide decks filled with lines of text. One represented a people business, yet there were no people in the slides. I would have shown customers enjoying the service, happy families and behind-the-scenes images of how the service is delivered. Those visuals would help the audience identify with the business immediately. If your slides are merely your speaking notes projected on a screen, they are competing with you for attention. In my own pitch, I used no PowerPoint at all, so the audience had nowhere else to look. Mini-summary: Use powerful, relevant visuals or consider using no slides. Never make the audience choose between reading your screen and listening to you. How can content marketing make a business pitch more persuasive? Give the audience a useful sample of your expertise instead of spending the pitch telling them how wonderful your company is. Content marketing builds credibility because people experience some of your value before they are ever asked to buy. Before my presentation, I gave everyone a wallet-sized card called "6 Impact Points For Persuasive Power". The principle is the same whether your proof of expertise is a white paper, testimonial, video, podcast, book or practical tool. The item demonstrates that you have something useful to contribute. More importantly, it changes the nature of the pitch. Rather than making the audience endure ten minutes of corporate propaganda, you give them something they can apply themselves. That makes the presentation relevant to them, not merely important to you. Mini-summary: Demonstrate expertise with useful content. Give people evidence of your value rather than asking them to accept your claims about it. How do you make a pitch relevant to everyone in the room? Choose a subject with broad applicability and make the audience the beneficiary of the presentation. People are naturally more interested in what helps them than in the history, structure or virtues of somebody else's company. I spoke about persuasive power because leaders, salespeople, colleagues and anyone seeking cooperation from others can use it. That cast a wide net across the room. I said very little about Dale Carnegie beyond enough information to establish credibility and indicate the scope of the business. The rest of the time went into explaining the six persuasion points and how the audience could use them in their own presentations. This is a much stronger approach than reciting company facts that matter mainly to the presenter. A pitch can still promote the business, but it does so indirectly by demonstrating relevance and expertise. Mini-summary: Start with the audience's interests. Make your expertise useful to them and let that usefulness sell the credibility of your company. Why must a presenter 'walk the talk' in a pitch contest? Your delivery has to prove the claims you are making, especially when your business sells expertise. If you teach presenting, leadership, sales or communication, the pitch itself becomes a live demonstration of whether you can actually do what you recommend. I was explaining persuasive presentation techniques, so I had no room for a weak performance. I had to model the six points rather than simply describe them. That creates a powerful ...
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