Pitches and presentations are part of your everyday working life. Whether you run your own business or you work for someone else, you will find that you have to present and pitch every from new ideas to new ways of working. Being successful at pitching and presenting is key. Giving yourself the time, and the opportunity to work on your pitch and presentation skills is a must. If you do not give yourself time, you will find that you will never strengthen your offering, and thins could let you down moving forwards.
Practice Pitching and Presenting
Practice does make perfect. The more that you can get yourself in front of an audience, then the more that you can master your technique, approach, and style. If you do not allow yourself time to practice how you present and pitch, then you may feel rushed when your opportunity arrives. When you are rushed or under pressure, you may make simple errors and mistakes.
Get a Speaking Coach
Trying to improve your speaking technique and trying to instill confidence in yourself can be difficult – especially if you do not know what areas to truly work on. Public speaking coaching can help you break down barriers and help you speak and come across more confident and more in charge. How you speak and how you display behavior in public is very telling, and of course, this will be on show in a pitch or presentation. Improving what you do, focusing on being a better presenter, and using the support and guidance of a public speaking coach is necessary for any size pitch you have coming up.
Always Have a Goal
With every pitch you give, you need to ensure that you have a goal behind it. When you have a goal to work towards, your pitch has a purpose, and it has substance too. If you do not have a goal to work towards, then your pitch may end up losing sight of what you want to achieve (and need to achieve). So, what will your goal be with your next pitch? Will it be to gain more conversions, or will it be to inform and raise awareness of what you are offering, selling, or providing? Having a goal in sight will ensure that your pitches are always targeted and focused.
Be Visual – Be Engaging
Your audience will have seen many pitches, and your pitch must be visual and engaging. If you are simply talking for the whole duration of your pitch, you will lose the attention and interest of your audience, and you may end up having a negative impact (as opposed to the positive one you wish to have). Using visuals and also communicating through your body language is essential. Always think about the way you are giving a pitch, and always put yourself in the position of those in the audience. Think about what you will find engaging, and think about what would keep you interested – and then translate this into your pitch and presentation.
